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In 1624, Richelieu, having attained a dominant influence in the Royal Council, soon developed for the first time a definite colonial policy in connection with a still wider scheme for the placing of France in the proud position of the first power in Europe. His policy, however, being one of an international character had little relation to the domestic needs of the French people, whether at home or in the colonies. At the same time, in unifying France on this basis, he did much to strengthen its position as a central power.^[1]

CARDINAL RICHELIEU

After the painting in the Louvre, Paris

The instrument for the realization in Canada of the colonial aspect of Richelieu’s world-policy was the new Company of One Hundred Associates, officially known as the Company of New France. With his eyes fixed upon his great designs for the future, Richelieu did not make a study of the conditions of the present or of the immediate past. He disposed at one stroke of the de Caen company and its monopoly, which had certainly proved unsatisfactory from the point of view of establishing a vigorous colony in New France. Instead, however, of analysing the causes of its failure, with a view to avoiding similar difficulties in the future, he immediately replaced it by another company with practically the same powers, obligations, and privileges; granting it the same kind of monopoly, with the same facilities to neglect its religious, social and political obligations, and to follow its own self-interest in exploiting the trade monopoly. The only new feature in Richelieu’s company was the great national scheme of which it was to be an important factor, and the consequent active court patronage and high social auspices under which it was organized and its membership recruited.

The act for the establishment of the Company of One Hundred Associates revoked all previous commissions and concessions and established the colony of New France upon an enlarged basis. The new charter was dated April 29, 1627. It directly connected the powers, privileges, and obligations of the company with the commissions granted to Roberval and his successors, by stating that Louis xiii had the same desire as Henry iv to continue the exploration of New France, with a view to establishing a colony there for the conversion of the heathen. Cardinal Richelieu is declared to have charge of these designs, under the imposing title of Grand Master, Chief and Superintendent General of the Navigation and Commerce of France. This high dignitary is convinced that the one way to bring the natives to a knowledge of God is by peopling the country with Frenchmen, in order that, by their living example of a godly life, the heathen may be attracted to Christianity and civilization. At the same time, by establishing the royal authority in the country, new discoveries will be made to the advantage alike of France and the colony.

The previous holders of the colonial charter are severely criticized for failing to accomplish these results. They have shown so little zeal in the colonization of the country and the conversion of the heathen that there is as yet only one settlement in Canada, and in that only forty or fifty Frenchmen, who are nearly all traders with little or no interest in the king’s purposes. Those enjoying a monopoly of the colonial trade had not taken to Canada more than eighteen men in the past fifteen years. They have even discouraged those who wished to go on their own account. In fact, things have come to such a pass that it is necessary to revoke the privileges of de Caen and his associates and transfer them to a strong company, which, under amended regulations, will assuredly carry out the purposes of the king.

Six men were appointed as a commission to form this company and to frame the necessary regulations. They accordingly formed the Company of One Hundred Associates, which undertook to people New France, according to the conditions which were laid down. On these terms, Cardinal Richelieu, with the king’s approval, granted to the company numerous privileges. The chief of these, as connected with the colonial policy and political constitution of the colony, were as follows:

The company undertakes to people the colony at the rate of from two hundred to three hundred persons per annum and assist colonists in making a start. Every colonist must be a French Catholic; all others are to be rigorously excluded. There must be three ecclesiastics at least in each settlement, for the conversion of the heathen and the services of the French. These ecclesiastics must either be maintained at the expense of the company for the first fifteen years, or be furnished with sufficient cleared land to provide for their support. After the first fifteen years the ecclesiastics were, apparently, to be supported by their own exertions, or the voluntary contributions of the colonists, for as yet no provision was made for the payment of tithes. To compensate the company for its expenses in connection with the peopling of the colony and the maintenance and protection of it, the king grants to the members of the company and their heirs, in full property, local control and seigniory, the fort and town of Quebec and the whole of New France, called Canada, from Florida to the Arctic Circle, and from Newfoundland on the east to the great fresh-water sea on the west, including all the lands in the watershed of the St Lawrence and its tributaries, and of the other rivers of Canada which flow into the sea, as well as any other lands over which the company may extend the French authority.^[2] The king reserved only faith and homage for himself and his successors, and required provision for courts of justice. The company is to fortify the country for its preservation and the protection of commerce. The company may grant lands under whatever conditions seem fitting, and along with them confer titles of honour and nobility, on condition that marquises, counts and barons must also receive letters of confirmation from the king. A monopoly of trade is granted to the company for fifteen years.^[3] The king undertook to provide the company with two war vessels of from two hundred to three hundred tons each, fully equipped, on condition that the company should fulfil its obligations as to bringing out immigrants within the time specified. All persons of whatever rank, civil, military or religious, were permitted to take shares in the company without any derogation from their nobility or position. It is ordained that all descendants of the French in Canada, and all the savages who shall accept the faith, shall be acknowledged as native Frenchmen, and shall have liberty to return to France and enjoy all the privileges of natural-born Frenchmen.

The exceptional circumstances attending the formation of the company, the assistance and favour of the king and the minister and many of the nobility, made the departure of the first expedition under the auspices of the One Hundred Associates, in 1628, a very notable event. The fleet was composed of some twenty vessels, freighted with an enthusiastic band of settlers, and lavishly supplied with needful stores and even luxuries. Unfortunately for the success of this first venture on the part of the new company, there happened to be at the time temporary hostilities between the French and English courts, Charles i having sent a fleet to the aid of the Huguenots of La Rochelle who were in arms against Louis xiii, and French vessels were the unlucky prey of English seamen. David Kirke, an English captain, falling in with this French fleet, managed to capture nineteen of the twenty vessels. This disaster not only discouraged the new colonial enthusiasm in France, but left Quebec destitute of supplies, so that in the following year it fell into the hands of the English.

Had Richelieu been less confident as to the ultimate success of his foreign and colonial policies, it is quite possible that no further serious attempt would have been made in the direction of Canada. According to Le Clercq, the general opinion in France at the time did not favour the continuance of the colonial policy, which, apart from the fur trade and the fisheries, had not proved very successful. But Richelieu still had unbounded faith in his schemes for the achievement of national glory, and Champlain, whose mind and heart were deeply set on the Quebec colony, pressed earnestly for its restoration. At the close of the short war, it was arranged under the Treaty of St Germain-en-Laye (1632) that Canada should be restored to France. Now, however, the Associates, owing to the unfortunate fate of the company’s first expedition followed by four years of inaction, had lost their enthusiasm. They handed over their religious obligations towards the colony to the Jesuits, giving them liberal grants of land.

Champlain still retained his interest in the colony which he had established, and, in 1633, he returned to Canada as governor, bringing with him about one hundred colonists in three vessels. His death in 1635 arrested his plans and brought to a close a noble career. His ideas for the establishment and maintenance of a vigorous self-dependent colony were enlightened and practical; those of his contemporaries, unfortunately, were not, and the circumstances and conditions of the time were against him. He died without having found it possible to realize his ideals.

After Champlain’s death, the colony remained for a time without any very definite policy. Occasional additions were made to the permanent population, the most important settlement being that established at Beauport by Giffard, who was the first to receive a seigniory under the new company. In this grant, which was dated 1634, it is provided that appeals from the court to be set up at Beauport should only be to the court of supreme jurisdiction in the colony, although it was not yet organized. In the grant of the fief Dautré in 1637, the first mention is made of the Custom of Paris, which, it is said, will regulate the feudal dues to be paid. Similarly in the grants of land made shortly afterwards in the Island of Montreal, the feudal conditions are to be determined in accordance with the Custom of Paris, which the company intend shall be followed and observed throughout the whole of New France. The chief of these grants was that to the Gentlemen Associated for the Conversion of the Savages, commonly known as the Company of Notre Dame de Montreal, 1640, embracing the north-eastern portion of the Island of Montreal, with the adjoining mainland on the north shore, two leagues in front and six in depth. Henceforth, owing to the enterprise and enthusiasm of the famous Paul de Chomedy, Sieur de Maisonneuve, this western advance guard of the colony of New France went forward under auspices partly religious and partly military. It bore the brunt of the attacks from the Iroquois, who at this time began a series of harassing raids upon the western French settlements.

Richelieu, whose policy for the glorification of France had plunged Europe into the Thirty Years’ War, was too much occupied at home to follow up his colonial policy. The Company of New France, on its side, had lost heart in the colonial aspect of the enterprise. The religious orders alone, and especially the Jesuits, maintained a lively interest in the colony, and in the evangelization of the Indian tribes, whose conversion was the mainspring of their enthusiasm and activities. It was chiefly for this purpose that they received so much assistance from France.

Finding the colony steadily neglected by the company, except for its trading interests, which the local merchants naturally envied, the inhabitants began to protest vigorously to the home government, and in their movement they seem to have had the sympathy of the governor, de Montmagny. Finally, in 1645, the Company of New France undertook to transfer its trade monopoly to the colonists, as represented by a corporation of the leading inhabitants of the colony, chiefly merchants. It reserved, however, the trade of Acadia and Cape Breton. The company also retained its ownership of the colony with all its feudal rights and privileges, as also its constitutional rights, including that of nominating the governor, the judges, and other important officers. In return for the trade monopoly conceded to them, the people of New France undertook to relieve the company of all its financial obligations towards the colony. These obligations included the support of the governor and the other officials, military and civil, provision for the ecclesiastics and religious orders, as also the undertaking to bring out from France so many immigrants each year. Partly to compensate for its alleged losses in establishing the colony, the company was to receive 1000 pounds of beaver annually.

The local corporation of colonists, who undertook to administer the trade and assume the financial obligations on behalf of the colony as a whole, was known as the Compagnie des Habitans. It was this company which first adopted as an open principle the use of brandy in trading with the Indians, and thus precipitated the first conflict between the religious and civil powers in the colony.

[1]

The soundness of Richelieu’s policy, which was in part borrowed from the French economist, Montchrétien, when taken up by much more practical hands than his, was manifested in the long reign of Louis xiv. During this time France certainly attained to the international ideal set before her by Richelieu, but it was at the expense of her domestic prosperity. Louis xiv dominated Europe, but he exhausted France, and his extreme absolutism may be deemed one of the indirect causes of the destructive Revolution, which swept away the powers which had realized his ideal. The colonial policy of France, as manifested chiefly in Canada, was simply a phase of the larger purpose for the realization of national glory by making France the chief world-power. To this end, well developed colonies, contributing directly to the resources of the home government, were deemed essential. In this policy, however, the domestic welfare of the colonists was a very secondary matter. It is necessary to keep these conditions in view, as this will explain much which otherwise might appear strangely inconsistent in the alternate lavishing of care upon the smallest details in colonial administration and the disregard of essential needs.

[2]

It is worthy of note that this comprehensive charter covered much the same ground, and is in many places expressed in practically the same terms, as the commission to Roberval. Hence, while feudalism was no doubt more definitely extended in Canada under the Company of One Hundred Associates, yet the system was undoubtedly provided for in the Canadian constitution from 1540, the date of Roberval’s commission, and during the intervening period wanted only the occasion for its actual introduction. That occasion first arose when Louis Hébert went out as the first regular settler in Canada and received, in 1623, the seigniory of Sault au Matelot. In the following year another seigniory was granted to William de Caen. The Jesuits who came to Canada in 1625 with the object of establishing a seminary obtained the first of their seigniories in that of Notre Dame des Anges on the St Charles River, just beyond Quebec. These seigniories, granted before the establishment of the Company of One Hundred Associates, indicate that, from the time of Roberval on, ample powers were provided not only for the government of the colony and the establishment of law, but for the introduction of every feature of the feudal system, as occasion required. It is true that the grants above referred to were reissued after the colony passed to the company, but this was due to the fact that all previous grants were revoked with its establishment.

[3]	For the economic features of this charter see ‘The Colony in its Economic Relations’ in this section.