Banking on Quebec: The French Banks and the Mobilization of French Funds, 1835-1925

Abstract

Banks not only were capable of influencing the economy; they also were influenced by the environment in which they operated. For those banks largely controlled and run by French speakers, Quebec was the focus of operations. The affairs of these banks were strongly influenced by the growth of the pool of savings that existed within the province’s French-speaking population. Having failed to make a dent in the English-Canadian capital market, none of these banks was able to be a major player in the Canadian economy. At the same time. however, The linguistic fragmentation of the capital market permitted two of these relatively small banks to survive until the mid-1920s, while English banks of a similar size disappeared.