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History General

In Its Corporate Capacity

The Seminary of Montreal as a Business Institution, 1816-1876

by (author) Brian Young

Publisher
McGill-Queen's University Press
Initial publish date
Aug 1986
Category
General, Clergy
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780773505544
    Publish Date
    Aug 1986
    List Price
    $110.00
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9780773561090
    Publish Date
    Aug 1986
    List Price
    $110.00

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Description

The end of the Lower Canada rebellions of 1837-8 assured the survival of the Seminary. Assuming a reinforced social and ideological role in industrializing Montreal, the Seminary benefited from new corporate powers, rights of recruitment, and income, while its expanding social role ensured its protection by an appreciate bourgeoisie. Emphasizing economic rather than religious history, Brian Young's study compares the Seminary's pre-industrial forms of income to its new capitalist revenues from land sales, subdivision developments, bonds, and rentier income from office, warehousing, and urban-housing properties. Its changing income required new forms of management and the priest-manager was eventually assisted by an accountant, architect, surveyor, clerk, and several notaries and lawyers. The Seminary played a central role in the development of popular schools in Montreal, and in financing and directing social institutions such as hospitals, newspapers, libraries, and national societies, the Seminary of Montreal legitimized the changing class structure of industrializing Montreal.

About the author

Brian Young is professor emeritus of history at McGill University and the author and co-author of several books including, with John Dickinson, A Short History of Quebec, now in its fourth edition.

Brian Young's profile page