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The Economic Impact of the Seigniorial Tenure in Early Canada

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Lessons from a Successfully Export-Oriented, Resource-Rich Economy

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Abstract

Newly developed data sets reveal that the seigneurial system of land tenure modified the distribution of income in early Canada or New France. This changed the structure of demand, and thus the pattern of investment, probably reducing total output of the colony from what it otherwise might have been. This contravenes the romantic narrative that prior to conquest of New France in 1763 the state protecting the peasant from excessive seigniorial exactions. I find that seigniorial institutions measurably reduced the favourable bargaining position of the peasant by imposing levies that retarded the economic development of the colony, even though the peasants retained a rising portion of their economic surplus. Without seigniorial dues, New France would probably have produced more artisan and agricultural goods generated increasing returns to scale and fostering further economic development.

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  1. School of Business, University of Dundee, Dundee, Scotland, UK

    Morris Altman

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Altman, M. (2022). The Economic Impact of the Seigniorial Tenure in Early Canada. In: Lessons from a Successfully Export-Oriented, Resource-Rich Economy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-03887-7_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-03887-7_4

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

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