This is a study about bankruptcy, a procedure incorporated into Lower Canada's legal institutions in 1839. The object is to analyze from both a social and a legal perspectives the relations between insolvent traders and their creditors during the first half of the nineteenth century. This research is based on a source almost unexploited by historians up to now, the bankruptcy records located in the judicial archives in the district of Montreal. / The economic difficulties of the 1820's and the inefficiency of the existing legal means for debt recovery were among the main arguments invoqued by the traders of Montreal in their demands for the implementation of a bankruptcy procedure. / The result of our research indicate that these demands were not mainly expressed by the wealthiest creditors. The bankruptcy procedure responded more to the needs of ordinary creditors such as artisans, tavernkeepers and bakers whose credit was central to the production and trade of goods. The bankruptcy procedure allowed ordinary creditors to audit and control debtor's transactions, and to constrain other creditors to accept re-payment compromise.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.26290 |
| Date | January 1994 |
| Creators | Launay, Dominique |
| Contributors | Young, Brian (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | French |
| 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: 001431398, proquestno: MM99912, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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