In the first half of the nineteenth century, the wheat oriented agrarian economy of Lower Canada saw a rapid collapse in wheat production. These developments have been blamed on factors ranging from soil exhaustion to cultural conservatism and used to infer falling living standards in the colony. We provide evidence suggesting this collapse was largely the result of adjustment to the trade shock that followed the Colonial Trade Act of 1831 and a rapid reduction in freight costs between the Canadian colonies. Areas more exposed to external markets—as proxied by road access—shifted away from wheat production.

中文翻译：

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没有小麦危机：1830 年代和 1840 年代魁北克的贸易自由化和运输创新

十九世纪上半叶，下加拿大以小麦为主导的农业经济见证了小麦产量的迅速崩溃。这些发展被归咎于从土壤枯竭到文化保守主义等各种因素，并被用来推断殖民地生活水平的下降。我们提供的证据表明，这种崩溃主要是对 1831 年《殖民地贸易法》之后的贸易冲击进行调整以及加拿大殖民地之间货运成本迅速下降的结果。更容易受到外部市场影响的地区（以道路通道为代表）不再生产小麦。