IDEAS FOR ESSAY TOPICS:
Primary production and the rural economy
Agriculture, fishery, forestry, coal industry: evolution through time, situation today, in a
historical context, experience in a particular place.
Agriculture’s transformation from the source of almost half of income with 60%
of families involved in farming to the modern corporate farm.
The evolution of agriculture in Lunenberg, a community settled to provide
foodstuffs to Halifax. (would require use of census data). (Or in other Maritime places.)
How the fishery got to where it is today; ditto forestry.
Coal: rise and fall in Cape Breton or in Pictou and implications for the future.
Other ideas are possible…
Commerce
The early history and the demise of the Maritimes as a major commercial centre.
Evolution of the Manufacturing Sector
The steel industry in Cape Breton
The rise and fall of manufacturing in the Maritimes: you may focus on a particular city.
The nature of early manufacturing and the transformation of artisan production to factory
production.
Infrastructure and economic development:
Railroad building and railroad policy.
Electrification and Maritime industrialization.
World war II: government spending and economic development during the war.
Post war federal intervention: Introduction of unemployment insurance and other
federal transfers and the Maritime economy.
A. Federal spending on infrastructure (roads, Universities, health care) and the
Maritime economy
The economy today: are disparities disappearing through market forces or does the
structure of the economy need transformation – is it being transformed?