Charles Robin

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Charles Robin (October 30, 1743 – June 10, 1824) was a businessman from the Isle of Jersey.

He was born in Saint Brélade, Jersey in 1743. By 1763, he was the captain of a ship working in the Newfoundland cod trade. In 1765, with his two brothers and two others, they formed a firm which developed fishing grounds off Cape Breton Island and the Gaspé region. The company sold dried cod to Portugal and Spain and salmon, furs and timber to England and Quebec. He brought exiled Acadians to work on Cape Breton Island and in the Chaleur Bay region. The operation suffered much damage at the hands of American forces during the American revolution. He became partner in a new firm under his own name in 1783. The company advanced merchandise to fisherman against future catches; this resulted in a labour force captive to credit and reduced costs for the company. His connections with the government in Quebec gave him access to the best beach locations near the fishing grounds used to cure the fish. Robin himself was a judge in the Court of Common Pleas, a justice of the peace and served on the land board for Gaspé district. In 1802, he retired to Jersey. He died in Saint Aubin, Jersey in 1824.

Robin trained his nephews Philip and James, who took over the operation of the company, which remained an important part of the region's economy for the century that followed.