Industry in New France
Of colonial industry, however, not as much can be said as of agriculture.
Down to about 1663 it had given scarcely a single token of existence. The
colony, until that date, manufactured nothing. Everything in the way of
furnishings, utensils, apparel, and ornament was brought in the company's
ships from France, and no one seemed to look upon this procedure as at all
unusual. On the coming of Talon in 1665, however, the idea of fostering
home industries in the colony took active shape. By persuasion and by
promise of reward, the "Colbert of New France" interested the prominent
citizens of Quebec in modest industrial enterprises of every sort.
But the outcome soon belied the intendant's airy hopes. It was easy
enough to make a brave start in these things, especially with the aid of
an initial subsidy from the treasury; but to keep the wheels of industry
moving year after year without a subvention was an altogether different
thing. A colony numbering less than ten thousand souls did not furnish an
adequate market for the products of varied industries, and the high cost
of transportation made it difficult to export manufactured wares to France
or to the West Indies with any hope of profit. A change of tone, moreover,
soon became noticeable in Colbert's dispatches with reference to
industrial development. In 1665, when giving his first instructions to
Talon, the minister had dilated upon his desire that Canada should become
self-sustaining in the matter of clothing, shoes, and the simpler
house-furnishings. But within a couple of years Colbert's mind seems to
have taken a different shift, and we find him advising Talon that, after
all, it might be better if the people of New France would devote their
energies to agriculture and thus to raise enough grain wherewith to buy
manufactured wares from France. So, for one reason or another, the infant
industries languished, and, after Talon was gone, they gradually dropped
out of existence.
Another of Talon's ventures was to send prospectors in search of
minerals. The use of malleable copper by the Indians had been noted by the
French for many years and various rumors concerning the source of supply
had filtered through to Quebec. Some of Talon's agents, including Jean
Pere, went as far as the upper lakes, returning with samples of copper
ore. But the distance from Quebec was too great for profitable
transportation and, although Pere Dablon in 1670 sent down an accurate
description of the great masses of ore in the Lake Superior region, many
generations were to pass before any serious attempt could be made to
develop this source of wealth. Nearer at hand some titaniferous iron ore
was discovered, at Baie St. Paul below Quebec, but it was not utilized,
although on being tested it was found to be good in quality. Then the
intendant sent agents to verify reports as to rich coal deposits in Isle
Royale (Cape Breton), and they returned with glowing accounts which,
subsequent industrial history has entirely justified. Shipments of this
coal were brought to Quebec for consumption. A little later the intendant
reported to Colbert that a vein of coal had been actually uncovered at the
foot of the great rock which frowns upon the Lower Town at Quebec, adding
that the vein could not be followed for fear of toppling over the Chateau
which stood above. No one has ever since found any trace of Talon's coal
deposit, and the geologists of today are quite certain that the intendant
had more imagination than accuracy of statement or even of elementary
mineralogical knowledge.
Above the settlement at Three Rivers some excellent deposits of bog
iron ore were found in 1668, but it was not until five decades later that
the first forges were established there. These were successfully operated
throughout the remainder of the Old Regime, and much of the colony's iron
came from them to supply the blacksmiths. From time to time rumors of
other mineral discoveries came to the ears of the people. A find of lead
was reported from the Gaspe peninsula, but an investigation proved it to
be a hoax. Copper was actually found in a dozen places within the settled
ranges of the colony, but not in paying quantities. Every one was always
on the "qui vive" for a vein of gold or silver, but no part of New France
ever gave the slightest hint of an El Dorado. Prospecting engaged the
energies of many colonists in every generation, but most of those who thus
spent their years at it got nothing but a princely dividend of chagrin.
Mention should also be made of the brewing industry which Talon set
upon its feet during his brief intendancy but which, like all the rest of
his schemes, did not long survive his departure. In establishing a brewery
at Quebec the paternal intendant had two ends in mind: first, to reduce
the large consumption of "eau-de-vie" by providing a cheaper and more
wholesome substitute; and second, to furnish the farmers of the colony
with a profitable home market for their grain. In 1671 Talon reported to
the French authorities that the Quebec brewery was capable of turning out
four thousand hogsheads of beer per annum, and thus of creating a demand
for many thousand bushels of malt. Hops were also needed and were
expensive when brought from France, so that the people were encouraged to
grow hop-vines in the colony. But even with grain and hops at hand, the
brewing industry did not thrive, and before many years Talon's enterprise
closed its doors. The building was finally remodeled and became the
headquarters of the later intendants.
Flour-making and lumbering were the two industries which made most
consistent progress in the colony. Flour-mills were established both in
and near Quebec at an early date, and in course of time there were scores
of them scattered throughout the colony, most of them built and operated
as "banal" mills by the seigneurs. The majority were windmills after the
Dutch fashion, but some were water-driven. On the whole, they were not
very efficient and turned out flour of such indifferent grade that the
bakers of Quebec complained loudly on more than one occasion. In response
to a request from the intendant, the King sent out some fanning-mills
which were distributed to various seigneuries, but even this benefaction
did not seem to make any great improvement in the quality of the product.
Yet in some years the colony had flour of sufficiently good quality for
export, and sent small cargoes both to France and to the French West
Indies.
The sawing of lumber was carried on in various parts of the colony,
particularly at Malbaie and at Baie St. Paul. Beam-timbers, planks,
staves, and shingles were made in large quantities both for use in the
colony and for export to France, where the timbers and planks were in
demand at the royal shipyards. Wherever lands were granted by the Crown, a
provision was inserted in the title-deed reserving all oak timber and all
pine of various species suitable for mastings. Though such timber was not
to be cut without official permission, the people did not always respect
this reservation. Yet the quantity of timber shipped to France was very
large, and next to furs it formed the leading item in the cargoes of
outgoing ships. For staves there was a good market at Quebec where barrels
were being made for the packing of salted fish and eels.
The various handicrafts or small industries, such as blacksmithing,
cabinet-making, pottery, brick-making, were regulated quite as strictly in
Canada as in France. The artisans of the towns were organized into "jures"
or guilds, and elected a master for each trade. These masters were
responsible to the civil authorities for the proper quality of the work
done and for the observance of all the regulations which were promulgated
by the intendant or the council from time to time.
This relative proficiency in home industry accounts in part for the
tardy progress of the colony in the matter of large industrial
establishments. But there were other handicaps. For one thing, the Paris
authorities were not anxious to see the colony become industrially
self-sustaining. Colbert in his earliest instructions to Talon wrote as
though this were the royal policy, but no other minister ever hinted at
such a desire. Rather it was thought best that the colony should confine
itself to the production of raw materials, leaving it to France to supply
manufactured wares in return. The mercantilist doctrine that a colony
existed for the benefit of the mother country was gospel at Fontainebleau.
Even Montcalm, a man of liberal inclinations, expressed this idea with
undiminished vigor in a day when its evil results must have been apparent
to the naked eye. "Let us beware," he wrote, "how we allow the
establishment of industries in Canada or she will become proud and
mutinous like the English colonies. So long as France is a nursery to
Canada, let not the Canadians be allowed to trade but kept to their
laborious life and military services."
The exclusion of the Huguenots from Canada was another industrial
misfortune. A few Huguenot artisans came to Quebec from Rochelle at an
early date, and had they been welcomed, more would soon have followed. But
they were promptly deported. From an economic standpoint this was an
unfortunate policy. The Huguenots were resourceful workmen, skilled in
many trades. They would have supplied the colony with a vigorous and
enterprising stock. But the interests of orthodoxy in religion were
paramount with the authorities, and they kept from Canada the one class of
settlers which most desired to come. Many of those same Huguenots went to
England, and every student of economic history knows how greatly they
contributed to the upbuilding of England's later supremacy in the textile
and related industries.
If we turn to the field of commerce, the spirit of restriction
appears as prominently as in the domain of industry. The Company of One
Hundred Associates, during its thirty years of control, allowed no one to
proceed to Quebec except on its own vessels, and nothing could be imported
except through its storehouses. Its successor, the Company of the West
Indies, which dominated colonial commerce from 1664 to 1669, was not a
whit more liberal. Even under the system of royal government, the
consistent keynotes of commercial policy were regulation, paternalism, and
monopoly.
This is in no sense surprising. Spain had first given to the world
this policy of commercial constraint and the great enrichment of the
Spanish monarchy was everywhere held to be its outcome. France, by reason
of her similar political and administrative system, found it easy to drift
into the wake of the Spanish example. The official classes in England and
Holland would fain have had these countries do likewise, but private
initiative and enterprise proved too strong in the end. As for New France,
there were spells during which the grip of the trading monopolies relaxed,
but these lucid intervals were never very long. When the Company of the
West Indies became bankrupt in 1669, the trade between New France and Old
was ostensibly thrown open to the traders of both countries, and for the
moment this freedom gave Colbert and his Canadian apostle, Talon, an
opportunity to carry out their ideas of commercial upbuilding.
The great minister had as his ideal the creation of a huge fleet of
merchant vessels, built and operated by Frenchmen, which would ply to all
quarters of the globe, bringing raw products to France and taking
manufactured wares in return. It was under the inspiration of this ideal
that Talon built at Quebec a small vessel and, having freighted it with
lumber, fish, corn, and dried pease, sent it off to the French West
Indies. After taking on board a cargo of sugar, the vessel was then to
proceed to France and, exchanging the sugar for goods which were needed in
the regions of the St. Lawrence, it was to return to Quebec. The
intendant's plans for this triangular trade were well conceived, and in a
general way they aimed at just what the English colonies along the
Atlantic seaboard were beginning to do at the time. The keels of other
ships were being laid at Quebec and the officials were dreaming of great
maritime achievements. But as usual the enterprise never got beyond the
sailing of the first vessel, for its voyage did not yield a profit.
The ostensible throwing-open of the colonial trade, moreover, did
not actually change to any great extent the old system of paternalism and
monopoly. Commercial companies no longer controlled the channels of
transportation, it is true, but the royal government was not minded to let
everything take its own course. So the trade was taxed for the benefit of
the royal treasury, and the privilege of collecting the taxes, according
to the custom of the old regime, was farmed out. All the commerce of the
colony, imports and exports, had to pass through the hands of these
farmers-of-the-revenue who levied ten per cent on all goods coming and
kept for the royal treasury one-quarter of the price fixed for all skins
exported. Traders as a rule were not permitted to ship their furs directly
to France. They turned them in to farmers-of-the-revenue at Quebec, where
they received the price as fixed by ordinance, less one-quarter. This
price they usually took in bills of exchange on Paris which, they handed
over to the colonial merchants in payment for goods, and which the
merchants in turn sent home to France to pay for new stocks. Nor were the
authorities content with the mere fixing of prices. By ordinance they also
set the rate of profit which traders should have upon all imported wares
brought into the colony. This rate of profit was fixed at sixty-five per
cent, but the traders had no compunction in going above it whenever they
saw an opportunity which was not likely to be discovered. As far as the
forest trade was concerned, the regulation was, of course, absurd.
Every year, about the beginning of May, the first ships left France
for the St. Lawrence with general cargoes consisting of goods for the
colonists themselves and for the Indians, as well as large quantities of
brandy. When they arrived at Quebec, the vessels were met by the merchants
of the town and by those who had come from Three Rivers and Montreal. For
a fortnight lively trading took place. Then the goods which had been
bought by the merchants of Montreal and Three Rivers were loaded upon
small barques and brought to these towns to be in readiness for the annual
fairs when the "coureurs-de-bois" and their Indians came down to trade in
the late summer. As for the vessels which had come from France, these were
either loaded with timber or furs and set off directly home again, or else
they departed light to Cape Breton and took cargoes of coal for the French
West Indies, where the refining of sugar occasioned a demand for fuel. The
last ships left in November, and for seven months the colony was cut off
from Europe.
Trade at Quebec, while technically open to any one who would pay the
duties and observe the regulations as to rates of profit, was actually in
the hands of a few merchants who had large warehouses and who took the
greater part of what the ships brought in. These men were, in turn,
affiliated more or less closely with the great trading houses which sent
goods from Rouen or Rochelle, so that the monopoly was nearly as ironclad
as when commercial companies were in control. When an outsider broke into
the charmed circle, as happened occasionally, there was usually some way
of hustling him out again by means either fair or foul. The monopolists
made large profits, and many of them, after they had accumulated a
fortune, went home to France. "I have known twenty of these pedlars,"
quoth La Hontan, "that had not above a thousand crowns stock when I
arrived at Quebec in the year 1683 and when I left that place had got to
the tune of twelve thousand crowns."
Glancing over the whole course of agriculture, industry, and
commerce in New France from the time when Champlain built his little post
at the foot of Cape Diamond until the day when the fleur-de-lis fluttered
down from the heights above, the historian finds that there is one word
which sums up the chief cause of the colony's economic weakness. That word
is "paternalism." The Administration tried to take the place of
Providence. It was as omnipresent and its ways were as inscrutable. Like
as a father chasteneth his children, so the King and his officials felt it
their duty to chasten every show of private initiative which did not
direct itself along the grooves that they had marked out for the colony to
follow. By trying to order everything they eventually succeeded in
ordering nothing aright.
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