ABSTRACT
All five of the easternmost political divisions of what is now Canada came into existence with a problematic reliance on primary product exports. In Newfoundland the fishing interests opposed permanent settlement of the Island, but, in the end, they were the instrument by which settlement occurred. France encouraged settlement in New France, using a grant of monopoly in the fur trade as a reward, but, in the end, settlement occurred and succeeded despite the fur trade. Nova Scotia became a British possession as a result of military and naval advances up the east coast of North America. Settlers in the new colony tried to repeat the pattern of balanced growth that had characterized the colonies to the south, but with very limited success.
