This political survey of Newfoundland economy explores the connections between a resource economy and transformations in political regime from the nineteenth century to the present. Among the themes examined are the gradual economic and eventual political elites in Newfoundland prior to the federation of the two countries; the exploitation of staples particularly codfish, and the emergence of new staples in the early twentieth century and the association of a staple economy with fundamental changes in state structures. The contemporary disaster of depleted resource economy and its portents for regime change in the context of fragile Canadian federalism are considered.