The origin of what is today referred to as traditional society in Newfoundland and Labrador may be traced to a way of life that developed around the inshore fishery in the late 19th century outport.

An informal economy is one in which people provide for their own needs by engaging in a variety of noncommercial activities

Much of our knowledge of daily life in outport Newfoundland in the late 18th and early 19th century comes from the pens of visitors. They were typically missionaries, explorers, naturalists, and geologists whose work brought them to outlying communities not often visited by outsiders or even the local government.

Considerable uncertainty surrounds our understanding of daily life in Newfoundland during the late 18th and early 19th centuries.