The Past Speaks

For some time, I have been reading, with interest, the publications of Dr Vincent Geloso, a Canadian economic historian trained at LSE who is now a postdoc at Texas Tech. His new paper, “Trade or Raid: Acadian Settlers and Native Indians Before, 1755” is intriguing,

Abstract: The peopling of North America by European settlers often conflicted with the property rights of aboriginals. Trade could, and often did, represent a peaceful and mutually beneficial interaction between these two groups. However, more often than not, raid was preferred over trade. This was not always the case (as exemplified in this paper) for the French settlers of Atlantic Canada, known as Acadians, who enjoyed exceptionally peaceful relations with First Nations. In this paper, I argue that this colony was peripheral in the designs of European governments and was largely stateless and was left to fend for itself. As such, all the costs of raiding were borne by settlers who favored trade over raid for more than a century.

 

The core theme of Vincent’s intriguing new paper, which is on the role of trade in promoting inter-ethnic peace, is similar to that my new working paper: “Business and the Rise of a Form of Multiculturalism That Works: a Possible Master Narrative for Canadian Business History”

Abstract: Researchers from across the social sciences, and in several management disciplines, are now increasingly interested in the role of business in promoting the peaceful coexistence of ethnocultural groups. Today, Canada is an outstanding example of harmonious ethnic diversity. Business played an important role in the emergence of this successful society. The newly renascent field of Canadian business history is in need of theoretically informed master narratives if it is to continue to grow. This paper proposes that the study of the role of business in the emergence of multicultural Canada be one of the organizing themes for the field of Canadian business history.