Economy and Settlement

Geographic Distribution of Economic Activities

• Four main regional pillars: resources, central, National Capital, Montreal and Laval
• Resources region: processing and exporting
• Central region: manufacturing and services
• National Capital and Montreal and Laval: dealing with urban sectors and tertiary sector

The Role of Business

• Private businesses is core of Quebec's economy
• 75% of population work in private businesses
• Small and medium-sized enterprises make up most of private businesses

The Importance of Exports

• Quebec exports +$150 billion of goods and services
• About 60% of 53.3% of its production are transported to different countries
• Around 30% of its employment connected to exports
• Majority of exports center in industries belong in secondary sector (processing metal, making transportation parts, etc.

Exporting Issues

• Searching for opportunities with foreign countries to make commercial partners
• Making agreements, constructing foreign-based economic missions while making protogés
• Competing against rival businesses with low pay and environment laws aren't being forced upon
• Quebec tries to level up the plain field with technology, good, and service
• Invest in its research and development field and increase training newcomers

Employment and Unemployment

• Satisfactory economic so unemployment is relatively low
• The unemployment affects all of society
• Government helps raise up employment, they in return don't waste goods
• Quebec's unemployment is 10% less than Gaspesie-Iles-de-la-Madeleine
• Education is an important aspect in employment. Higher education, better jobs and less unemployment

Population Since Confederation 2

Population Distribution In The Province
   During the late 20th century, people started to leave the farmlands as the industrious age started expanding. Now eighty percent of the Quebec's population started to live in the cities. Throughout the years, people just kept on departing the rural areas to have a better life. Also, the city dwellers who preferred to have a life that has more quality and relaxing, they moved into the suburbs. Now most of the fertile lands were used for houses in the suburbs.

Development Of The Regions
   Throughout that period of time, the government was trying to not just attract more immigrants, but to keep others from emigrating. They started opening up lands for the people to make a nice living with the opportunity to grow some products. Thus the population in Saguenay Lac St. Jean, Bas St. Laurent, and Temiscamingue with the Laurentians and Abitibi started to increase during the 19th century. Even during the economic crisis in the 1930s, Quebec was open to all unemployed people to live in any land they want. Then after the second World War, Quebec started to focus more on the natural resources such as mining and hydroelectricity. The hydroelectric work sites were Nord-du-Quebec and Cote-Nord. Abitibi-Temiscamingue and Gaspesie were where they took care of the mining.

Population Since Confederation

French Canadian Emigration
   There was an amazing exodus that happened between 1870 and 1930. Quebec, you can say, was going through a hard time. So ever since the construction of the first trans-Canada railroad, they started departing from Quebec more often. Some of them traveled to different province, but many of them immigrated to New England in the United States. Day by day Quebec's number of immigration was diminishing. It came to a point that 10% of its own population left. About 700,000 French Canadians emigrated to New England from 1870-1930. Then, in the 1930s, there was the Great Depression, which shutdown the coming of new immigrants and departing of all new emigrants.

Immigration Diversification
   From the birth of the Canadian, in 1867, the government lead by John Macdonald, they started to discuss each other about how they're going to either establish an immigration policy that'll either be open or close to all. Then from the end of the 19th century, the government accepted many nations. Most of them came from eastern Europe and Great Britain. It literally brought so many immigrants up to 4,600,000 of them. Then from the 1920s during the Depression and World War II, Canada started to become selective with their immigration. Even though after the World War II they opened the immigration policy again, they were still very selective with the nations. They mostly accepted people from Great Britain, France, and Italy immigrated to Canada. Some of them escaped persecution, the catastrophe of the two world wars, and the improper balance of the political aspect and poverty. Throughout the time, Quebec were more picky when it came to choosing people. In the effort of keeping the French language, they only accepted people who are francophone.

Relationship With Natives
   Their relationship with the Natives wasn't truly a cooperative one. Though there was the Indian Act, which said that they could stay in their property, there was still a lack of respect from the Canadians. There were times when they also they make land negotiations without consulting the Natives when it involved their lands. The Natives made demonstrations to prove a point that they're also human. So throughout the years, the relationship between them have been getting better.

Life Expectancy
   The life expectancy back then was very low. In other words, mortality was very high. They didn't really know about germs so everything was used either multiple times or just let things lie around. People were catching diseases that today are easily pushed out. So throughout the years in the 19th century, they started making vaccines to fight those diseases. Since it was an experimental project, people were paid to try them out. People died during those early times through milk as well because it wasn't pasteurized. Then starting from the 20th century, the health of the people increased. From then on until now, they have one of the most highest life expectancy ever.

Evolution of the Birth Rate
   Unlike Canada\s other provinces, Quebec was basically a baby-making province. At the end of the 19th century, there was such an increase in the birth rate, especially in the countryside. The main reason was for making more farmers in the farming business. But during the beginning of the 20th century, the birth rate decreased because of the industrialization and cities were becoming more come. Then from 1945 to 1960, there was a major baby boom period. Thousands of babies kept coming out. However, ever since the knowledge of controlling the birth of children, the birth rate just decreased tremendously.

How The Population Diversified Under British Rule

The Merchants

   The merchants changed the aspect of the trading business. They were the British and Scottish who were attracted into the fur business. They became administrators and started bring people into the country of New France to expand the business.

The Loyalists

   The Loyalists were basically refugees from the United States who fled because they were still loyal to Britain. Some of them fled to Quebec who remade the territory. Most of them were farmers who settled in the Gaspésie, Sorel, and the St. Lawrence River. Then they transformed the cities into townships called the Eastern Townships.

Increase From 1815
   After the war against the French, the British witnessed many amounts of problems. The population increased tremendously, thus unemployment increased as well. There were almost habitual outbreaks of famines and epidemics. So the British government encouraged the people to emigrate to its colonies. One of them included Canada. The people who emigrated there were the Irish, Scottish, and English. They kept coming in until the beginning of the 20th century. They settled in places such as Quebec City, Montreal, the Eastern Townships, Outaouais, Gaspésie, and on the south shore of Montreal. Thus creating a whole new breed of people living in Canada.

Great Britain's Immigrants Policies
   Because of the emigration of its people, the British government started funding for their settlements in Canada. It lasted for ten years because it started to be too costly. So then throughout the time, there were private companies who started to publicize Canada. They started to advertise and attract immigrants to certain places. Thus, the government didn't take care of the migration inside Canada; it was considered an internal migration. This made Canada population increase as they kept spreading.

Contagious Diseases
   Though the immigration was aiding the population for the British, it caused such negative and devastating consequences such as the spreading of contagious diseases. In the 1830s, the British brought cholera. At that time it was a deadly disease due to primitive thinking of vaccines and preventive treatments. In 1832 alone, Quebec City lost more than 3,000 people. That amount was 10% to 15% of the country's population. They had to them in quarantine in Grosee-Ile, which was 48 kilometers away from Canada. However, sadly, it didn't end the diseases and the epidemic outbreaks.

Grosse-Ile
   Like i mentioned from last my paragraph, Grosse-Ile was a placed where the extremely people stayed. They were put there to be examined, but because of the lack of medical knowledge, they were just left to die. Many of them were Irish who fled from Ireland because of the potato famine. 90,000 people, mainly Irish, died because of the cholera epidemic disease. Since the ships were unsanitary, they didn't have the immunity system to fight it. Another disease, called the typhoid, killed 8,000 people.

Religious Diversification
   Because of the British regime, the majority of the people were either Protestant or Jewish. Some of the British, mainly the Irish, were Catholic. Out of all the people who came from Britain, the Irish were the immigrants who came the most. Due to the fact that they were Catholic, they mostly inhabited in the French community.

The French Canadian Population
   The French Canadian population was there, but scarcely. They were mostly put in a corner, Quebec, and lived there amongst themselves. They were truly part of the minority category because of the British people. Though they are minority, the Irish also integrated with the French because of their common religion. Besides that, there was nothing else that could be taken care of.

The Native Population
   Surprisingly, they were truly a nationality that started having less affect on the country bit by bit. There were Natives, but they were mostly kicked out of the territory the British were in. During the British regime, it seemed as if they weren't diversifying, but they were disappearing.

Population and Settlement French Regime: The Settlement of Canada

   The development of the population of the French was very slow and low and because people weren't really fond of going to a place that's practically life threatening. Some of the dangers included crossing the Atlantic, winter's harsh cold, or the harassment of the Iroquois. There weren't really any forms of attraction to the desolate place. Many of the immigrants that traveled to New France were just men who came mainly for business or to aid in the battles with the Iroquois. Some of the men came with their spouses to aid in the population growth. Even the religious societies made young girls marry men by the hundreds. But it wasn't enough for New France to make it grow. New France had more than 3,000 people, but about 1,850 people were immigrants while the rest were natives.

   So the king of France, out of the advice of his finance minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert, started to make a plan to cause a huge multiplication in the colonies in New France. the king sets up intendants in this new project he is in the process of making. Jean Talon, the first intendant, put his focus on making the women, craftsmen, merchants, farmers, many other beneficial people to be more attracted to New France and making it more populated. So he made three parts in the project of making New France population vast: indentured servants or engagés, soldiers, and Les Filles du Roy.

   The engagés were people who were apprentices in occupations like woodworking, building, ship transporting, clothing and textile crafting, and working on the blacksmith art. They were very inexperienced so they would usually be hired by employers and be given a deal to be under their rule for thirty-six months. Then when it's done, they'll be in the degree of a "master craftsmen." Since it was hard to find a job in the French region at the state, so they would be sent to New France with a large amount of money and the state of a seigneury.

   The soldiers were in charge of containing the Iroquois from destroying the settlements. They are given much respect and power in what they do. They were paid to an extreme amount. They had many possessions of land. The higher ranking soldiers were given a seigneury. They were given high values from the people because they were the one that protected the colony when needed.

   The Filles du Roy who were women who the king encouraged to get married and go to New France. They were mostly orphans and other young single women that the king chose. The king would gave them a dowry and fifty livres to help in her stay in New France. Since was a numerous amount of men, they could choose any one they so desire. They preferred men who had an employment with a nice house. Because of the immigration of all those women there was 4,450 children already born.

   Because of those plans people started to become more attracted to New France. The land was affordable with the economy being more stable. The fur trade became more profitable. Many people even in the military retired for the commercial business. It was truly a huge breakthrough at that time.

   Seeing how the people were slacking off with producing more people, Jean Talon started to make laws. He lowered taxes for new families with babies. The more babies they had, the lesser the taxes they were. If anybody didn't have babies at a period of times, they'd receive really expensive fines. They helped with the payment of houses and land. He made sure that people got married and impregnated. There would be for just as a minimum nine children in a family. Because of that the birthrate was risen up to a high level. It was recorded as one of the most highest birthrate in the world. The population of New France raised up to the thousands in just one century.