Charities, Manufactures, and Taxes: The Montreal Sisters of Providence Spruce Gum Syrup Case, 1876–78

Abstract

Abstract: Combining political, business, medical, and social history, this micro-historical study examines the cultural and ideological tensions that surfaced when Montreal's Sisters of Providence began marketing their spruce gum syrup throughout the province and beyond. The foray of a tax-free institution into the open marketplace challenged the liberal tenet of fair competition and ultimately represented a victory for conservative rights over the liberal order that historians claim dominated Quebec as well as the rest of Canada by the later nineteenth century.