Relations between religious authorities and local administrations played a major ole in the urban development of Québec, as it is shown by the peculiar case of the Ursulines Nuns, one of the most important landowners even during the French regime. Easily adapting itself to new socio-economic events such as the British Conquest and the Abolition of the seignorial tenure the Order was able to use its political force to push the extension of Québec's urban zone towards lands it owned. When its negotiating power in the Saint-Sauveur ward diminished, it used the political conjuncture to sign a profitable deal (trading the Plains of Abraham against Marchmont, now Mérici), whose consequences meant that Québec's development followed the Grande-Allée axis instead of the traditional ways of Sainte-Foy road and Saint-Vallier street.