The chart, taken from an English-Catholic (read: Irish) Montreal paper called The Truth Witness and Catholic Chronicle, suggested that the French-speaking population owned a lot more businesses than the English-Irish-Scots and other ethnic groups.
Local mythology has it that the English and other immigrants were the motors of the entrepreneurial spirit here in Montreal, as the French took jobs in the government bureaucracy and such professions as law.
But the idea that English built this town through their capitalistic and commercial ingenuity isn't backed up by this table (click on it to see it bigger), which suggests that the French dominated small businesses in Montreal at the time.
For example, it reports that French-names were seen on 106 hotel permits versus only 6 for the English in Montreal.
When it came to restaurants, the French had 147, compared to 26 for the English and 45 for Irish and 12 for the Scottish, with only 5 run by Montrealers from other ethnic backgrounds, so you just know that our restaurants couldn't have been too hot in the 1880s.
The argument suggests that the French were being favoured in the handing-out of permits, but there's no real evidence supporting that.
The chart is said to be from the May and June 1883 reports from The Collector of Provincial Revenue. Presumably the newspaper staff decided which names would go into which ethnic category.
Coordination of surnames with ethnic identity (nevermind actual genetic background) seems a sketchy endeavor. Especially in a city - where so much overlap occurs.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't take away from the curiosity of the document, though.
One obscure document does not represent the big picture of how a city--any city--has developed over time.
ReplyDeleteAs a wise man once said: "There are lies, damned lies, and...statistics."
Thought you'd like this (having trouble posting this comment - sorry if this is a double!!) Cheers.
ReplyDeletehttp://dcmontreal.wordpress.com/2012/09/25/some-of-montreals-street-level-history-is-it-accurate/
Interesting that way back in 1883, the English minority as well as the French majority felt unfairly treated.
ReplyDeleteI think the idea is that the English (more accurately, the Scots) "built" Montreal by bringing in the big industries. The factories, foundaries, banks, all that Lachine Canal stuff, etc. All the big robber-baron stuff. The hotels and haberdasheries and deps and stuff like aren't what "built" the city; they're the mushrooms that grew up around the oak trees, so to speak.
ReplyDeleteWell it's well known that the Decarie family was one of the biggest and entrepreneurial family in Montreal with the Maisonneuve family. But, there was a lot of marriages between Decarie and irish and/or scottish families. So, like they say in french "c'est à prendre avec des pincettes". By the way I have few documents about this. I'm a Chapman but half of my ancesters were Decarie so are few cousins.
ReplyDelete