We are still able to visit today many central markets and old marketplaces that have been part of an old Quebec tradition. These sites were the subject of a doctoral thesis in ethnology, on which this article is based.
Consideration of the phenomenon of public markets in general leads one to ask why they have survived for so long- or, rather, how has a form of commercial activity, apparently so archaic, been able to survive? How, further-more, can one explain the success currently being enjoyed by the modern, privately-owned markets? This article attempts to explore the reasons behind the persistence of the public market in Quebec both as an architectural entity and as an institution in its own right.
Although direct observation of extant mate-rial sources provides most of the basis for the research, it was necessary to undertake a his-torical enquiry in order to gain a better appre-ciation of the evolution of the public market. The author also discusses the establishment in Quebec of the first marketplaces and the first central markets. An examination of municipal by-laws convinced the author that, during the seventeenth as well as the nineteenth centuries, markets were more than mere buildings where articles for consumption changed hands; they were also areas where the life of the city was played out to the full.
Résumé
Il existe encore aujourd'hui au Québec de nom-breuses halles et anciennes places de marché qui témoignent d'une longue tradition. Elles ont fait l'objet d'une thèse de doctorat en ethnologie dont est tiré cet article.
Lorsqu'on observe le phénomène des mar-chés publics dans son ensemble, on se demande d'abord ce qui explique leur persistance dans le temps : comment une forme de commerce en apparence si archaïque peut-elle survivre? Comment par ailleurs peut-on expliquer le succès que connaissent maintenant les nou-velles halles privées? Cet article pose la ques-tion de la survivance des marchés publics au plan architectural et institutionnel au Québec.
Bien que l'essentiel de la recherche repose sur l'observation directe des témoins matériels, il a fallu remonter dans le temps pour mieux saisir le développement des marchés publics. L'auteur rend ainsi compte de l'apparition au Québec des premières places de marché et des premières halles. En s'appuyant sur l'étude de règlements municipaux, il constate qu'au XVIIe siècle comme au XIXe, les marchés étaient plus que de simples édifices où se transigeaient des biens de consommation, ils étaient aussi des places publiques où se vivait intensément la vie urbaine.
