Based primarily on notarized farm leases, this thesis examines approaches to agriculture on the island of Montreal from 1780 to 1820. This source permits us to establish the crucial relationship between people and farms and to then link them to differences in capital investment, production and farming techniques. By understanding the common, day-to-day farming operations, we can address ourselves to the larger questions of what contributed to the state of Lower Canadian agriculture, a subject of contentious debate in Quebec historiography. / The island of Montreal, already favoured by the geographic circumstances of climate, soil and location, was also a crucible for two profound changes which were occurring in Quebec society during this period--the beginning of a wave of English-speaking immigrants who would permanently alter the ethnic composition of the province's population, and the development of a significant urban market. In the 564 notarized farm leases passed in this forty-year period, half of the lessors were merchants and professionals, most of whom resided in the city and suburbs of Montreal. The farms of the urban bourgeoisie were on average larger and better-stocked than the farms of habitants, artisans and other proprietors. Most attempts at agricultural innovation and more intensive cultivation occurred on the farms of this elite, not on the lands owned by those with less capital resources: capital, not ethnicity, directed the approach taken to farming.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.59553 |
| Date | January 1989 |
| Creators | Waywell, Jennifer L. |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Arts (Department of History.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001066826, proquestno: AAIMM63698, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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