SI Online
Roots Enrich Us All
Posted: April 21, 2008
If your manufacturing company is ready to try exporting, Canada is a great place to start for two big reasons. First, business opportunities are growing for Washington companies because of continuing development of Alberta’s oil sands. Second, after Alberta comes Alfred, King of Wessex, and in the highly likely event that your history teachers failed to mention him, here’s how Alfred fits.
During or around 897 A.D., Alfred drove most of the Vikings out of most of what later became England. It was a highlight of an amazing career in which Alfred also laid key cornerstones for what became English law and government. He also gave a dramatic boost to the infant English navy, to keep the Vikings out, and he is regarded as a founding father of the Royal Navy. For all these accomplishments, he was later proclaimed Alfred “The Great” and he remains the only monarch in England’s long and storied history to be honored with this title.
Alfred’s connection with the export opportunities might remain obscure at this point, but the link becomes clearer in the 2008 edition of the “Index of Economic Freedom” published by the Wall Street Journal and the Heritage Foundation.
The index ranks the nations of the world according to the degrees to which their economies are free. Assessments are based on ten factors including public policies governing trade, finance, investment and labor, along with property rights and degrees of corruption. Not surprisingly, the freedom index shows that countries with the most freedom tend to possess the highest rates of per-capita GDP.
Examining the economies and government systems of 157 nations, the 2008 index found that among the regions of the world, Europe provides the most economic freedom followed by the Americas, Asia, the Pacific, the Middle East and Africa.
But a different trend pops out when you look at the top ten list of the countries with the economies that are judged to be the most free. That list is led by Hong Kong followed by Singapore, Ireland, Australia, the United States, New Zealand, Canada, Chile, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
Seven of the top ten are former English colonies. Throw in the UK, and it turns out that eight of the top ten share business and government roots that go back to Alfred, Magna Carte and all the other foundation bricks that built a British-based trade network that set sail across the globe centuries ago, powered by the Royal Navy.
The North American branch of the Empire split in 1776 when we decided to rebel and the Canadians decided not to. But, while our national founding myth is based on our desire to rid ourselves of the evil redcoats, the rebellion was a little more like a divorce in a family where no one wants to break up the family business – which, in our case, was business.
The global reach of Anglo-Saxon commerce and culture was a favorite topic of Winston Churchill who articulated his views on the matter in a once-famous book that is now mostly forgotten, A History of the English Speaking Peoples. Churchill’s mother was from the United States and he was fascinated by the ways in which his English and American heritages intertwined. Much of his book is now dismissed for being politically incorrect, but the whole notion of Anglo-Saxon-American greatness was, like whiskey for breakfast, part of old Winston.
Some of Churchill’s ideas are analyzed in a new book, God and Gold: Britain, America and the Making of the Modern World by Walter Russell Mead, a senior fellow in US Foreign Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations. Mead cleans up and updates Churchill’s notions, bringing them to the 21 st Century where he finds the US serving England’s old role in propagating, protecting and profiting from the main arteries of international trade.
Mead concludes that most of us have lost sight of ways in which the old Imperial bonds still energize and shape world commerce. Mead theorizes that the low awareness is due to the declining quality of history instruction in our schools, but the short sightedness is not limited to the young. In presenting their top ten, the authors of the Economic Freedom Index failed to note the strong English ties of the countries at the top.
But, maintaining a low profile in this regard isn’t necessarily bad because Mead also highlights a fundamental conflict that has long existed between the English speaking people and many of those in the world who do not speak English.
Because our shared traditions and governing systems are based on such appealing notions as individual liberty, property rights and fairly progressive social views, the English Speaking People tend to think quite highly of ourselves. According to Mead, as in the US today, many in England during its Imperial era viewed the national mission as divinely inspired. We’re “good guys.” This sense may seem to come naturally to us, but it is not a universal concept among great powers. The Romans didn’t seem themselves as “good guys” nor did the Monguls or the Turks or the Huns.
Not surprisingly, Mead notes, those on the other side of the righteous bow of Anglo-Saxon progress have usually not shared our high opinions of ourselves. In fact, our tribe is more often viewed by others as a bunch of hypocritical pirates out to pluck the pockets of the planet clean.
But, as Alfred might say if he were with us today: bollocks to all that!
Alberta’s oil sands cover an area the size of the State of Florida. Now that it is economically feasible to profitably wring oil from the sands, Canada has moved into second on the list of countries in the world with the largest oil reserves, trailing only Saudi Arabia.
Edmonton, Alberta is a major jumping off point for the oil fields and it is only 90 minutes by air from Sea-Tac. The oil development is taking place on an enormous scale and it sparks major spin off growth, with an estimated 250,000 new residents moving to Alberta. The value of oil development projects moving forward to date is estimated at $175 billion, and opportunities are growing for Washington state firms, especially if they can find Canadian partners.
Canada is very similar to the US in many ways, but the countries are not the same. Government help is available for Washington firms that want to explore the Canadian market. Help is available through the Seattle Export Assistance Center of the U.S. Commerce Department at 206-556-5615.
Culturally speaking, most of the Canadian-US differences are just different enough to be interesting. For instance, prime rib is a popular dish in Alberta due to the availability of Alberta beef, and the cowboy styles and feel of the Alberta prairie often seems downright All-American.
But in Alberta, prime rib is usually served with Yorkshire pudding. Yorkshire pudding is not a pudding in the US sense. It is a pastry soaked in blood and other beef juice. It may sound awful but when properly prepared, it tastes like a bacon burger squared.
Pass the au juis! God Save the Queen!
