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Brian Gettler will give a talk based on his book, Colonialism's Currency: Money, State, and First Nations in Canada, 1820-1950. The talk follows the Annual General Meeting of the Canadian Business History Association (CBHA/ACHA) and is part of the CBHA/ACHA Talks Series.
Brian Gettler is assistant professor of history at the University of Toronto.
Colonialism's Currency analyzes the historical experiences and interactions of three distinct First Nations - the Wendat of Wendake, the Innu of Mashteuiatsh, and the Moose Factory Cree - with monetary forms and practices created by colonial powers. Whether treaty payments and welfare provisions such as the paper vouchers favoured by the Department of Indian Affairs, the Canadian Dominion's standardized paper notes, or the "made beaver" (the Hudson's Bay Company's money of account), each monetary form allowed the state to communicate and enforce political, economic, and cultural sovereignty over Indigenous peoples and their lands. Surveying a range of historical cases, Brian Gettler shows how currency simultaneously placed First Nations beyond the bounds of settler society while justifying colonial interventions in their communities.