Podcast Summary: New Books Network – Allan Greer, "Canada in the Age of Rum"

Host: Dr. Miranda Melcher
Guest: Allan Greer, author and historian
Book: Canada in the Age of Rum (McGill-Queen's University Press, 2026)
Date: March 31, 2026

Episode Overview

This episode explores Allan Greer's latest book, Canada in the Age of Rum, a sweeping and detailed examination of rum’s extraordinary impact on Canadian history from the late 17th century to the early 19th century. Greer discusses how rum became a central player in Canada's economic, social, and cultural transformations—especially within extractive industries and cross-cultural relations. The conversation also investigates the broader context: shifting imperial priorities, evolving labor systems, indigenous relations, and the eventual decline of the "Age of Rum."

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Discovering the Centrality of Rum in Canadian History

• Motivation for the Book (03:11):
  Allan Greer recounts how rum, though never at the center of Canadian colonial histories, kept appearing "in the corner of the eye" of research. He was struck by the enormous quantities consumed, estimating it at "15 times as much alcohol ... in the 18th century in the form of rum alone as in the 21st century in the form of whiskey, tequila, vodka, and everything else."

  "The amount consumed in the colonies that would later become Canada was really quite astronomical."
  — Allan Greer (03:28)

2. Defining the ‘Age of Rum’ and Measuring Prevalence

• Timeline (04:40):
  The Age of Rum spans from the 1670s, with New England rum arriving in Newfoundland, until roughly 1830.
• Scope (05:05):
  The prevalence of rum is tied to trans-Atlantic and Caribbean trade, with Caribbean origins but New England distilling providing most Canadian-available rum.

3. Economic Function: Rum as Wage Clawback in Extractive Industries

• Industry Ties (06:15):
  Rum played a structural role in fisheries, fur, and timber/lumber industries:
  • Rum as Payment Mechanism:
    Employers provided workers with rum, deducted its value from wages, and thus sharply reduced actual pay, helping address labor shortages and reduce costs.

  "By supplying rum to workers and then docking their pay, employers found ways of essentially reducing their labor costs quite considerably. And I think that's the crucial ... key to understanding why it's so prevalent."
  — Allan Greer (07:39)

  • Fisheries Example (08:50):
    American suppliers (New Englanders) brought rum to Newfoundland, revolutionizing the cod fishery by enabling year-round settlement and exploiting wage clawback mechanisms.

    "The more rum the fishermen drink, the less the captain has to pay them at the end of the season."
    — Allan Greer (12:20)

4. Imperial Differences: Rum in French and British Canada

• French Canada (14:13):
  France restricted rum to protect its brandy industry; brandy was costly, limiting consumption. Cheap rum was largely unavailable until the British conquest.
  • French Regulation:

    "France ... actually prohibit[ed] any importation into France of colonial rum… So, again, the enterprising Yankees from New England appear on the scene ..."
    — Allan Greer (15:13)

• Post-Conquest British Canada (17:53):
  The British arrival in 1759-60 ushered in a sudden proliferation of cheap New England rum, dramatically escalating drinking culture.

  "French Canadian peasantry used to live on bread and their main beverage was cold water. And ever since the British took over ... they're drinking large quantities of rum."
  — Allan Greer (19:53)

5. Social & Cultural Effects of Rum

• Transforming Drinking Culture (17:53 – 22:35):
  • Greater prevalence of drunkenness, social disorder, and problems like spousal abuse—hard to quantify precisely, but widely observed in the sources.
  • Alcohol shifted from an expensive luxury to a ubiquitous staple, particularly after British conquest.

6. Rum in the Fur Trade and Indigenous Exchange

• Fur Trade Labor (25:00):
  Paralleling fisheries, fur trade companies used rum to claw back wages, often indebting employees and binding them for multiple years.
  • One ledger showed "85% of the employees ended up indebted to their employer rather than the other way around." (27:24)
• Indigenous Relations (29:08):
  • Rum used to "lubricate" cross-cultural trade. For Indigenous people, alcohol was introduced as part of gift-giving, not as contractual debt.

  "The role of rum is a little different where indigenous people are concerned because they're not salaried employees, they are trading partners ... The understanding is I, as an indigenous hunter ... feel an obligation to give [the trader] the furs at the end of the season. But from the indigenous point of view, it's not a matter of credit or debt ... it is a relationship of mutual support."
  — Allan Greer (30:37)

  • Indigenous drinking patterns centered on achieving altered mental states, not habitual daily consumption; nevertheless, alcoholism and violence grew—but Indigenous communities often led early efforts at prohibition and sobriety.

7. Decline of the Age of Rum

• Transition Factors (36:45):
  Around the 1830s, rum consumption plummets largely due to:
  • The proliferation of whiskey, which became cheaper and more accessible
  • The rise of the temperance movement, influenced by evangelical Protestantism and a new industrial capitalist work ethic prioritizing sobriety and regularity

  "Temperance is part of that ... with more of an accent on regularity, steadiness, sobriety in the full sense of the term."
  — Allan Greer (40:58)

8. Shocking Discovery: Drugs in the Fur Trade

• Memorable Moment (41:50):
  Greer was astonished to find instances in fur traders' journals of lacing Indigenous people's rum with laudanum:

  "I put laudanum in her glass of rum, and she fell to the floor and was unconscious for 12 hours, which worked out perfectly from my point of view."
  — Allan Greer quoting a fur trader (41:55)

  • There were even deaths and violent retribution as a result, highlighting the broader role of psychoactive substances in early global capitalism.

Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• "It looked to me as if something like 15 times as much alcohol was consumed in the 18th century in the form of rum alone as in the 21st century in the form of whiskey, tequila, vodka, and everything else."
  — Allan Greer (03:25)

• "By supplying rum to workers and then docking their pay, employers found ways of essentially reducing their labor costs quite considerably."
  — Allan Greer (07:32)

• "The more rum the fishermen drink, the less the captain has to pay them at the end of the season."
  — Allan Greer (12:20)

• "French Canadian peasantry used to live on bread and their main beverage was cold water. And ever since the British took over ... they're drinking large quantities of rum."
  — Allan Greer (19:53)

• "85% of the employees ended up indebted to their employer ... and a large proportion ... signed on for an additional three year term."
  — Allan Greer (27:24)

• "I put laudanum in her glass of rum, and she fell to the floor and was unconscious for 12 hours, which worked out perfectly from my point of view."
  — Allan Greer quoting fur trader (41:55)

Timeline of Important Segments

• 02:19–04:29: Introduction & motivation for book
• 04:40–06:03: Defining the Age of Rum and measuring consumption
• 06:15–13:46: Rum's function in fisheries, especially Newfoundland
• 14:13–17:30: French vs. British colonial liquor policies
• 17:53–22:35: Drinking culture: social impacts and shift post-conquest
• 25:00–28:59: Rum in the fur trade: labor, debt, and business strategies
• 29:08–36:02: Indigenous relations: rum as cultural mediator; early Indigenous temperance
• 36:45–41:19: Why did the Age of Rum end? Whiskey & temperance movement
• 41:50–43:58: Shocking findings: drugged rum and fur trade violence
• 44:21–45:42: Greer’s next project: a deep history of Canada

Closing Thoughts

Allan Greer’s interview highlights how a seemingly peripheral commodity like rum can illuminate the larger economic, social, and cultural structures of an era. Rum was not just a drink but a tool of labor exploitation, intercultural exchange, and even colonial violence—its rise and fall bound up with imperial policies, shifting economies, and changing social norms. The episode offers a rich, multi-layered history that connects the local and the global, the economic and the personal, with nuanced attention to both structural patterns and shocking micro-histories.