The History of Montreal

by Paul-Andre Linteau

  On the island of Montreal, as elsewhere in the colony, rural settlements were divided into strips of long lots or ribbon farms, known as côtes on the island and rangs in other areas. A côte was a group of plots of land and homes, arranged one beside the other along the St. Lawrence or, inland, along a road of the same name as the côte. The road that led to each côte was known as a montée, even if the land was flat, as in Saint-Laurent. Long côtes were the basic social unit in the Montreal countryside, which boasted around thirty of them in 1731. Even though the Church created rural parishes, the côtes were still more common.

  As well as being the place where the fur trade was organized, Montreal became a hub for farming. This gave rise to a number of trades that, although modest at the start, grew throughout the eighteenth century. Agricultural surpluses sustained the town and began to be sent to markets at Quebec and Louisbourg. Montreal merchants took part in the business and sold farmers imported products they could not make themselves. This developed into a lucrative business, although curbed by the countryside’s sparse population (in the year of the Conquest in 1760, all of Canada still had no more than 60,000 inhabitants of French origin, too few to support a diversified economy).

  Artisanal production that developed in Montreal was mostly limited to local needs—construction, baking, sewing, tanning, shoe-repairs, and furniture making, along with stores for smiths, armourers, and coopers—although it was boosted by the demands of war.

  This explains why, under the French regime, Montreal remained a small town. But it was nonetheless a town, its space organized differently than the countryside. In 1672, Dollier de Casson, the superior of the Sulpicians, sought to impose some order on Montreal by marking out its streets. There were two main east-west thoroughfares—Saint-Paul and Notre-Dame—and a number of side streets. Most of these streets existed only on paper, but they were gradually opened in the decades to come, which means that, even today, a modern map of Old Montreal looks very much like a map from 1672. The town itself occupied a clearly defined area and was surrounded by fortifications from 1687 on. Toward 1730, the first suburbs, called faubourgs, began to spring up outside the wall, along the main thoroughfares.

  For many years, the town’s homes and main buildings were made from wood and often fell prey to fires, the scourge of pre-industrial towns. Montreal was not spared its share of blazes, which destroyed homes by the dozen, first in 1721 and 1734, then after the Conquest in 1765 and 1768. Various intendants decreed that new buildings within the town limits be made from stone, but many wooden buildings remained at the end of the French regime. In an effort to stop the flames spreading, firewalls went up, peeking out over the roofs of the houses, where sheet metal or slate had replaced cedar shingles.

  More modest homes had only one floor with an attic, but new stone homes built in the eighteenth century tended to have an extra floor. They had a gable roof and sometimes skylights. The basements of bigger buildings—those belonging to merchants, for instance—had vaults for storing goods. One such building was the former residence of Governor Claude de Ramezay, rebuilt in 1756 by the Compagnie des Indes, which used it as a store and warehouse. In the suburbs, most buildings were made from wood, a distinction that revealed a difference in social class since only the rich could afford stone homes. Gradually Montrealers from modest backgrounds set up home in the suburbs, increasingly leaving the town itself to the elites.

  The town was also home to the Hôtel-Dieu hospital, the seminary, and convents belonging to other religious orders, all with their own gardens. In the upper town, right at the centre of Rue Notre-Dame, stood the parish church, built in 1672, with a bell tower that dominated the skyline. Following the example of France’s small towns, Montreal had public squares of its own. Near the port, Place du Marché, the public marketplace, was the liveliest of the lot. That was where farmers gathered to sell their goods to the townspeople and where crowds formed to watch the punishments reserved for the condemned. The remains of the houses that ran alongside the square can still be seen today at the Pointe-à-Callière museum. A second square stood in the shadow of the church and would soon be surrounded by homes: Place d’Armes.

  There was no shortage of space in this little French town, and population was much less dense than in European centres of comparable size. Montrealers were not forced to live cheek by jowl, and the suburbs provided an outlet for expansion.

  A distinct society

  Montreal society was well organized. It was different in many ways to the population of Quebec, a trait that had been visible since its founding. After 1663, Montreal did lose some of the autonomy that had characterized its first 20 years of existence. The governor of Montreal became more closely bound to the authority of the governor general of New France and his role became a purely military one. The intendant, based at Quebec, took over responsibility for civilian matters, with a sub-delegate in Montreal. In many areas, royal justice replaced seigneurial justice. This loss of autonomy did not sit well with Montrealers, who had a tendency to resist orders sent from afar.

  Religious institutions also lost some of the autonomy they had previously enjoyed. The nomination of a first bishop at Quebec in 1658, Monseigneur de Laval, was a source of tension, although Montreal institutions did remain distinct from the religious orders at Quebec. The biggest organization in Montreal was the Saint-Sulpice seminary, at once the island’s seigneur and the entity responsible for the parish ministry. The seminary had a significant influence on the town’s development. Its responsibilities and seigneurial revenues made it an economic powerhouse, while it was also responsible for elementary schools for boys and helped the town’s religious works and charities in countless ways.

  The Hospitallers of St. Joseph, originally from La Flèche in France, succeeded Jeanne Mance as managers of the Hôtel-Dieu. Elementary education, both in the town and the surrounding countryside, was provided by the Congregation of Notre Dame. The congregation was founded by Marguerite Bourgeoys and went on to become the biggest religious order in New France.

  François Charon de La Barre founded the Frères hospitaliers de la Croix et de Saint-Joseph (the Hospitaller Brothers of the Cross and St. Joseph) and had the Hôpital général or general hospital built from 1692 to 1694. Despite its name, the hospital did not provide medical care, instead focusing on social services and providing shelter to the poor, the elderly, and the mentally ill. The religious order also taught boys for a time but it disappeared in 1747 and was replaced at the Hôpital général by the Sisters of Charity, more commonly known as the Grey Nuns. This community was established in 1737 by Marie-Marguerite Dufrost de Lajemmerais, widow of François d’Youville, with the aim of helping the poor.

  Montreal had formed and left its mark on each of these orders, most of whose members were born in Canada. The sole exception was the Seminary—an association of secular priests rather than a true religious order—which recruited only in France and kept close ties with its mother house in Paris. The bishops of New France attempted on several occasions to merge the religious orders of Montreal with those of Quebec, but resistance proved too strong and Montreal retained its distinct identity.

  At the end of the seventeenth century, two major religious orders joined the group. The Jesuits returned to Montreal after a hiatus that had lasted several decades. They set up home in the east of the town, while the Récollets, or Recollects, built their convent in the far west.

  With so many orders in the city, the Church was front and centre in Montreal life. Its institutions were an economic mainstay, with buildings to be constructed, land to be farmed, and revenue to be invested. The Church’s impact on local employment was considerable, its hold over the town itself, striking.

  The military aristocracy continued to be present around town and its members made a name for themselves by obtaining commissions as officers in the Troupes de la Marine. A handful of administrative and justice officers rounded out this elite. For their part, merchants still enjoyed a privileged status
and monopolized churchwarden positions. As the only civilians living in the town able to amass significant capital, they held more property than the average Montrealer, were waited on by servants, and owned slaves (most often enslaved Aboriginals from the Pawnee people in Western Canada, and sometimes Africans).

  Artisans and innkeepers were able to amass some capital and employ apprentices or servants. Their lives remained fairly modest, however, given the dearth of economic activity in the colony. Habitants—a term increasingly used to designate farmers—had left town to settle on land in the neighbouring countryside, where people lived frugally.

  The town had a good number of day labourers, who eked out a living in construction and transport. It was also a permanent home to soldiers, who spent most of their days drinking, gambling in taverns, and cavorting with prostitutes. They were the town’s biggest source of crime and disorder.

  In short, Montreal had a social hierarchy based on birth, trade, and money. The fur trade continued to be a way for people to get rich and even climb the social ladder. The call of the west and military expeditions led to frequent comings and goings and made Montreal feel like a frontier town: many of its men were constantly elsewhere, off in search of adventure, seeking fame and fortune.

  From the days of New France, many observers have stressed the differences in thinking between Montreal and Quebec City. In 1749, for example, Swedish traveller Pehr Kalm wrote that Quebec women were more preoccupied with their appearance whereas those in Montreal were more devoted to their housework. The differences were no doubt amplified by the constant rivalry between the towns, their elites, and their citizens. In other words, although its institutions and urban planning gave Montreal the look and feel of a typical French town, its growing role on the continent and the way of thinking of the people who lived there were already making it an increasingly North American town.

  CHAPTER 5

  Conquered

  1760–1800

  For the people of French origin living in Canada, the Conquest of 1760 had major consequences, the effects of which can still be felt today. It saw control of the country move into English hands and kicked off a new period of colonization that, in the long term, would lead to the original inhabitants becoming the minority. The first years of the British regime turned life in Montreal on its head, even though continuity with the French regime was significant in some areas.

  Growth of the fur trade

  In particular, Montreal retained its role as the hub of the fur trade until that trade disappeared from the city altogether in 1821.

  The fur trade was seriously disrupted by the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763), which is known in Quebec as La guerre de la Conquête and in the United States as the French and Indian War. The war in fact began in 1754 in North America but ended in 1760 when the Anglo-American troops took Montreal. Trade picked up again, however, after 1760, although the context had changed, as historian José Igartua has shown. The original Canadian merchants, cut off from their traditional ties with French suppliers, managed to obtain stock from the British. But competition had grown. The new people in power decreed freedom of trade, at a stroke rendering the trade permit system obsolete. Many newcomers, mainly British and American, set out in search of furs, sometimes with Canadian voyageurs, often going against traditional trade flows. Canadian merchants lost ground, disadvantaged because they had access neither to transportation contracts to the garrisons out west, nor to the system of patronage, which were reserved for the British. Many of them also lost a fortune because they held French paper money, never fully redeemed by the French crown after the Treaty of Paris. British merchants also found it easier to gather together the fairly considerable funds required for big westward expeditions. In the space of a few years, Canadian merchants found themselves being squeezed out by merchants from elsewhere, particularly Scots who had settled in Montreal.

  But it wasn’t all smooth sailing for the Scots either. Competition was fierce, and many fell by the wayside. After a few years, the likes of Frobisher, Henry, McGill, and McTavish were among the front-runners, becoming the beaver barons. Most of them had lived out west and had mastered the ins and outs of the trade.

  Realizing that unfettered competition increases expenses and reduces profits, they looked to join forces, founding the North West Company in 1779. Over the years, most Montreal merchants joined the company, along with traders who spent the winter out west. The company set up a single network of trading posts and improved the transportation system, offering stiffer resistance to competition from the Hudson’s Bay Company.

  As under the French regime, Montrealers scoured the continent in the quest for new land and furs. Alexander Mackenzie, for example, explored the river that now bears his name, reaching the Arctic Ocean in 1789 before crossing the Rocky Mountains and hitting the Pacific in 1793.

  At the start of the nineteenth century, the North West Company dominated the fur trade in British North America. It set up a dense network of trading posts that stretched all the way to the Pacific. Montreal pulled the strings, with merchants setting out from the town and furs passing through there en route to Great Britain. The company’s main partners grew very rich indeed and dominated Montreal society. In 1785, they began to meet regularly in the winter to feast at the Beaver Club.

  Some Montreal merchants did not belong to the association behind the North West Company and competed with it. They formed the XY Company in 1797, but after a few years of costly opposition, the North West Company swallowed up its rival in 1804.

  The rudest competition came from the Hudson’s Bay Company, however, which enjoyed lower transportation costs. After long being content with waiting for the Aboriginals at its posts on the shores of Hudson Bay, the company changed tack and decided it would also move inland. Hudson’s Bay Company posts were soon popping up all over the west, alongside North West Company posts. Competition grew keener and prices rose, a costly undertaking for both companies. The two companies started negotiating and then merged in 1821 in favour of the Hudson’s Bay Company.

  The North West Company disappeared, and Hudson Bay was now the focus of the fur trade. Montreal thereby lost the trading empire that had been its raison d’être for over a century and a half. It would be decades before its business elite would again set foot on the Canadian Prairies, this time in the very different context of settlers moving in with the railroad.

  Uncertain times

  But let’s shift our focus back to the town itself. From 1760 to 1764, Montreal was occupied by Anglo-American troops until a civilian government was set up. It was again occupied during the American War of Independence, this time for a few months by an American army in 1775–1776. Aside from this brief interlude, the town was home to a British garrison for close to a century, first in the east end of Montreal, then on Île Sainte-Hélène. But Montreal was no longer the key military post it had been for New France.

  The most striking change brought about by the Conquest was the takeover of the economy by a handful of English, Scottish, and American merchants who had arrived on the army’s coattails. Though few in number, these merchants were looking to play a key role in running the new British colony. They were against Catholics having access to official posts and called for English laws to be applied. The Royal Proclamation of 1763 satisfied them for the most part. Administrative posts were denied to Catholics unless they renounced their faith. Canada’s elites put pressure on Great Britain to change this policy that barred them from public life, in turn winning their cause with the Quebec Act of 1774. Catholics were henceforth on an equal footing with Protestants and French civil law applied in the Province of Quebec, which then included what is now southern Ontario and part of the future U.S. territory.

  Montreal’s British merchants clamoured for a legislative assembly to be created, as in the other English colonies. Some were even sympathetic to the demands of the American colonies and would take their side during the American War of Independence and the occupation of Montre
al in 1775–1776. The Americans tried to make Canadians more aware of their ideas while they occupied the town, but to no avail. This was the backdrop to the arrival from Philadelphia, and before that from France, of Fleury Mesplet, Montreal’s first printer. Mesplet stayed in Montreal after the invading troops had left and in 1778 founded La Gazette littéraire, the town’s first newspaper and ancestor of The Montreal Gazette.

  The decades that followed the Conquest were, for Montreal as in the rest of the country, uncertain, characterized by intense struggles between British merchants and Canadian elites and marked by the American Revolution—familiar themes in the history of Canada.

  In Montreal, the arrogance of British businessmen and their contempt for Canadians were a source of tension. For their part, the Canadian elites—particularly the religious authorities—displayed their loyalty to the British crown and sought support from the governor to counter the merchants’ policies.

  Since they were no more than a minority, the British had to adapt to life in the town. They had to use French as they went about their day-to-day business with locals; many married Canadians; fur traders, at least at the start, teamed up with Canadian voyageurs who knew all about the fur trade from their time out west and also were skilled at negotiating with the Aboriginal peoples. In other words, the elites did intermingle to a certain extent, even though they remained distinct in many ways. In the other echelons of society—among the artisans, day labourers, and habitants—not much changed and the population of Montreal was far and away of French origin.