Can geography explain Quebec's historical poverty?

Abstract

From the 19th century to the 1940s, Quebec remained poorer and less economically developed than the rest of Canada in general, and than Ontario in particular. This placed Quebec at the bottom of North American rankings of living standards. One prominent hypothesis for the initiation of this gap is tied to disparities in agricultural land quality. We formally test this hypothesis using newly available data for the mid‐19th century and find it holds little explanatory power. We further argue that poor institutions in Quebec, notably seigneurial tenure, were at the root of the development gap and that the effect of land quality on living standards was institutionally contingent.