Brian Gettler

Brian Gettler, “The Vincent-Picard Family’s Investments: Wendat Wealth and Notarized Contracts in the Mid-Nineteenth Century“. Histoire sociale / Sociale History, vol 57, no. 118 (2024).

Brian Gettler’s fascinating examination of the lending practices of 19th Century Wendat couple Marguerite Vincent La8inonkie and Paul Picard Honda8onhon provides a compelling micro-historical case study that reveals how Indigenous peoples in Quebec were able to capitalize on changing religious and market conditions to not only achieve affluence, but also to influence the economic fortunes of their local community.   Utilizing a corpus of seven hundred contracts and a blend of deeply-researched and innovatively employed Indigenous, Quebec, and business and financial history, Gettler’s article shows how the province’s unique legal and economic system— particularly notaries —facilitated the emergence of a coterie of Wendat families who became major creditors in Lower Canada in the 1800s.  Gettler’s story of the Vincent-Picard family, who leveraged their earnings from small-scale manufacturing of moccasins, snowshoes, and other traditional goods into larger-scale lending and wealth management profoundly challenges our understanding of financial, Indigenous and business historiography.

HONOURABLE MENTION: 

Clarence Hatton-Proulx, “The Role of Forecasts in Planning for Energy Infrastructure: A Historical Look at Past Futures in Postwar Quebec“. Enterprise & Society, vol 26, no. 2 (2025): 519-562.

Based on extensive research in the Hydro-Québec archives, Clarence Hatton-Proulx opens the “black box” of energy forecasting. Combining groundbreaking research with careful analysis, Hatton-Proulx shows how forecasting was adopted and deployed by Hydro-Québec during the eras of the Trente Glorieuses and the energy crisis of the 1970s. Attentive to Hydro-Québec’s role in state-led development strategies and participation in an international corporate world, Hatton-Proulx reveals future-making activities as a major factor in facilitating new capital investment in energy infrastructure, serving to project economic stability in an increasingly uncertain world. But despite the math equations and data points that went into forecasting, actor coalitions, power relations, and ideology played a decisive role in shaping forecasts. Ultimately, energy forecasts were deployed to not only predict the future but to shape it. Hatton-Proulx’s article makes an important contribution to the fields of business and energy history.