The First Phase of Industrialization

Industrialization came late to Quebec in the last third of the 19 th century. There was a change in the old style where skilled craftsmen used slow and costly methods to produce goods. Now many factories were built. They employed cheap, unskilled labour to operate machinery that mass produced goods quickly at low cost.

Several factors encouraged industrialization in Quebec. People moving to the cities from rural areas and immigrants arriving from Europe provided plenty of cheap labour. The St Lawrence River, the canals and the new railways formed a good transportation system. Raw materials such as wood, leather and farm products were plentiful.

There were entrepreneurs, mostly English speaking with capital to invest. The rivers and the Lachine Canal provided water power for machinery. The new Dominion of Canada provided an enlarged internal market. The increased tariffs due to National Policy protected the new industries from foreign competition.

The new industries were usually small establishments. They employed mostly cheap, unskilled workers. Often managers were English speaking while the workers were immigrants and Canadian born Francophones. Many factories were located beside a railway line.

Over half the new industries were in Montreal in Hochelaga, Saint-Henri, or in surrounding towns of Valleyfield, Saint-Jean, and Saint-Hayacinthe. Some industries were located around Quebec City and in the Eastern Townships at Sherbrooke, Magog, and Coaticook.

The Early manufacturing industries mostly produced consumer goods. Example are Food processing: flour milling, sugar refining, meat packing, brewing, butter, cheese. Leather: tanning, boots and shoes Textiles: Spinning and weaving, clothing (some clothing was made by women and children working in sweat shops)

Tobacco: cigars, cigarettes, chewing tobacco. Some industries produced capital goods such as: Transportation equipment: engines, rolling stock, bridges, rails for the railways. Metal working: machinery and tools of many kinds. Wood: pulp and paper mills, furniture.

Capitalism Wealthy merchants, owners of large companies and some politicians had necessary capital to acquire the means of production. They invested in constructing factories and establishing new industries, where the production of goods by a large number of workers under their control guaranteed wealth: this is called industrial capitalism.

Migration and Urbanization

A huge work force had to be mobilized in order to industrialize the country and construct the transportation network. This provoked population movements in which waves of immigration and emigration intersected.

New immigrants most of them from Great Britain, came to the British North American colonies in the second half of the 19 th century. This wave of immigration had very little effect on over- population growth, because at the same time French Canadian farmers and workers were leaving the St Lawrence valley’s agricultural land which was overpopulated at the time.

Drawn by thriving industry they moved to the cities of northeastern United States. Between 1850 and 1890 more than French Canadians went to work in the United States. The Catholic clergy and the government joined forces to slow the exodus.

They formed societies to open new areas to colonization and offered land to encourage French Canadians to move to new areas.