The Company of Habitants ( Fr.: ''Compagnie des Habitants'' or the ''Communauté des Habitants''), was a fur-trading company chartered in 1645 in the French Colony of Canada to succeed the

Company of One Hundred Associates The Company of One Hundred Associates ( French: formally the Compagnie de la Nouvelle-France, or colloquially the Compagnie des Cent-Associés or Compagnie du Canada), or Company of New France, was a French trading and colonization company ch ...

History

The Colony of

New France New France (french: Nouvelle-France) was the area colonized by France in North America, beginning with the exploration of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Great Britain and Spai ...

was officially settled during the reign of Henry IV in 1608 when

Samuel de Champlain Samuel de Champlain (; Fichier OrigineFor a detailed analysis of his baptismal record, see RitchThe baptism act does not contain information about the age of Samuel, neither his birth date nor his place of birth. – 25 December 1635) was a Fre ...

founded

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

, and in the following years it came under the control of several fur trading companies, eventually consolidating control under the newly founded Company of One Hundred Associates in 1627, which was made up of investors back in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, who would be charged with supplying ships and provisions to transport a certain number of colonists to settle in the territory every year, as well as covering all administrative costs for the colony, and in return were granted a monopoly on virtually the entire

fur trade The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period, furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the mos ...

in Canada. For a number of different reasons the quota of new settlers coming from France was continually not being met, and the population of New France fell far behind that of the rival

English colonies The English overseas possessions, also known as the English colonial empire, comprised a variety of overseas territories that were colonised, conquered, or otherwise acquired by the former Kingdom of England during the centuries before the Ac ...

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

, as well as the early Dutch colony of

New Netherland New Netherland ( nl, Nieuw Nederland; la, Novum Belgium or ) was a 17th-century colonial province of the Dutch Republic that was located on the East Coast of the United States, east coast of what is now the United States. The claimed territor ...

. The small group of businessmen and

nobles Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. The characteristi ...

in the young colony led by Pierre Legardeur and Jean-Paul Godefroy, came up with the idea to take over the mandate of overseeing the settlement of Canada from the Company of One Hundred Associates, whose investors were far removed across the ocean back in France, and in return profit on the monopoly of the fur trade themselves in the colony. They managed to convince the

Crown A crown is a traditional form of head adornment, or hat, worn by monarchs as a symbol of their power and dignity. A crown is often, by extension, a symbol of the monarch's government or items endorsed by it. The word itself is used, partic ...

of their plan and were granted a

charter A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the rec ...

to that effect in 1645. Initially the company was overseen and owned by a small number of notable merchants, businessmen, and nobles in the colony, who would cover the costs of shipping 20 colonists to Canada a year, as well as all administrative expenses of the colony, and an additional 1,000

livres The (; ; abbreviation: ₶.) was one of numerous currencies used in medieval France, and a unit of account (i.e., a monetary unit used in accounting) used in Early Modern France. The 1262 monetary reform established the as 20 , or 80.88 gr ...

worth of beaver pelts in rent on top of all expenses. Not long after this, following the protests of several rival and disgruntled Canadian lords and businessmen back in France (which in fact included fellow founder and director

Robert Giffard Robert Giffard de MoncelMoncel is the name place one km south of Autheil, (c. 1587 – 14 June 1668) was a Perche, Perche-based surgeon and apothecary who became New France's first colonist, colonizing Seigneurial system of New France, seigneur. ...

- see section below), the royal authorities in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

became wary of such large revenues from the North American fur trade being managed and profited on in a far away, sparsely settled territory by such a small group of individuals, and citing "extravagances" by the twelve original owners and directors, took back control of the company just two years later in 1647, and replaced the board of directors with a regulatory council, made up of the

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

and several other officials to act solely as an arbitrary body for oversight, with the company shares and the entire fur trade with it soon after being opened up to the general public. Matters worsened when the fur trade and subsequently the company went into sharp decline following the French-allied

Hurons The Wyandot people, or Wyandotte and Waⁿdát, are Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands. The Wyandot are Iroquoian Indigenous peoples of North America who emerged as a confederacy of tribes around the north shore of Lake Ontario wi ...

being pushed further west in a war with their

Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

enemies in 1652. Consumed by debt, the company shares were consolidated and slowly but steadily sold off in the following years to the Company of

Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine in northern France. It is the prefecture of the Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one of ...

in France, with the control of the fur trade and responsibility of colonization shifting back to the Company of One Hundred Associates, and both companies would finally be dissolved in 1663 by King

Louis XIV , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Vers ...

, who then transferred the rights of investment in the fur trade to the

French West India Company The French West India Company (french: Compagnie française des Indes occidentales) was a French trading company founded on 28 May 1664, some three months before the foundation of the corresponding eastern company, by Jean-Baptiste Colbert and di ...

, and took the colony under direct control of the Crown and made it a

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''Roman province, provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire ...

of France, substantially increasing the settlement and development of Canada in the following years.

Personnel

The company was founded and initially managed (and virtually entirely owned) by a board of twelve directors that included: *

Jean Bourdon Jean Bourdon ( – 1668) was the first engineer-in-chief and land-surveyor in the colony of New France, and the first attorney-general of the Conseil Superieur. Bourdon came to New France in 1634 and he was designated as the engineer to Gover ...

- Royal Surveyor and engineer *François de Chavigny-

seigneur ''Seigneur'' is an originally feudal title in France before the Revolution, in New France and British North America until 1854, and in the Channel Islands to this day. A seigneur refers to the person or collective who owned a ''seigneurie'' (or ...

and lieutenant to Governor de Montmagny *Guillaume Couillard- seigneur and businessman *Mathurin Gagnon- merchant and store owner *

- seigneur and master-surgeon *Jean-Paul Godefroy- Native American interpreter and businessman *Jean Godefroy de Lintot- seigneur and fur merchant *

Jean Guyon Jean Guyon ''du Buisson'' (Bapt. September 18, 1592 – May 30, 1663) was the patriarch of one of the earliest families to settle on the North shore of New France's St. Lawrence River. Guyon made his living as a master mason and, according ...

- seigneur and master mason * Noël Juchereau des Chastelets- businessman and legal councillor * Pierre Legardeur de Repentigny-

noble A noble is a member of the nobility. Noble may also refer to: Places Antarctica * Noble Glacier, King George Island * Noble Nunatak, Marie Byrd Land * Noble Peak, Wiencke Island * Noble Rocks, Graham Land Australia * Noble Island, Great B ...

, seigneur, and admiral of shipping for New France *

Jacques Leneuf de la Poterie Jacques Leneuf de La Poterie (November 7, 1604, in Caen, Normandy - died some time after November 4, 1687, in Canada) was a fur merchant, businessman, seigneur, and co-founder and director of the ''Communauté des habitants'', in the colony of Ca ...

- noble, seigneur, businessman, and Governor of Trois-Rivières * Michel Leneuf du Hérisson- noble, seigneur, businessman, and later Lieutenant-General of Trois-Rivières Two years after its formation a regulatory council replaced the owners and directors, which was composed of the Governor of New France, the Governor of Montréal, the Superior of the

Jesuits The Society of Jesus ( la, Societas Iesu; abbreviation: SJ), also known as the Jesuits (; la, Iesuitæ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

in Canada, and they were assisted by the

syndic Syndic (Late Latin: '; Greek: ' – one who helps in a court of justice, an advocate, representative) is a term applied in certain countries to an officer of government with varying powers, and secondly to a representative or delegate of a universi ...

s, or locally elected legal representatives, of the three major towns of

Québec Quebec ( ; )According to the Government of Canada, Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is ...

Trois-Rivières Trois-Rivières (, – 'Three Rivers') is a city in the Mauricie administrative region of Quebec, Canada, at the confluence of the Saint-Maurice River, Saint-Maurice and Saint Lawrence River, Saint Lawrence rivers, on the north shore of the Sain ...

, and

Montréal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-p ...

References

{{Chartered companies, state=collapsed Fur traders French colonization of the Americas History of Quebec Monopolies

History

Personnel

See also

References