Jean-Louis Besnard (dit Carignant) (November 22, 1734 December 3, 1791) was a merchant trader based out of

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

Province of 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 thirteen p ...

(now

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

). Jean-Louis Besnard was in the

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 ...

by 1770. He was outfitting

voyageurs The voyageurs (; ) were 18th and 19th century French Canadians who engaged in the transporting of furs via canoe during the peak of the North American fur trade. The emblematic meaning of the term applies to places (New France, including the ' ...

and, in turn, relying on suppliers like

Pierre Foretier Pierre Foretier (January 12, 1738 – December 3, 1815) was a fur trader, seigneur and official in Lower Canada. He was born in Montreal in 1738, the son of a shoemaker who died when Pierre was nine. He became a merchant supplying goods to fur ...

. He was also in the

milling Milling may refer to: * Milling (minting), forming narrow ridges around the edge of a coin * Milling (grinding), breaking solid materials into smaller pieces by grinding, crushing, or cutting in a mill * Milling (machining), a process of using rota ...

business with a flour mill at Lachine, Quebec, and owned two enslaved black people. Through a series of events he was forced to declare

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...

in September 1776. His dealings with the Montreal merchant Richard Dobie were called into question at that time. Creditors of Besnard sued Dobie because of these transaction. A legal and political melee ensued with the Governor, Sir Guy Carleton, dismissing Chief Justice

Peter Livius Peter Livius (12 July 1739 – 23 July 1795) was a Portuguese-born lawyer who became the Chief Justice of Quebec. He was born in Lisbon, Portugal, the sixth child of Peter Livius, a German from Hamburg and was sent to school in England by his ...

. Besnard ended up turning over all his assets to his creditors. Although officially considered dishonest, he was allowed to continue in the fur trade and pursue other occupations. He ended up in important positions at Fort Michilimackinac (present day

Mackinaw City Mackinaw City ( ) is a village in Emmet and Cheboygan counties in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 846 at the 2010 census, the population increases during summertime, including an influx of tourists and seasonal workers who serve ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

) and died of drowning in

Lake Michigan Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the east, its basin is conjoined with that o ...

. His failures in business were probably a result of the nature of the fur trade at that time. Control of the trade was increasingly held a few powerful merchants. They, in turn, created the

North West Company The North West Company was a fur trading business headquartered in Montreal from 1779 to 1821. It competed with increasing success against the Hudson's Bay Company in what is present-day Western Canada and Northwestern Ontario. With great weal ...

in 1783.

References

* 1734 births 1791 deaths Canadian fur traders Canadian slave owners {{Canada-business-bio-stub