Nature's Evil

Mercantilist law primarily defended the interests of the plantation owners and sugar traders, which conflicted with the interests of the fishing industry. After the end of the Seven Years’ War, Parliament introduced stamp duty – essentially, a tax on labour. Within the American colonies, this tax had to be paid on all deals, contracts and legacies. As a measure against smuggling, London sent additional ships to the Atlantic. This triggered the protests with their famous slogan ‘no taxation without representation’. Protesters occupied commercial ships in Boston Harbour and threw chests of tea overboard. The choice was highly symbolic – tea was the only British commodity that the American colonies did not have. During the War of Independence, the New England fishing fleet supplied the revolutionary troops with gunpowder, rum and provisions from the West Indies, as well as the usual dried cod. During the peace talks, the fishing rights off Newfoundland were one of the most hotly debated subjects of negotiation. In the end, the Americans asserted their rights at the Treaty of Paris in 1783. It was only 200 years later that the Canadian government introduced a moratorium on cod fishing off Newfoundland.

Fish and meat share one paradoxical quality. In any market, fresh meat is more expensive than frozen. But it takes more capital and labour to produce frozen meat. This is also the case with fish and some other perishable goods: fresh costs more than conserved, the locally produced costs more than the product delivered from a distance. The economist will say that, when we pay for a piece of fresh meat or fish, we are, in fact, paying not only for it but also for all the bits that are thrown away. This paradox is one of the features of modern life. Only when we pay for a perishable local product do we add to the cost of catching and processing a unit, the cost of similar units that the buyer does not see or wish to hear about.

Fur

After fire and stone, fur was the third item essential to the survival of early man in the chilly climes of Europe. Even without curing, the warm pelts of wolves, bison, deer and sheep were used as bedding, blankets or parts of a shelter. Skins could be cut with an obsidian blade and sewn together with a bone needle and dried sinews to make garments and shoes. Thanks to these items, people could move deeper into the northern forests, and there they found more fur-bearing animals. Centuries passed and Roman soldiers marvelled at the fur garments of the Germanic barbarians. But the Romans also started to wear fur as they moved north. Gradually fur became a commodity – a source of revenue and a convertible currency in the northern lands.

Squirrel

In the east Slavic languages, the first word to denote a monetary unit was ‘kuna’, a marten. Founded by the Vikings, the city of Novgorod – the first organised power on the territory of contemporary Russia – used millions of squirrel pelts for clothing and trade. Local strongmen asked the peasants of their own estates to supply the pelts as a form of quit-rent. Later they colonised all of North-Eastern Europe right up to the Urals in pursuit of this squirrel. Much earlier than the French entrepreneurs who harnessed the wealth of furs in Canada, Russian furriers learnt to use the experience and technology of the northern tribes. Curiously, The Russian Primary Chronicle attributes the discovery of northern fur to Alexander of Macedonia. ‘We have encountered a divine marvel … Their language is unintelligible. They point at iron objects and make gestures as if to ask for them. If given a knife or an axe, they supply furs in return.’ 10 These people, the Yugras, were ‘unclean’, and therefore Alexander locked them up in the mountains of the northern Urals. They will be liberated on the Day of Judgement, but until that time it is their fate to trade furs for iron goods. This exchange by dumb show set the pattern for many subsequent events.