Economy is an unincorporated community of approximately 200 people located along the north shore of the Minas Basin/Cobequid Bay, at approximately 45°23'N, 63°54'W, in Colchester County, Nova Scotia. Considerably depopulated now, the village supported a ship-building industry during the late 1800s.
The place-name 'Economy' comes from the 18th century Acadian place-name for the area L'Économie, which itself is an adaptation of the Mi'kmaq First Nation word for the location, kenomee, meaning 'a place of land jutting into the sea'. Mi'kmaqs presumably named the area thus because here the shoreline juts out into the Minas Basin at what is now known as Economy Point. (East of this point the Cobequid Bay begins). Mi'kmaqs hunted and gathered throughout the region for hundreds of years prior the settlement of Acadian families in the Economy area.
Present-day economic activity in the area includes small-scale harvesting of timber, firewood, wild lowbush blueberry, fish with weir traps , and soft-shelled clam.
Economy is considered by most locally not only to consist of the village centre in what is locally known as 'Central Economy', but the areas along the Nova Scotia Highway 2 to the east - Upper Economy, Brown Road, and Cove Road; south - Economy Point; north - Economy River Road and River Philip Road; and west - Carrs Brook and Lower Economy (the later including 'Soley Town').
Common surnames of Economy residents historically have included Huntley, Marsh, Moore, Morrison, McLaughlin, McLellan, Newton, Pugsley, Taylor, and Thompson in Central Economy; Faulkner, Soley, and Thompson in Lower Economy; Brown, Fulton, Hill, and Lewis in Upper Economy; and Durning and Taylor on Economy Point. Many of these families are of Ulster Scottish ancestry.
Until recently Economy hosted the provincially well-known Economy Clam Festival which featured a parade and slow-pitch softball tournament.
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