DCHP-1 Online

livre † [< F] Hist.

• 1 n. an old French unit of currency used in New France and in Quebec for some time after the advent of the British regime.

  See also: Montreal livre  

  • 1703  (1956)  . . . they are paid in French livres, which are twenty Sols, whereas a Canada livre is but fifteen sols.
  • 1820  (1963)  . . . some wolves were black for which the Canadian traders gave 10 MB (i.e. livres).
  • 1927  One of the most efficient of the early women teachers, who died in 1897 at the age of ninety-four years, taught school for four livres (a livre is about 16 1/2 cents) a week.
  • 1964  In Canada, the sol had a value of about one penny, 20 sols making one livre, the 12 denier piece being equivalent to one sol.

• 2 n.

  See also: North West livre  

  • 1761  (1901)  Beaver . . . was worth, at Michilimackinac, two shillings and sixpence a pound, in the currency of that place; that is six livres, or a dollar.
  • 1806  (1960)  Hired Wananshish for the term of six years at the rate of 300 livres per annum.
  • 1930  Grand Portage currency was reckoned as twelve livres to the pound.