THE REGRESSIVE EFFECTS OF LATE 18TH CENTURY BRITISH COLONIAL POLICY ON LAND DEVELOPMENT ALONG THE UPPER ST. LAWRENCE RIVER

Abstract

D ~ URING the early decades of the 19th century, sharp contrasts existed in the land development of the Canadian and American sides of the upper St. Lawrence River.' Covered with extensive bush, with straggling villages and roads impossible to manage, the Canadian landscape still exhibited a backward frontier quality which was fast disappearing from the American scene. That such a divergence should have occurred was striking, considering that settlement had taken place along the Canadian bank of the river at least a decade earlier than along the American. Not only that, but the Canadian settlements fronted the main and only gateway to British North America, whereas for the American communities the river was no more than a frequently inconvenient back door. A number of early 19th century travelers who passed through the St. Lawrence lowland were impressed with the evidence that indicated slower material progress on the Canadian side, recording in their notebooks numerous examples which caught their attention. Contemporary impressions and observations are confirmed by the census materials for 1835,3 the first year for which some comparable statistical data are available. Canadian settlement and development, above all, showed a spatially uneven rate of growth. Although the population density averaged about 22 persons per square mile, it fell as low as one per square mile or less in some interior areas. In general, the average density was about 14 persons less per square mile than on the American side. It is unlikely, too, that improved land on the Canadian side reached 15 per cent of the total area, whereas across the St. Lawrence at least 20 per cent of the land had been improved. On the two sides of the river, agriculture in all its basic aspects was similiar; yet, the Canadian economy still retained many of the characteristics of subsistence while the raising of livestock for sale reached con-