Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-14T08:21:58.511Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Predation, Seigneurial Tenure, and Development in French Colonial America

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2020

Vincent Geloso
Vincent Geloso*
Affiliation:
King’s University College
*
Email: Vgeloso@uwo.ca
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

There is substantial debate over the colonial origins of divergence within the Americas. In this debate, the French Empire has been largely ignored even though, until 1760, it included Canada. This article uses recent empirical advances in our knowledge of the colonial Canadian economy to introduce the role of French institutions—most notably the institution of seigneurial tenure—into the debate on the colonial origins of divergence. It argues that the institution of seigneurial tenure in Canada when it was under French rule (up to 1760) had predatory features that help to explain why Canada was the poorest of the North American colonies.

Type
Research Article
Information
Social Science History , Volume 44 , Issue 4 , Winter 2020 , pp. 747 - 770
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Social Science History Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allen, Robert (2001) “The great divergence in European wages and prices from the Middle Ages to the First World War.” Explorations in Economic History 38 (4): 411–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allen, Robert (2009) The British Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Allen, Robert (2015) “The high wage economy and the industrial revolution: A restatement.” Economic History Review 68 (1): 1–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allen, Robert, Murphy, Tommy, and Schneider, Eric (2012) “The colonial origins of the divergence in the Americas: A labor market approach.” Journal of Economic History 72 (4): 863–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Altman, Morris (1983) “Seignorial tenure in New France, 1688–1739: An essay on income distribution and retarded economic development.” Historical Reflections/Réflexions historiques 10 (3): 335–75.Google Scholar
Altman, Morris (1987) “Note on the economic burden of the seigniorial system in New France, 1688–1730.” Historical Reflections/Réflexions historiques 14 (1): 135–42.Google Scholar
Altman, Morris (1988) “Economic growth, economic structure, and real gross domestic product in early Canada, 1695–1739.” William and Mary Quarterly 45: 684–711.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Altman, Morris (1998) “Land tenure, ethnicity, and the condition of agricultural income and productivity in mid-nineteenth-century Quebec.” Agricultural History 72 (4): 708–62.Google Scholar
Álvarez-Nogal, Carlos, and Prados De La Escosura, Leandro (2013) “The rise and fall of Spain (1270–1850).” Economic History Review 66 (1): 1–37.Google Scholar
Armstrong, Robert (1984) Structure and Change: An Economic History of Quebec. Gage Publishing.Google Scholar
Arroyo Abad, Leticia, Davies, Elwyn, and van Zanden, Jan Luiten (2012) “Between conquest and independence: Real wages and demographic change in Spanish America, 1530–1820.” Explorations in Economic History 49 (2): 149–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arroyo Abad, Leticia, and van Zanden, Jan Luiten (2016) “Growth under extractive institutions? Latin American per capita GDP in colonial times.” Journal of Economic History 76 (4): 1182–1215.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arsenault Morin, Alex, Geloso, Vincent, and Kufenko, Vadim (2017) “The heights of French-Canadian convicts, 1780s to 1820s.” Economics and Human Biology 26: 126–36.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Banerjee, Abhijit, and Iyer, Lakshmi (2005) “History, institutions, and economic performance: The legacy of colonial land tenure systems in India.” American Economic Review 95 (4): 1190–213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baten, Joerg, Ma, Debin, Morgan, Stephen, and Wang, Qing (2010) “Evolution of living standards and human capital in China in the 18–20th centuries: Evidences from real wages, age-heaping, and anthropometrics.” Explorations in Economic History 47 (3): 347–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boleda, Mario (1990) “Trente mille Français à la conquête du Saint-Laurent.” Histoire sociale/Social History 23 (45): 153–77.Google Scholar
Brennan, Geoffrey, and Buchanan, James M. (1980) The Power to Tax: Analytic Foundations of a Fiscal Constitution. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Brenner, Robert (1976) “Agrarian class structure and economic development in pre-industrial Europe.” Past & Present 70 (1): 30–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Broadberry, Stephen, Campbell, Bruce M. S., Klein, Alexander, Overton, Mark, and van Leeuwen, Bas (2015) British Economic Growth, 1270–1870. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Buchanan, James (1975) The Limits of Liberty: Between Anarchy and Leviathan. University of Chicago Press Google Scholar
Buchanan, James (1980) The Power to Tax: Analytical Foundations of a Fiscal Constitution. Liberty Fund.Google Scholar
Burnard, Trevor, Panza, Laura, and Williamson, Jeffrey (2019) “Living costs, real incomes, and inequality in colonial Jamaica.” Explorations in Economic History 71: 55–71.Google Scholar
Bussières, Manon (2009) De la voie de passage au chemin public: le réseau routier et ses représentations dans la province de Québec: l’exemple du Centre-du-Québec, 1706–1841. Diss. Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières.Google Scholar
Challú, Amílcar, and Gómez-Galvarriato, Aurora (2015) “Mexico’s real wages in the age of the great divergence, 1730–1930.” Revista de Historia Económica/Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History 33 (1): 83–122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coates, Colin (2003) Les Transformations du Paysage et de la Société au Québec sous le régime seigneurial. Éditions Septentrion.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Courville, Serge (2008) Quebec: A Historical Geography. University of British Columbia Press.Google Scholar
Crafts, Nicholas, and Mills, Terrance (2009) “From Malthus to Solow: How did the Malthusian economy really evolve?” Journal of Macroeconomics 31 (1): 68–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, Lance, and Huttenback, Robert (1982) “The cost of empire,” in Ransom, Richard, Sutch, Richard, and Walton, Gary (eds.) Explorations in the New Economic History: Essays in Honor of Douglass C. North. Academic Press: 41–69.Google Scholar
Davis, Lewis (2008) “Scale effects in growth: A role for institutions.” Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 66 (2): 403–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dechêne, Louise (1971) “L’évolution du régime seigneurial au Canada: Le cas de Montréal aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles.” Recherches sociographiques 12 (2): 143–183.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dechêne, Louise (1974) Habitants et Marchands de Montréal au XVIIe siècle. Plon.Google Scholar
De Janvry, Alain, Fafchamps, Marcel, and Sadoulet, Elisabeth (1991) “Peasant household behaviour with missing markets: Some paradoxes explained.” Economic Journal 101 (409): 1400–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dell, Melissa (2010) “The persistence effects of Peru’s mining Mita.” Econometrica 78 (6): 1863–1903.Google Scholar
Dennison, Tracy (2011) The Institutional Framework of Russian Serfdom. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Dépatie, Sylvie (1988) L’évolution d’une société rurale: l’Ⓘle Jésus au XVIIIème siècle. Montréal. Diss. Ph. D. Thesis, Department of History, McGill University.Google Scholar
Dépatie, Sylvie, Lalancette, Mario, and Dessureault, Christian (1987) Contributions à l’Étude du Régime Seigneurial Canadien. Éditions Hurtubise HMH.Google Scholar
Desbarats, Catherine (1992) “Agriculture within the seigneurial régime of eighteenth century Canada: Some thoughts on the recent literature.” Canadian Historical Review 73 (1): 1–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Desbarats, Catherine (1997) “France in North America: The net burden of empire during the first half of the eighteenth century.” French History 11 (1): 1–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deschênes, Gilles (2009) Quand le vent faisait tourner les moulins: Trois siècles de meunerie banale et marchande au Québec. Éditions Septentrion.Google Scholar
Dessureault, Christian (2019) Le Monde rural québécois aux XVIIIe et XIXe siècles: Cultures, hiérarchies, pouvoirs. Montréal: Éditions FIDES.Google Scholar
Dickinson, John (1974) “La justice seigneuriale en Nouvelle-France: Le cas de Notre-Dame-des-Anges.” Revue d’histoire de l’Amérique française 28 (3): 323–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dickinson, John (1982) Justice et Justiciables: La Procédure Civile à la Prévôté de Québec, 1667–1759. Presses de l’Université Laval.Google Scholar
Egnal, Marc (1996) Divergent Paths: How Culture and Institutions have shaped North American Growth. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Egnal, Marc (1998) New World Economies: The Growth of the Thirteen Colonies and Early Canada. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Eltis, David (1999) “Atlantic history in global perspective.” Itinerario 23 (2): 141–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Engerman, Stanley, and Kenneth, Sokoloff (2000) “History lessons: Institutions, factors endowments, and paths of development in the New World.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 14 (3): 217–32.Google Scholar
Engerman, Stanley, and Kenneth, Sokoloff (2002) Factor Endowments, Inequality, and Paths of Development among New World Economics. National Bureau of Economic Research.Google Scholar
Engerman, Stanley, and Kenneth, Sokoloff (2011) Economic Development in the Americas since 1500: Endowments and Institutions. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Frégault, Guy (1969) [1990] La Civilisation de la Nouvelle-France, 1713–1744. Éditions Fides.Google Scholar
Frye, Timothy, and Shleifer, Andrei (1997) “The Invisible Hand and the Grabbing Hand.” American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings 87 (2): 354–58.Google Scholar
Galenson, David (1984) “The rise and fall of indentured servitude in the Americas: An economic analysis.” Journal of Economic History 44 (1): 1–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garneau, Jean-François (2009) “Réflexions sur la régulation juridique du régime seigneurial canadien,” in Alain, Laberge and Benoît, Grenier (eds.) Le Régime Seigneurial au Québec 150 Ans Après. Center Interuniversitaire d’Études Québécoises: 61–78.Google Scholar
Geloso, Vincent (2016) “The seeds of divergence: The economy of French North America, 1688 to 1760.” PhD diss., London School of Economics.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geloso, Vincent (2019a) “Distinct within North America: Living standards in French Canada, 1688 to 1775.” Cliometrica 13 (2): 277–321.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geloso, Vincent (2019b) “A price index for Canada, 1688 to 1850.” Canadian Journal of Economics 52 (2): 526–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geloso, Vincent, and Lacombe, Alexis (2016) “Why was flour of poor quality? The impact of seigneurial laws and price controls on flour in Quebec during the colonial era.” Agricultural History Review 64 (2): 181–95.Google Scholar
Geloso, Vincent, and Macera, Gonzalo (2020) “How poor were Quebec and Canada during the 1840s?” Social Science Quarterly 101 (2): 792–810.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geloso, Vincent, and Bédard, Mathieu (2018) “Was economic growth likely in Lower Canada?” Journal of Private Enterprise 33 (3): 1–23.Google Scholar
Geloso, Vincent, and Kufenko, Vadim (2015) “Malthusian pressures: Empirical evidence from a frontier economy.” Journal of Population Research 32 (3–4): 263–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geloso, Vincent, Kufenko, Vadim, and Hinton, Michael (2017) “The equally ‘bad’ French and English farmers of Quebec: New TFP measures from the 1831 census.” Historical Methods 50 (3): 170–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glaeser, Edward, and Shleifer, Andrei (2002) “Legal origins.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 117 (4): 1193–1229.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greer, Allan (1985) Peasant, Lord and Merchant: Rural Society in Three Quebec Parishes, 1740–1840. University of Toronto Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grenier, Benoît (2007) Seigneurs Campagnards de la Nouvelle-France: Présence Seigneuriale et Sociabilité Rurale dans la Vallée du Saint-Laurent à l’Époque Préindustrielle. Presses Universitaires de Rennes.Google Scholar
Grenier, Benoît (2012) Une Brève Histoire du Régime Seigneurial. Éditions du Boréal.Google Scholar
Harris, Richard (1966) The Seigneurial System in Early Canada. McGill-Queen’s University Press.Google Scholar
Hoffman, Philip (1996) Growth in a Traditional Society: The French Countryside, 1450–1815. Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jaenen, Cornelius (1976) The Role of the Church in New France. McGraw Hill.Google Scholar
Johnson, Noel, and Koyama, Mark (2014) “Tax farming and the origins of state capacity in England and France.” Explorations in Economic History 51 (1): 1–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
La Porta, Rafael, Lopez-de-Silanes, Florencio, and Shleifer, Andrei (2008) “The economic consequences of legal origins.” Journal of Economic Literature 46 (2): 285–332.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, Frank, and McInnis, Marvin (1980) “The efficiency of the French-Canadian farmer in the nineteenth century.” Journal of Economic History 40 (3): 497–514.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, Frank, and McInnis, Marvin (1984) “Agricultural output and efficiency in Lower Canada, 1851.” Research in Economic History 9: 45–87.Google Scholar
Lindert, Peter, and Williamson, Jeffrey (2016) Unequal Gains: American Growth and Inequality since 1700. Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Lunn, Jean (1942) Economic Development in New France. PhD Thesis, McGill University.Google Scholar
Mahoney, Paul (2001) “The common law and economic growth: Hayek might be right.” Journal of Legal Studies 30 (2): 503–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mancall, Peter, and Weiss, Thomas (1999) “Was economic growth likely in colonial British North America?” Journal of Economic History 59 (1): 17–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mancall, Peter, Rosenbloom, Joshua, and Weiss, Thomas (2003) “Conjectural estimate of economic growth in the Lower South, 1720 to 1800,” in Guinnane, Timothy, Sundstrom, William, and Whatley, Warren (eds.) History Matters: Economic Growth, Technology and Population, Essays in Honor of Paul A. David. Stanford University Press: 387–424.Google Scholar
Mathieu, Jacques (1969) “Les causes devant la prévôté de Québec en 1667.” Histoire sociale/Social History 2 (3): 101–11.Google Scholar
McCusker, John J. ( 1992) How Much Is that in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States. American Antiquarian Society.Google Scholar
McInnis, Marvin (1982) “A reconsideration of the state of agriculture in Lower Canada in the first half of the nineteenth century.” Canadian Papers in Rural History 3: 9–49.Google Scholar
McInnis, Marvin (1992) Perspectives on Ontario Agriculture. Langdale Press.Google Scholar
Moogk, Peter (1989) “Reluctant exiles: Emigrants from France in Canada before 1760.” William & Mary Quarterly 46 (3): 463–505.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morgan, Kelly (1997) “The dynamics of Smithian growth.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 112 (3): 939–64.Google Scholar
Moselle, Boaz, and Polak, Benjamin (2001) “A model of a predatory state.” Journal of Law, Economics and Organization 17 (1): 1–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Munro, William Bennett (1908) Documents Relating to the Seigniorial Tenure in Canada, 1598–1854. The Champlain Society.Google Scholar
Munro, William Bennett (1915) The Seigneurs of Old Canada. Glasgow, Brook & Company.Google Scholar
Nicolini, Esteban (2007) “Was Malthus right? A VAR analysis of economic and demographic interactions in pre-industrial England.” European Review of Economic History 11 (1): 99–121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
North, Douglass (1981) Structure and Change in Economic History. W.W. Norton & Company.Google Scholar
North, Douglass, Summerhill, William, and Weingast, Barry (2000) “Order, disorder, and economic change: Latin America vs. North America,” in de Mesquita, Bruce Bueno and Hilton, Root (eds.) Governing for Prosperity. Yale University Press: 17–58.Google Scholar
Ogilvie, Sheilagh (2001) “The economic world of the Bohemian serf: Economic concepts, preferences, and constraints on the estate of Friedland, 1583–1692.” Economic History Review 54 (3): 430–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ouellet, Fernand (1972) Élements d’Histoire Sociale du Bas-Canada. Éditions Hurtubise HMH Google Scholar
Ouellet, Fernand (1980) Lower Canada, 1791–1840: Social Change and Nationalism. McClelland and Steward.Google Scholar
Palmer, Robert Roswell (1959) The Age of the Democratic Revolution: The Challenge. Vol. 1. Princeton University Press. 2014 edition.Google Scholar
Paquet, Gilles, and Smith, Wayne (1983) “L’émigration des Canadiens français vers les États-Unis, 1790–1940: Problématique et coups de sonde.” L’Actualité économique 59 (3): 423–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paquet, Gilles, and Wallot, Jean-Pierre (2007) Un Québec Moderne, 1760–1840: Essai d’Histoire Économique et Social. Éditions Hurtubise HMH.Google Scholar
Paul, Josianne (2008) Exilés au nom du roi: Les fils de famille et les faux-sauniers en Nouvelle-France. 1723–1749. Septentrion.Google Scholar
Percy, Michael, and Szostak, Rick (1992) “The political economy of the abolition of seigneurial tenure in Canada East.” Explorations in Economic History 29 (1): 51–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perkins, Edwin (1988) The Economy of Colonial America. Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Peterson, A. G. (1935) “Flour and grist milling in Virginia: a brief history.” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 43 (2): 97–108.Google Scholar
Philipps, Paul (1974) “Land tenure and economic development: A comparison of Upper and Lower Canada.” Journal of Canadian Studies 9 (2): 35–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rabushka, Alvin (2008) Taxation in Colonial America. Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Robinson, James (1999) When is a state predatory? Working Paper: CESifo Series 178Google Scholar
Rosenbloom, Joshua, and Weiss, Thomas (2014) “Economic growth in the Mid-Atlantic region: Conjectural estimates for 1720 to 1800.” Explorations in Economic History 51: 41–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rotberg, Robert (2004) “The failure and collapse of nation-states: Breakdown, prevention, and repair,” in Rotberg, Robert (ed.) When States Fail: Causes and Consequences. Princeton University Press: 1–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rothenberg, Winifred (1981) “The market and Massachusetts farmers, 1750–1855.” Journal of Economic History 41 (2): 283–314.Google Scholar
Rothenberg, Winifred (1992) From Market-Places to a Market Economy: The Transformation of Rural Massachusetts, 1750–1850. University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Sanfaçon, Roland (1958) “La construction du premier chemin Québec-Montréal et le problème des corvées (1706–1737).” Revue d’histoire de l’Amérique française 12 (1): 3–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shammas, Carole (1982) “How self-sufficient was early America?” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 13 (2): 247–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Unknown (n.d.) Observations sur l’opinion énoncé par le juge en chef, en appel, en janvier 1824 au sujet du droit de banalité, Archives du Séminaire de Québec, document series Seigneuries 2, Document Number 2.Google Scholar
Vahabi, Mehrdad (2016) “A positive theory of the predatory state.” Public Choice 168 (3–4): 153–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williamson, Jeffrey G. (2011) Trade and Poverty: When the Third World fell Behind. MIT press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar