Introduction

By 1850 Montreal was already two hundred years old. A business metropolis and major port, it was the biggest city in British North America. It was about to embark on a new chapter in its history that would transform it into the largest industrial centre in the new nation of Canada. Its population and landscape would be permanently altered by the forces unleashed by the process of industrialization.

N.B. The commentary for this tour is a slightly modified version of Chapter 7 of Paul-André Linteau's book Brève histoire de Montréal (Montreal: Boréal, 1992), pp. 75-87.