No Wheat Crisis: Agricultural Trade Liberalization in Quebec during the 1830s and 1840s

25 Pages Posted: 10 Jan 2022 Last revised: 28 Jan 2022

See all articles by Vincent Geloso

Vincent Geloso

George Mason University - Department of Economics

Alicia Plemmons

West Virginia University

Andrew Thomas

George Mason University - Center for Study of Public Choice

Date Written: January 7, 2022

Abstract

In the first half of the nineteenth century, the wheat oriented agrarian economy of Lower Canada (the French-speaking modern-day province of Quebec) saw a rapid collapse in wheat production dubbed the “wheat crisis.” In a single decade, Quebec went from being an exporter of wheat to an importer. Given that Quebec was an agrarian economy, this collapse of wheat exports has been used to infer falling living standards in the colony during the period. These developments have been blamed on many factors ranging from soil exhaustion to cultural conservatism among French-Canadian farmers. In this paper, we provide evidence suggesting this rapid collapse was largely the result of adjustment to the trade shock that followed the Colonial Trade Act of 1831 (a unilateral liberalization of the entry of agricultural goods from the United States) and a rapid reduction in freight costs between the Canadian colonies. We find that areas that were more exposed to external markets—as proxied by road access—shifted away from wheat production. We provide supportive evidence that this was welfare-enhancing.

Keywords: Trade shock, economic history; Canada; Quebec; wheat

JEL Classification: Q17, N51, N71

Suggested Citation

Geloso, Vincent and Plemmons, Alicia and Thomas, Andrew, No Wheat Crisis: Agricultural Trade Liberalization in Quebec during the 1830s and 1840s (January 7, 2022). GMU Working Paper in Economics No. 22-05, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4003662 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4003662

Vincent Geloso (Contact Author)

George Mason University - Department of Economics ( email )

4400 University Drive
Fairfax, VA 22030
United States

Alicia Plemmons

West Virginia University ( email )

P.O. Box 6025
Morgantown, WV 26506
United States

Andrew Thomas

George Mason University - Center for Study of Public Choice

MSN 1d3 Carow Hall
4400 University
Fairfax, VA 22030
United States

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