Agricultural History Review, Volume 64 Part 2 (2016), pp. 181–195

The literature on Quebec’s economic history often portrays its agriculture during the pre-Confederation era as poor. One recurrent problem mentioned in the literature is that the flour produced in the colony was of very poor quality. This judgment was only extended towards flour consumed within the colony and not that exported to foreign markets (where Canadian flour seems to have enjoyed a slightly better reputation even if exports were quite small in terms of volume). This paper tackles the sources of this problem of quality on the domestic market and argues that it arose from a combination of land tenure regulations under the system of seigneurial tenure and of price regulations. 

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