No wheat crisis: trade liberalization and transportation innovation in Quebec during the 1830s and 1840s.

The article examines the sharp decline in wheat production in nineteenth-century Quebec, attributing it primarily to a trade shock triggered by the Colonial Trade Act of 1831 and significant reductions in intercolonial transportation costs. These changes facilitated the influx of cheaper American and Ontarian wheat into Quebec markets, prompting farmers in more market-exposed areas—measured by road access and travel costs—to shift away from wheat toward other crops and industries such as timber and shipbuilding. Empirical analysis using census and geographic data from 1831 and 1851 shows that this structural adjustment was associated with increased production of alternative crops and net income gains, suggesting that the decline in wheat farming did not correspond to falling living standards. The findings challenge the traditional narrative of a prolonged agricultural crisis in Quebec and instead indicate modest economic growth linked to trade liberalization and improved market integration.