Serving Up Irish Hospitality on Credit: Business Practices of Women Publicans and Grocers in Mid-Nineteenth Century Montréal

Abstract

Irish women were not only wives and daughters of publicans and grocers; their labour was critical to public houses and grocery shops. Moreover, their involvement in hospitality, as publicans and grocers, provided them with the means to raise families and to realize economic independence, autonomy, and security, especially in the face of widowhood with children to support. Tavern- and innkeepers and grocers required a good head for business because they had to extend credit to guests and customers and purchase goods on credit. An array of historical sources, especially the Bartholomew O’Brien fonds and R. G. Dun & Company credit report volumes for Montréal, highlight in some detail women’s responsibilities, credit arrangements, capital accumulation, and business strategies. This study pays close attention to female publicans and grocers of Irish descent operating at mid-century in Montréal to argue that social networking facilitated the circulation of goods, money, information, people, and credit. The article also considers the ways in which they managed risk owing to fires, epidemics, and business failures.