Élites, entrepreneurship et conflits de pouvoir au Saguenay (1890-1920)

Abstract

During the second half of the nineteenth century, the Saguenay region (and particularly the Haut-Saguenay) experienced a near monopoly of its large lumber industry under the Price family. From the 1890s, however, a young generation of francophone businessmen and professionals (among them J.-E.-A. Dubuc) were determined to break this monopoly and to assert themselves in the economic sphere. Their initiatives as entrepreneurs fostered a veritable utopia in which the Saguenay would develop into a new province (if not a new country), thanks to modern industry, entrepreneurship, and progress in keeping with the American way. The period of activity that followed was characterized by major economic, social, and cultural change. Individuals, classes, and institutions with opposing interests were placed head to head. The result was a series of violent conflicts that preoccupied the municipal council, the press, the courts, and the political sphere at both the provincial and the federal levels.