In The Fur Trade in Canada and other works, economist Harold Innis developed the staples and metropolitan-hinterland theses, foundational theories in Canadian historiography. Innis argued that Canada’s focus on exporting natural resources—fur, fish, lumber, wheat, and minerals—to metropolitan economies shaped its historical development, famously describing the nation as a “hewer of wood, drawer of water.” His emphasis on resource exploitation influenced Canadian historical writing long before environmental history became a distinct field. Innis’s ideas continue to shape debates in Canadian environmental history and historical geography, while works like William Cronon’s Nature’s Metropolis highlight their global impact on environmental history.