Section II, 1922 [19] Trans. R.S.C. 



A Chapter of Canadian Economic History, 1791 to 1839 



By James Mayor, Ph.D., F.R.S.C. 



(Read May Meeting, 1922) 



The seigniorial system was in effect confirmed by the Quebec 

 Act of 1774,1 which provided that in all matters of controversy 

 resort should be had to the laws and customs of Canada,- although 

 there was also provision in the same Act for holding land in free and 

 common soccage. The Quebec Act erected into one province all the 

 territory north of the New England colonies and of the province of 

 Pennsylvania, westwards along the Ohio River to the Mississippi and 

 northwards to the boundary of the territory granted to the Hudson's 

 Bay Company.^ The Act, which was designed to placate the French- 

 Canadian population, had the effect of an irritant upon the colonists 

 of British extraction both in Canada and in the older British colonies. 

 The hostility with which it met led to the Act of 1790-91,* by which 

 certain parts of the Quebec Act were repealed, the two provinces of 

 Upper and Lower Canada erected and all land grants in Upper Canada 

 required to be made in free and common soccage, the same tenure to 

 apply in Lower Canada should the grantee so desire.^ 



The Act of 1790-1, known as the Constitutional Act, gave 

 Canada representative institutions and recognized the localization in 

 two different regions of the two dominant races, placing each of them 

 under the laws and customs to which they were respectively habitu- 

 ated.^ The two provinces were separated in respect to administration, 

 but their financial affairs were inevitably confused, because the bulk 

 of the imports of Lower Canada were destined for consumption in the 

 Upper province and the proportion of customs revenue which should 

 fall to each was a constant cause of controversy and a frequent 

 subject of readjustment. The separated provinces were reunited in 

 1840.^ 



114 Geo. Ill, c. 83. 



Hb., cl. VIII. 



^Ib., cl. I. 



^31 Geo. Ill, c. 31. 



Hb., cl. XLIII. 



*For the various drafts of the Constitutional Bill see Canadian Archives, Docu- 

 ments Relating to the Constitutional History of Canada, 175Q-17Q1, ed. Shortt and 

 Doughty. Ottawa, 1907. For account of the controversy see Sir C. P. Lucas, A 

 History of Canada, iy6j-i8i2. Oxford, 1909. 



'3 & 4 Vict., c. 35. 



