The Channel Islanders

Charles Robin:
ENTREPRENEUR OR EXPLOITER?

Charles Robin was born on the Island of Jersey located in the English Channel. Situated between France and Britain, this small island is mainly known for its agriculture, banks and maritime activities. Since the time of William the Conqueror (1066), its population is politically under British rule. Protestantism is widespread and three languages are spoken: English, French and its regional variation, the Jèrriais.
Born in 1743, Charles Robin spends his childhood in the port of St-Aubin where his father owns a general store. From this building, young Charles could gaze at the ships with merchandise and sailors from all corners of the Atlantic. Two of his uncles are ship captains, as is his brother, John, who is familiar with the cod fishery based in Newfoundland. Upon their father’s death, in 1754, the eldest brother, Philippe, takes over the family business leaving Charles looking toward the fishery in the Gulf of St-Lawrence. Charles settles first in Arichat (Nova Scotia) around 1765, soon choosing to establish his business in Paspébiac, in 1766.
Undoubtedly, the first years are difficult. Competition is fierce and many Channel Island entrepreneurs want to launch themselves into the cod trade. Furthermore, during the American War of Independence, Charles Robin’s establishments are destroyed by privateers. After 1783, he has to rebuild them from the ground up. In spite of the hardships, Charles Robin is particularly tenacious; he is also relentless, meticulous and cautious. From his base in Paspébiac, he remains fully informed about the state of the export markets and adapts to the political changes occurring in Europe, most notably those brought about by the French Revolution. CHILDLESS, Charles Robin bequeaths his business to his nephews in 1802. His enterprise had become a global commercial empire adding another strong link between the Americas and Europe. As one of the most influential men in all of eastern Canada, Charles Robin retires to his native island where he dies in 1824.

In the collective memory, Charles Robin is often portrayed as an exploiter. To others, he is revered as a force leading to the establishment of a Canadian identity.


David Le Boutillier

Born in 1811 at St.Jean, Jersey, the son of Josué Le Boutillier and Anne Amy. He settled at Paspébiac in 1827 and apprenticed as a clerk with the Charles Robin and Company. William Fruing, the head clerk, taught him bookkeeping and current practices in the dried cod trade. In 1838, Le Boutillier entered the trade in salt cod, in partnership with his brothers Amy and Edward, forming the company Le Boutillier Brothers. David was appointed manager. In addition to Paspébiac, the company had fishing operations in Gaspé, New Brunswick and Labrador and traded with the West Indies and ports on the Mediterranean. He represented Bonaventure in the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada from 1852 to 1854 as a Reformer. David Le Boutilllier died in 1854 - seemingly unmarried and probably at Paspébiac.

Eugene Auguste Albert Bouillon

Born in 1869 at Grenville House, Bagot, St-Saviour, Jersey Eugene's family lost their shoe store in the bankruptcy of 1886. As the eldest son, he signed a contract with Charles Robin while the rest of his family had just enough money for their fares to New Zealand. He never saw his family again. He rose to be a formidable presence on the coast and became General Manager of Robin, Jones, Whitman Company. Known to be severe but fair, he would survey the Anglican congregation every Sunday and question those of his employees who were not in attendance. It is said that he knew every member of his community in the peninsular by name. Died 1959.

Charles Philip Le Maistre

Born on the 7th January 1895 at Fiquet in the Rozel parish of Jersey. Charles and a cousin signed a contract with the Brothers Le Boutillier before consulting their parents. He arrived in Québec in 1909. Ended up as manager of the Paspébiac Robin store 1944 - 1952. He was well known for his great sense of humour and warmth. He died in 1962.

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COLLECTIVE TERMS - OFTEN PEJORATIVE

AS WITH STEREOTYPES TARGETING THE JEWS AND THE SCOTS, THOSE DIRECTED AGAINST THE CHANNEL ISLANDERS ARE ALSO BASED ON FALSEHOODS.

RAPACIOUS EXPLOITERS or simply businessmen of their time and place?

THE CHANNEL ISLANDS have both a geographic vulnerability and a strategic advantage because of their location between the traditional enemies that are their closest neighbours: France and England. This motivated the Channel Islanders to quickly develop specific survival skills.

THE CHANNEL ISLANDS are largely Protestant and, as a possession of the crown of England, offer a natural refuge for the Huguenots fleeing religious persecution after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. It is a location of great opportunity with ports ideally situated for commerce with Africa, the Americas and Asia. Since the Protestant work ethic encourages commercial enterprise and the accumulation of worldly treasures, the ‘Jerseymen’ are resolutely capitalist and take full advantage of these factors. They create a unique space between divergent cultures and legal systems. In this way, they profit from the conflict of their closest neighbours, becoming excellent multilingual commercial intermediaries. BRILLANT TRADERS, but also cunning pirates and smugglers, the Channel Islanders specialize in warehousing as a way of ‘laundering’ contraband, transforming it into legal consumer goods. These skills, honed over the centuries, allow Guernsey and Jersey to still serve as tax havens today.

The 18th and 19th CENTURIES in Europe constitute an era of great turmoil and change. This period witnesses the transition from the old feudal economies based on the serfdom of local populations to a colonial, imperialist economy, reliant on the enslavement of diverse Indigenous communities, particularly African.

Around the world, the bourgeoisie exploits their own populations and those who live in their colonies with the same harshness as that which the Channel Island merchants treat both their fellow citizens and the Paspéyas. The works of Victor Hugo and Charles Dickens show us how brutally the working classes are treated in England and France respectively...
« LES JERSIAIS »
Life on the Channel Islands in the 18th century is often difficult!
There are frequent food shortages.
Very strict laws to deal with homelessness and poverty are introduced in Great Britain making unemployment essentially illegal. Both Jersey and Guernsey implement similar laws.
Workhouses that are, in effect, prisons for the homeless and unemployed, are set up and remain in use until the end of the 19th century.
FOR £5, many boys and young men in these prisons are ‘given’ to companies who need cheap labour. The luckier ones, who have some basic schooling, are apprenticed as clerks or artisans. The rest are forced to work on boats, in coal mines or at other dangerous jobs anywhere in the British Empire. Those ‘indentured’ to Charles Robin or to the Le Boutillier Brothers are considered the more fortunate. Nonetheless, this system of servitude is the British Empire’s ongoing alternative to slavery. Coming from these draconian conditions, the contracts that tie the young men to their masters impose very long working days, under constant supervision and with minimal personal freedom. Even the clerks have to count, check and copy numbers from morning to sunset. They are basic wheels in the gears of an immense economic system.
In Jersey, stories are exchanged in the evenings around the fires of the forges. An enticing lustre is woven around the cod industry in Canada. Tales of extraordinary adventure and riches that clearly seduce the listening boys into signing up. Dreams of a ‘gilded alternative’ to their difficult lives.

THE VARIOUS EUROPEAN COLONIAL ENTERPRISES are semi-private bureaucratic machines of exploitation, stemming from unholy alliances between the various crowned heads of state, their noble cronies, their churches, armies, navies, with sundry adventurers and pirates. The source of colonial wealth comes from the resources that are stolen by occupation or conquest. Whether these resources are mineral, plant or human, their theft is often sanctioned by the Christian churches under the guise of spreading the word of God.
European kings, queens and emperors use the distribution of monopolies to maximize profits for their families and aristocratic friends.
AS INDUSTRIALIZATION becomes more widespread in Europe and as economies become more global, the impoverished underclasses of the home countries are exported to the colonies to operate the necessary infrastructures.

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH VERSUS THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES
The main difference between the Channel Islanders and the Paspéyas is the attitude of their respective churches towards education. The Catholic church prefers illiterate parishioners while the Protestant churches emphasize the need for all to read and interpret the Bible themselves. Thus, the young men from the Channel Islands, often trilingual, hold an immediate advantage over the local Catholic population.
AFTER THE CONQUEST and the Treaty of Paris of 1763, the age of revolutions starts with the American War of Independence followed by the French revolution and continues until the time of the revolt of the Paspéyas in 1886 and after. All across Europe and in many of the European colonies, people start questioning the social order: often influenced by non-conformist tendencies in the Protestant churches and later by the writings of Karl Marx and his contemporaries.

REFUGEES: RELIGIOUS, ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL
in 1766 the fishing companies in the Gaspésie rely on a combination of Acadian refugees, local settlers and workers from the Channel Islands. Later, groups of refugees from the American War of independence (Loyalists) as well as economic refugees from Scotland and Ireland also settle in the area but play relatively minor roles on the Site. The main source of skilled workers in the ‘Jersey’ companies remains the indentured apprentices from the Channel Islands, this continues well into the 20th century.

THE MAJORITY OF THE ‘JERSIAIS’are economic refugees fleeing the hard conditions on their home islands. The system of primogeniture creates a hostile economic environment for any but the first-born sons as the family farms cannot be divided by the estate. Women are simply expected to marry.
Children of relatively well established families can usually choose their paths, as Charles Robin and his brothers do when they undertake to enlarge the family business. Children of poorer families and those caught in the Workhouse system have no such advantage and departure remains their only choice.
‘Jerseymen’ arrive at a young age in Paspébiac, usually between the ages of nine and fourteen. Besides leaving everything behind, they have to adjust to a new world and are expected to do work like drudges for the full period of their contracts. While they are fed and lodged, both food and lodgings are inadequate to the needs of growing boys. Their only advantage is that, being Protestant, they are better educated and usually trilingual and can, thus, aspire to become managers in the company. Those who are promoted, earn more than the fishing families but their wages are still relatively low.
In the New World, the French-Canadian bourgeoisie, the Channel Island merchants and others, such as the Hudson’s Bay Company, exploit their employees as ruthlessly: hard currency is limited or non-existent so the workers are dependent on credit from the ‘company stores’.

EVERYWHERE, WORK STARTS IN CHILDHOOD, CONTINUING INTO OLD AGE IN EXTREME CONDITIONS.

 

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