Lévis merchants know that a significant part of their clientele comes not only from Lévis, but from the surrounding areas: Côte-du-Sud, Bellechasse, Beauce and Lotbinière. These trade trips took place over a long period of time and gave rise to a “bizarreness” in the 19th century.
By Claude Genest
In 2011, historian Catherine Objois presented to the Lévis public a first synthesis of Lévis economic history. It was a difficult writing project to cover the history of the Levisian economy from its origins. This intellectual work was carried out brilliantly, which does not mean, however, that the subject is closed. In short, there is still ample room for research, because, as historians know, history is never definitive.
In addition to Ms. Objois’ book entitled The Economic History of Lévis 1636-2011, important milestones in industrial, commercial and financial history have over time been the subject of in-depth research. I am thinking here of shipbuilding, particularly through the work of the British-born historian Eileen Reid Marcil, or the numerous books on the cooperative financial epic of the Desjardins Movement.
And what about retail in all this? The contemporary walker, generally in a car, sees a number of stores and services of all categories pass before his eyes. Without really realizing it, everything is part of a long tradition.
In addition to the exchanges that took place during the time of the First Nations, it was truly in the 19th century that Lévis developed its reputation as a commercial place. An attentive observer of this period, Joseph-Edmond Roy (1858-1913) wrote interesting descriptions of the emerging commercial activity, notably in a short biography of a great merchant from Lévis, the honorable George Couture (1824-1887). .
The crossroads of Saint-Georges and Côte du Passage, also known as the “four paths”, is the place where “all the inhabitants of the interior” passed on their way to Quebec. According to Roy, there are, among other things, “fruits, barley sugar, small spruce beer” and more.
For JE Roy, a particularity of the commercial area of the time did not fail to strike the visitor’s curiosity. Here’s what he says.
“The foreigner who visits Lévis, for the first time, always expresses his astonishment at seeing that a slope as steep as the Passage coast has been chosen for the commercial artery of a city. The nature of the land, in fact, does not lend itself well to the unloading of stocks and trade.” This “oddity” results, according to him, from the fact that this artery “was the only route to get to the St. Lawrence River. This is where all the inhabitants of the interior had to pass on their way to the Quebec market. Many peasants coming from Beauce passed through there and the whole thing gave rise to “improvised fairs” and the passing merchants, according to Roy, “asked nothing better than to sell their goods and avoid each other the trouble of a boring crossing.
In a nod to history, the current office of the Journal de Lévis is located decades later exactly on the outskirts of the old “four paths”.
