The Role of Land Alienation, Colonization and the British American Land Company on Quebec's Development 1800-1850

A sociological study dealing with land policies in Lower Canada in the first half of the nineteenth century, and how these policies lead to political turmoil and economic stagnation. The author analyzes both metropolitan (England) and colonial (Lower Canada) events and forces. He argues that in England, manufacturers were on the verge of political hegemony while the state's main priority was to reduce the costs of administering settler colonies. In Lower Canada, the key political issue was land. The use of practically all seigneurial land for wheat cultivation lead to soil exhaustion, the failure of agriculture and the pauperization of French Canadian habitants. He maintains that the underlying cause of this problem in Lower Canada was the concentration of vast areas of seigneurial and freehold land by a small elite consisting of merchants, colonial officials, seigneurs and the clergy who lost the support of the "popular classes" to the petite bourgeoisie. Instead of progressive land policies, settlement, colonization and economic diversification, he points out that Lower Canada experienced land speculation, French-Canadian emigration, commercial capitalism based almost exclusively on trade with England, and a dearth of bona fide settlement. Some information is offered on the British American Land Company's dealings in the Eastern Townships.

Master's Thesis

McGill University

Montreal

1974

ii-204p.

en