By combining the tools of social history, poststructural analysis, and cultural studies, this dissertation explores the perceptions and realities of late nineteenth-century retailing within Halifax, Nova Scotia. The study places business within a social, cultural, economic, and political framework, while presenting an uncommon case study in professionalization, emphasizing the heterogeneity of retailers, and redefining petty enterprise as commercial activity worthy of research. Additionally, the dissertation addresses a region and occupational group often neglected by Canadian historians. / Specifically, the following study examines the late-Victorian drive for commercial professionalization, middle-class discourse on legitimacy, and recruitment of urban shopkeepers. In an era obsessed with modernity, decades plagued with financial recession, and a region haunted by a conservative reputation, prominent shopkeepers desired an elevated status for themselves, their trade, and their city. Besides the self-representations of leading proprietors, discussions of legitimacy rested upon the views offered by credit-reporting agents, supplying wholesalers, state officials, and social reformers. The external perceptions of retailing 'others'---marginal shopkeepers and itinerant traders---also helped distinguish the 'legitimate' retailer. Contributors to the discourse may have promoted the education of professional business standards, but exclusion remained an essential strategy in designating legitimacy. / Although participants in the discourse never applied the criteria consistently, the identity of the 'legitimate' retailer involved the practice of up-to-date business methods and the application of contemporary notions regarding class, gender, race, ethnicity, and religion. Unfortunately for individuals concerned with promoting professionalization, no consensus emerged for the exact definition of legitimacy. Thus, most attempts to create a homogeneous and professional shopkeeping identity failed. / Despite this failure, retailers demonstrated a remarkable degree of active agency. Women, minorities, immigrants, and Roman Catholics engaged in business in surprisingly large numbers. Meanwhile, leading shopkeepers were not a population of politically impotent inhabitants who blindly accepted Halifax's reputation for unprogressive enterprise. Finally, whether a retailer confronted modernity willingly or chose to reject the dictates of professionalism, all proprietors actively negotiated a course for success or pursued strategies lessening the burden of financial failure.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.38195 |
| Date | January 2001 |
| Creators | Gogan, Tanya Lee. |
| Contributors | Morton, Suzanne (advisor) |
| 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 | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of History.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001871611, proquestno: NQ78692, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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