CODFISH, DEMON RHUM AND CANADIAN BANKS

November 2000 Table of Contents

CODFISH, DEMON RHUM AND CANADIAN BANKS
Douglas Ackman MD

Watching the frost melt in my Canadian back yard in mid September I am enjoying a hot rhum toddy, listening to The Barefoot Man and thinking about getting back to Treasure Cay. It occurs to me that most readers have no idea why virtually all the banks in The Bahamas are Canadian. It is also true that rhum is the national drink of Maritimers. There is an interesting connection.

During the time when the Americans were having a bit of a tiff with the British, the cod fishers of Atlantic Canada discovered that Bahamians had a taste for codfish. Long before refrigeration, Newfoundlanders discovered you could dry filleted codfish (in what little sun there is) and cover them with rock salt. This dried 'shoe leather' could be stored in barrels for ever and could be reconstituted by soaking in water. At the same time, Canadians had developed an appetite for brown sugar and its precursor known as molasses. We also had sailing schooners known as longliners, as depicted by the Bluenose on the Canadian 10 piece. These were poorly utilised during the winter months.

Maritimers filled these longliners with barrels of dried salt codfish and sailed south during the miserable winters of Atlantic Canada. The tourist industry was then non-existent, so we traded the fish for brown sugar and molasses before heading home to warmer spring weather. The crews insisted on being paid for their work and, as there was no readily accepted currency, the skippers brought home barrels of rhum which were distributed only after arrival at such places as Twillingate, Come By Chance, Rockport, St Johns, Bonavista and Joe Butt's Arm. While this pleased the crew the locals also took a shine to this magic black liquid, referred to as 'screech' by Newfoundlanders. The per capita consumption of rhum in the Maritimes became astronomical and is to this day the national drink of the east coast. It also led to the Women's Christian Temperance Movement (WCTU) and much violence.

This mutually beneficial trade expanded rapidly. In addition, dried hay was harvested from the famous tidal Tantramar marshes at the head of the Bay of Fundy and shipped south to supply the newly-started cattle industry. This in turn led to the expansion of the wooden ship building industry, including the famous Cunard Line, and made the Maritimes the wealthiest part of Canada in those days. It wasn't long before the Bank of Nova Scotia, The Bank of Montreal, The Royal Bank of Canada and the CIBC saw an opportunity to turn a tidy profit from this trade, hence their dominant role in the banking affairs of The Bahamas.

So there you are. Next time you go for a bank loan, have a good rhum drink and thank what's left of the codfish. It's still freezing but I feel warmer!

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