Julian Gwyn proposes several explanations for Nova Scotia's dismal economic situation. He argues against blaming the merchant capitalists for the relative lack of economic growth, maintaining instead that Nova Scotia's economy was thwarted by numerous disadvantages and very few advantages. For instance, the 1755 deportation of Acadians destroyed a flourishing agriculture for a generation while the limited extent of fertile soil gave rise to widely scattered and discontinuous settlements.

Capital from agriculture never accumulated sufficiently to finance manufacturing, mining, commerce, and shipping. As well, Nova Scotia had few natural resources - gold proved expensive to mine, iron ore was soon exhausted, and coal, although abundant, was of poor quality. As a result, Nova Scotia did not have much to trade with Britain and made little profit from belonging to the mercantilist empire. Some areas of the economy, such as trade to the West Indies and shipping and shipbuilding, displayed real growth during the early decades of the nineteenth century.

However, Gwyn finds that growth overall was "extensive" rather than "intensive"; that is, it kept pace with population increase but did not exceed it. Thus the growth that took place was actually a form of stagnation and provided no basis for the predictions of a glowing economic future for Nova Scotia.