ABSTRACT
After the proclamation of the Quebec Act in 1774, “French” civil law was preserved in the colony, but its authority remained contested by a group of English-speaking subjects who campaigned for the repeal of the Act. One of the central aims of this chapter is to explain why, given the vociferous campaign on behalf of English commercial law, it was not introduced into the colony. The answer lies with the marital economy within the colony. Even though the Court of Common Pleas at first reversed the tenets of the Coutume de Paris, over time they validated the notion of tacit authorization, making it easier for wives to function as active economic players in the colony. As this chapter illustrates, not only did ordinary litigants deftly exploit the interstices between two legal regimes in order to evade their creditors but legal officials quietly endorsed the continuation of the Coutume because it was seen to facilitate commercial growth in the colony.
