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In Quebec, in the years
following 1806 – when Napoleon’s continental
blockade cut off England from its sources of
supplies – the French-Canadian majority lived to
the rhythm of agrarian ruralism against a
background of forestry. In relation to the latter,
historians Hamelin and Roby wrote : «With the
exception of the plains of Montreal, Quebec [in
the 1870s, before as well as after] is covered
with logging camps.»*
This emergence of the
commerce of wood in the rural economy would
support colonization by providing a secondary
income to the peasant and by creating a market for
his agricultural products – giving importance to
income from forestry that will be measured in the
private papers of Ludger Larabie (1905-1991). The
relationship between the forest economy and the
creation of a local market will be studied from
archival documents of a great forest products
industry : Spruce Falls of Kapuskasing.
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Hauling
wood in the forest |
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The upheavals are
great! The technological transformation in
forestry activities changes things considerably.
The introduction of mechanized transport – as
opposed to the use of draft animals – transforms
the development of the forest estate and has
repercussions on the settler himself. How does
mechanization accelerate the move towards wage
earning by rural dwellers and how does it give
effect to a practice that will become generalized,
that of jobbers? We will attempt to provide
elements of an answer to these questions as
well.
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Near
the end of the thirties, the construction of a
pole-track system, served as transport for
supplies to the bush camps, the river drive, and
the workers themselves. It facilitated even
further development of remote forest areas.
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*Jean Hamelin and Yves
Roby, Histoire économique du Québec, 1851-1896,
p.219 |
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