"Jedway town is going to boom" : the failure of twentieth century settlement in the southern Queen Charlotte Islands, 1899-1948
Date
1993
Authors
Morton, Jamie
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
The southern part of the Queen Charlotte Islands, on the north coast of British Columbia, was the site of a copper-mining rush in the early twentieth century. This in turn led to a pattern of regional development and settlement in the South Moresby Island region, centred around two mining towns, Jedway and Lockeport. In spite of plentiful resources and economic opportunities in the region, the settlement pattern established in the copper rush had disappeared by the 1930s. For the purposes of this study, this failure of settlement is considered synonymous with the region's underdevelopment.
To attempt to explain this underdevelopment, the three leading models which have been used to analyze unequal regional development in Canada are examined . These are the staples theory, the dependency theory, and the various postdependency theories. Aspects of each of the models have been adopted, particularly from the post-dependency theories, which emphasize specific conditions in the region being examined. The local factor of most significance in South Moresby was the lack of a pre-existing society or industrial base in the region. This meant that the production systems established in the twentieth century brought associated social systems, which in turn would determine settlement viability. This has led to analysis based on modes of production, within a framework of the four classes of ventures, based on the origin and intent of the entrepreneur or organization initiating them. These classes are: 1 . local entrepreneurs, based in South Moresby and utilizing their own capital; 2. regional entrepreneurs, urban-based and acting to mobilize foreign capital into resource industry; 3. Japanese entrepreneurs, containing representatives of the first two classes, but distinguished as part of an ethnic enclave; 4. corporate entrepreneurs, with capital raised and decisions made outside the region, and often outside the province. It would be expected that local entrepreneurs would have the strongest linkages with local society and corporate entrepreneurs the weakest.
Applying this analytical framework to the ventures active in South Moresby and resulting settlement patterns tends to confirm this impression. The pattern of development and settlement was determined primarily by local, regional and Japanese entrepreneurs in the first years of the copper rush . Diversification into other extractive industries by these three classes of entrepreneurs focused on the settlements formed in the initial period. At the same time, corporate ventures were initiated, which operated without significant linkages to the existing development.
By the 1930s four large plants, one Japanese and three corporate, were still operating in the region. They were based in remote plants with associated camps, and although viable commercially, did not support the overall settlement of South Moresby. The two villages in the region, which by the late 1920s were sustained by a combination of local mining speculation and corporate salmon canning, disappeared in the depression of the 1930s with the end of the copper mining and the closing of the two canneries.
Successful businesses were operated by each class of entrepreneur in South Moresby, but settlement was determined and supported primarily by local and regional ventures. There was also a Japanese enclave society, with extremely strong internal linkages, and some extending to the broader community. On the other hand, corporate ventures were generally based in camps, with minimal economic or social linkages to the rest of South Moresby. Even when they were commercially viable, their effect on the settlement viability of the region was minimal. With the end of the "independent" towns of the local and regional entrepreneurs, and the Japanese enclave society, South Moresby's underdevelopment was assured.
Description
Keywords
UN SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth