body, or when somebody whom he wanted to favor had spoken to him in behalf of somebody else." 1

Add to all this the rarity of communication with the distant colony. The ships from France arrived at Quebec in July, August, or September, and returned in November. The machine of Canadian government, wound up once a year, was expected to run unaided at least a twelvemonth. Indeed, it was often left to itself for two years, such was sometimes the tardiness of the overburdened government in answering the despatches of its colonial agents. It is no matter of surprise that a writer well versed in its affairs calls Canada the "country of abuses." 2

1 Mémoires du Duc de Saint-Simon, xiii. 38, 39 (Cheruel, 1857). Saint-Simon, notwithstanding the independence of his character and his violent prejudices, held a high position at court; and his acute and careful observation, joined to his familiar acquaintance with ministers and other functionaries, both in and out of office, gives a rare value to his matchless portraitures, and makes him indispensable to the annalist of his time.

2 Etat présent du Canada, 1758.

CHAPTER XX.

1663-1763.

TRADE AND INDUSTRY.

TRADE IN FETTERS.-THE HUGUENOT MERCHANTS. ROYAL PATRONAGE. -THE FISHERIES. CRIES FOR HELP. - AGRICULTURE.

- MANUFACTURES. ARTS OF ORNAMENT. - FINANCE. - CARD MONEY.-REPUDIATION. — IMPOSTS. THE BEAVER TRADE.— THE FAIR AT MONTREAL. CONTRABAND TRADE.-A FATAL SYSTEM. TROUBLE AND CHANGE. THE COUREURS DE BOIS. -THE FOREST. — LETTER OF CARHEIL.

WE have seen the head of the colony, its guiding intellect and will: it remains to observe its organs of nutrition. Whatever they might have been under a different treatment, they were they were perverted and enfeebled by the regimen to which they were subjected.

The spirit of restriction and monopoly had ruled from the beginning. The old governor Lauson, seignior for a while of a great part of the colony, held that Montreal had no right to trade directly with France, but must draw all her supplies from Quebec;1 and this preposterous claim was revived in the time of Mézy. The successive companies to whose hands the colony was consigned had a baneful effect on

1 Faillon, Colonie Française, ii. 244.

individual enterprise. In 1674 the charter of the West India Company was revoked, and trade was declared open to all subjects of the King; yet commerce was still condemned to wear the ball and chain. New restrictions were imposed, meant for good, but resulting in evil. Merchants not resident in the colony were forbidden all trade, direct or indirect, with the Indians.1 They were also forbidden to sell any goods at retail except in August, September, and October; 2 to trade anywhere in Canada above Quebec, and to sell clothing or domestic articles ready made. This last restriction was designed to develop colonial industry. No person, resident or not, could trade with the English colonies, or go thither without a special passport, and rigid examination by the military authorities. Foreign trade of any kind was stiffly prohibited. In 1719, after a new company had engrossed the beaver-trade, its agents were empowered to enter all houses in Canada, whether ecclesiastical or secular, and search them for foreign goods, which when found were publicly burned. In the next year the royal council ordered that vessels engaged in foreign trade should be captured by force of arms, like pirates, and confiscated along with their cargoes; while anybody having an article of foreign manufacture in his possession was subjected to a heavy fine.

1 Réglement de Police, 1676. Art. xl.

2 Edits et Ordonnances, ii. 100.

• Ibid., i. 402.

5

* Ibid., i. 489.

Attempts were made to fix the exact amount of profit which merchants from France should be allowed. to make in the colony; one of the first acts of the superior council was to order them to bring their invoices immediately before that body, which thereupon affixed prices to each article. The merchant who sold and the purchaser who bought above this tariff were alike condemned to heavy penalties; and so, too, was the merchant who chose to keep his goods rather than sell them at the price ordained.1 Resident merchants, on the other hand, were favored to the utmost: they could sell at what price they saw fit; and, according to La Hontan, they made great profit by the sale of laces, ribbons, watches, jewels, and similar superfluities to the poor but extravagant colonists.

A considerable number of the non-resident merchants were Huguenots, for most of the importations were from the old Huguenot city of Rochelle. No favor was shown them; they were held under rigid restraint, and forbidden to exercise their religion, or to remain in the colony during winter without special license.2 This sometimes bore very hard upon them. The governor, Denonville, an ardent Catholic, states the case of one Bernon, who had done great service to the colony, and whom La Hontan mentions as the principal French merchant in the Canadian trade. "It is a pity," says Denonville, "that he

1 Edits et Ordonnances, ii. 17, 19.

2 Réglement de Police, 1676. Art. xxxvii.

cannot be converted. As he is a Huguenot, the bishop wants me to order him home this autumn, which I have done, though he carries on a large business, and a great deal of money remains due to him here." 1

For a long time the ships from France went home empty, except a favored few which carried furs, or occasionally a load of dried pease or of timber. Payment was made in money when there was any in Canada, or in bills of exchange. The colony, drawing everything from France and returning little besides beaver-skins, remained under a load of debt. French merchants were discouraged, and shipments from France languished. As for the trade with the West Indies, which Talon had tried by precept and example to build up, the intendant reports in 1680 that it had nearly ceased; though six years later it grew again to the modest proportions of three vessels loaded with wheat.2

The besetting evil of trade and industry in Canada was the habit they contracted, and were encouraged to contract, of depending on the direct aid of government. Not a new enterprise was set on foot without a petition to the King to lend a helping hand. Sometimes the petition was sent through the governor, sometimes through the intendant; and it was rarely refused. Denonville writes that the merchants

1 Denonville au Ministre, 1685.

2 Ibid., 1686. The year before, about 18,000 minots of grain were sent hither. In 1736 the shipments reached 80,000 minots.