Between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the population of the Great Lake and Laurentian regions experienced major shifts. The Iroquoians, semi-sedentary horticulturists who had occupied lowland villages such as Hochelaga on Montreal Island during Cartier’s voyages, had left by the time the French came to settle in 1642. The length of their stay along the river, the reason for their retreat, as well as their prior links to the Algonkians, have received various interpretations. The quasi-nomadic habits of a large number of some Iroquois groups and the horticultural concerns of a large number of Algonkian tribes argue against any strict...

In the spring of 1642 a party of fifty Frenchmen‚ representing the Société de Notre Dame de Montréal pour la conversion des Sauvages de la Nouvelle France‚¹ set foot on the island that the Compagnie des Cent Associés donated for the furtherance of such pious plans. In the first ten years some one hundred and fifty individuals arrived in the settlement. The age pyramid from the 1666 census illustrates the initial difficulties: few remained in the upper cohorts‚ where these first immigrants should logically figure‚ for just a handful had persevered in this isolated spot‚ so vulnerable to Iroquois attacks.²...

The enumerations carried out in 1666 and 1681 gave an indication of the age‚ sex‚ and origins of Montreal’s population both during and after a period of heavy immigration.¹ In 1666‚ 56 per cent were newcomers‚ for the first generation born in New France had not yet reached adulthood. Fifteen years later the ratio of native-born had risen to two-thirds‚ a proportion that would gradually increase.

Although French arrivals in the island were as numerous between 1690 and 1715 as they had been previously‚ they no longer stood out in the midst of an expanding indigenous population.² The imbalance between...

The Island of Montreal lies at the junction of important waterways. Taking thegrande rivière‚¹the trader reached Lake Ontario and the huge network of waters that gradually drew him deeper into the interior. A voyageur heading for Lake Michigan‚ the Lower Mississippi‚ Lake Superior‚ and the “Western Sea‚”² if he wished to avoid a southern detour‚ would have to follow the Ottawa River‚ the Mattawa‚ and Lake Nipissing on to the northern shore of Lake Huron. This route was safer‚ sheltered from Iroquois and English attacks. The trading station at Michilimakinac soon formed the heart of the inland trade....

The ties linking the various participants in the fur trade remained hazy and tenuous as long as the economy lacked a well-defined structure. As this structure only came into being in the eighteenth century‚ the agitation of the preceding period was in fact a series of adjustments to external change - quick and choppy adaptations. Since the major fluctuations have already been described‚ it is easier to follow the phases in the development of commercial practices and the inner logic of this process.

“I should inform you that the Iroquois and Sanontouais are wintering in Montreal and that I have...

Montreal island covers 49‚773 hectares. It is 51.48 kilometers long and measures 17.7 kilometers at its widest point. Two smaller islands that nestle within the curved shoreline of the Riviere des Prairies give it a diamond shape‚ with a southwest-northeast tilt. Aside from Mont Royal‚ an extinct volcano that rises 230 meters‚ the island is practically flat and does not stand out from the surrounding countryside. This open landscape unfolds as a series of small valleys and low morainal ridges. Altitudes range on average between 25 and 58 meters‚ or 17 to 50 meters above the level of the river....

A bird’s-eye view of present-day Quebec reveals a striking pattern of similarly aligned and similarly shaped fields. These elongated‚ parallel plots stretch‚ one next to the other‚ in a monotonous array of shoestring villages that bear little resemblance to the anarchic organization of the French rural landscape. Eighteenth-century Canadian seigneurial records convey the same impression: large parcels‚ clear cut legal title to land‚ dispersed habitat‚ and agrarian individualism. At three centuries’ remove‚ the basic features of the old landscape can still be discerned in those places left untouched by urbanization. With the past still in evidence‚ it proved easy to...

The basic unit of the rural landscape was the individual farm on one unbroken lot. This the notaries called a concession or a habitation. Since land in the colony was not taxed‚ the need for greater precision never arose. A habitation was a property granted in one piece or composed of adjoining parcels‚ irrespective of the time and manner in which it had been acquired. The term applied to any type of farm regardless of its use and size.¹

These farms were grouped in côtes. Côtes were areas with similar physical characteristics‚ delineated on either side‚ and often in all...

Few immigrants had come prepared for the long and difficult task of clearing the soil. Imagine a settler who was in a position to devote all his time to developing the wooded concession he had just been granted‚ thanks to the savings he had amassed during his years of service or to his soldier’s pay.¹ It was April 1670‚ and the last of the snow was melting. His property was located in Côte Sainte-Anne with its two or three families and few clearings. The town‚ where he resided‚ lay twelve kilometers away‚ and the road barely covered half that distance....

Few administrators or visitors who passed through the colony expressed any interest in Canadian agriculture before the end of the eighteenth century. Administrators might mention the bad harvests and the occasional very good ones‚ or complain about how slowly the land was being cleared and how often it was abandoned‚ but one is hard pressed to find in the official correspondence any details about the utilization of the soil or agricultural methods. The perfunctory agricultural surveys forwarded annually to Versailles bore no useful additional comments. Those who penned memoirs of New France dwelt on Indian customs‚ the local flora and...

Wheat production on Canadian seigneuries never moved beyond the limits of traditional agriculture. Between 1820 and 1850‚ before the introduction of new techniques‚ it retreated drastically in favour of potatoes‚ barley‚ oats‚ hay‚ and eventually dairy farming. In the second half of the century the rural population‚ spreading beyond the confines of the valley on to practically sterile plateaux‚ combined a poorer sort of agriculture with employment in the forest industry.¹ The sudden transformation of the traditional husbandry practised in the old farming area‚ especially in the Montreal region‚ deprives us of a solid base on which to build a...

For the first seventy years of its history Montreal was involved in wars broken only by brief spells of armed truce. Strife was so constant that it must rank as one of the dominant elements of everyday life.

Montreal‚ the strategic nerve centre of the French colony‚ experienced the many faces of war: fear‚ devastation‚ conscription‚ and occupation. The authorities must be credited for their ability to contain the excesses of locally billeted troops. Although these were disciplined soldiers and not marauding bands‚ their relations with the residents cannot be assessed solely through official reports‚ for it was certainly not...

In 1715 4‚700 people lived on the Island of Montreal. The active population numbered some twelve hundred individuals‚ who can be grouped by occupation as follows. Two-fifths were peasants who drew their income mainly from the land. Some also performed other functions and worked as carters‚ lime-burners‚ or blacksmiths‚ since villages were not yet capable of supporting full-fledged artisans.

There were also five or six millers in the countryside‚ along with two notaries‚ five cures‚ a group of nuns in the Lachine and Pointeaux-Trembles convents‚ and about ten small merchants‚ sometimes acting as voyageurs‚ as well as one hundred to...

There are no diaries‚ no family record books‚ not even any worthwhile travellers’ accounts that might help us better understand this society and its mental universe. We must therefore turn once again to the notarial records. Those which deal with family matters seem the most likely to bring us into contact with the world of the average settler and allow us to examine the values that prevailed there. This is an approach which goes against the historiographic tide of recent years: Quebec historians have been more inclined to search the past for anything that foreshadows present-day restlessness and have therefore...

Of all the religious projects that marked the beginnings of New France‚ that of the Société de Notre-Dame was the most ambitious. It meant to do more than open convents or missions with the help of the Crown and trading companies. Its avowed purpose was to create an alternate‚ autonomous settlement‚ fundamentally religious in nature‚ that would serve as the model‚ orderly‚ and prosperous base for its evangelical work among the natives.¹ This project sprang from the piety and reforming zeal that marked the reign of Louis XIII. It was abundantly funded and supported by devout personages - and it...

We have covered over a half a century, or two generations, with these few thousand colonists, and the time has come to pull together the various threads of this discussion and draw some conclusions.

The evidence mustered in the course of this research‚ fitted into a broader comparative context‚ has corroborated my initial impression that the Island of Montreal would provide a good . vantage point from which to map the development of the colony’s socioeconomic framework. If there are differences between this region and others (Quebec was somewhat more in touch with the world beyond it while the rural...