The wreck of the William Salthouse - the earliest attempt to establish trade relations between Canada and Australia

"Early colonial economies in North America and Australia were commonly based on a combination of the importation of goods and a system of local production which included subsistence agriculture and hunting. Before 1850 the Australian settlements had a very limited and only slowly developing capacity to create or harvest, local supplies of food and alcohol. Furthermore in the nineteenth century the Australian colonies never developed the capacity to produce certain kinds of consumer goods. In the Australian contact the period and degree of "dependency" on external sources of supply varied according to well recognised factors like the growth of population and establishing or importing the means of production to the colony. This book chapter considers trade between Canada and Australia through an examination of the voyage of the William Salthouse in what was the earliest attempt to establish trade relations between Canada and Australia."