
Power and Subsistence
The Political Economy of Grain in New France
Louise Dechene(Author)
McGill-Queen's University Press
3rd Edition
Published on 30. November 2018
Book
Paperback/Softback
288 pages
978-0-7735-5491-7 (ISBN)
Description
Subsistence crops - the grains and other food items necessary to a people's survival - were a central preoccupation of the early modern state. In New France, the principal crop in question was wheat, and its production, consumption, exchange, and regulation were matters to which the government devoted sustained attention. Power and Subsistence examines the official measures taken to regulate the grain economy in New France, the frequency and nature of state interventions in the system, and the responses these actions provoked. Drawing on social and political perspectives and methodologies, this book brings rural and agricultural history into conversation with colonial political economy. Louise Dechene shows that unlike in early eighteenth-century France, where the marketplace dominated and trade was transparent, the grain economy in New France was hypercentralized and government measures were increasingly harsh. Attentive to the conflicts arising between producers, merchants, consumers, and colonial administrators over the allocation of the harvest, Dechene offers a revealing perspective on the operation of political power in a colonial setting. Lively, elegant, and wry, Power and Subsistence provides insight into the last era of French rule in North America - and, in part, how that era came to an end.
Reviews / Votes
"Le partage des subsistances au Canada sous le Regime francais, a pioneering work on the regulation of grain supply and distribution in New France, shaped the field in its original form. This translation - an important addition to English-language historiography in New France - is crucial to understanding the evolution of state-society relations and forms of authority in Canada over time." Helen Dewar, Universite de MontrealMore details
Series
Edition
3rd edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Montreal
Canada
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Illustrations
11 tables, 1 map
Dimensions
Height: 226 mm
Width: 150 mm
Thickness: 23 mm
Weight
386 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7735-5491-7 (9780773554917)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
11/2018
1st Edition
De Gruyter
€34.49
Available for download
Person
Louise Dechene (1928-2000) was a professor in the Department of History at McGill University and author of Habitants and Merchants in Seventeenth-Century Montreal. Peter Feldstein is a Montreal-based translator and interpreter and the laureate of the 2014 Governor General's Literary Award for English translation.