Just as Montréal was developing rapidly, its economy received a major shock. In 1846, London abolished preferential tariffs and embraced free trade. The end of the Corn Laws, which had guaranteed a market for Canadian grain, deprived Montréal merchants of steady income and forced them into harsher international competition.

The paradox was striking: as the port expanded and the city established itself as a commercial hub, wages stayed low while property prices soared. In the downtown quarter bustling with activity, many buildings nonetheless remained empty. Montréal thus combined apparent prosperity with economic fragility.

Two pitchers, recovered from the rubble of the Parliament building after it was burned in 1849, bear the likenesses of Richard Cobden (left), a British Liberal MP, and Sir Robert Peel (right), a Tory prime minister—the two architects of this political measure. Made in Great Britain, the pitchers commemorated the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846.

But their presence in Montréal is puzzling: who would have celebrated a measure that directly undermined colonial trade? In the Province of Canada, the press was already denouncing this “free-trade catastrophe.” Flour millers, merchants, grain carriers and even Upper Canadian farmers were feeling the effects. In Montréal, resentment toward London was at its peak. The business community would not forget.