Wage Labouring In Canada

Kolten Grieve

300111104

Group A- Essay #3 question Working on the farms in one’s community in Canada was a typical way of life in the early eighteenth century. Families exchanged goods and services with each other, life was organized on a small scale. Bonnie Fox explains that the center of life for the countryside villagers, no matter what the size of the area was the farm. The farm was the center of the household, their lives were focused on the farm and the work they performed on the farm. The introduction of wage labouring in Canada changed the social network of families (Fox, B 2014).

The stress of rent and taxes drove many families to leave the homestead land as they were suffering terribly. Many families were forced to start working outside of the property as they just couldn’t survive on the homestead alone any longer. Some peasants went on to work as agricultural labourers on large farms, or worked in the cottage industry as weavers and craftsman. These cottage workers worked for wages but were able to remain on their land and control the pace of the manufacturing, which assisted with maintaining stability within the family. The agricultural workers though had to leave their families to earn wages. Both urbanization and proletarianization were created as a result of wage labouring in Canada. The daily stress of low wages, creation of poverty, also affected spousal relationships which resulted in the entire family looking for answers as to how to help each other (Fox,

Output of supplies was quite low, the variety of job choices was limited although many workers were needed. This had an effect on the happiness and stability of the family. Men and women were both needed as well as teenagers, only the very young children were allowed to escape the labour market. Families spent their time working and supporting their family and each other. The head of the household in this cultural group decided upon the roles each member took. The oldest son took care of the family and helped the family prosper. There were families that had property at this time and there were property less families, both families worked hard to support each other. The rural families farmed their own food, whereas the urban families used the market place to support their needed. These disparities affected the family unit, as they had to work more diligently at pay for their goods (Fox,