The Company of Habitants ( or the ) 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 (, ) was the territory colonized by Kingdom of France, 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 Kingdom of Great Br ...

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

Samuel de Champlain Samuel de Champlain (; 13 August 1574#Fichier]For a detailed analysis of his baptismal record, see #Ritch, RitchThe baptism act does not contain information about the age of Samuel, neither his birth date nor his place of birth. – 25 December ...

founded Habitation de Québec, Quebec, 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 located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, 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 ecosystem, boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals h ...

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 comprised a variety of overseas territories that were colonised, conquered, or otherwise acquired by the Kingdom of England before 1707. (In 1707 the Acts of Union made England part of the Kingdom of Great Br ...

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

, as well as the early Dutch colony of

New Netherland New Netherland () was a colony of the Dutch Republic located on the East Coast of what is now the United States. The claimed territories extended from the Delmarva Peninsula to Cape Cod. Settlements were established in what became the states ...

. The small group of businessmen and

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

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, parti ...

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 ...

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 Livre may refer to: Currency * French livre, one of a number of obsolete units of currency of France * Livre tournois, one particular obsolete unit of currency of France * Livre parisis, another particular obsolete unit of currency of France * F ...

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-based surgeon and apothecary who became New France's first colonizing seigneur. Initial voyages As a naval surgeon, Giffard made ...

- see section below), the royal authorities in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

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 politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

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 (also Wyandotte, Wendat, Waⁿdát, or Huron) are an Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands of the present-day United States and Canada. Their Wyandot language belongs to the Iroquoian language family. In Canada, ...

being pushed further west in a war with their

Iroquois The Iroquois ( ), also known as the Five Nations, and later as the Six Nations from 1722 onwards; alternatively referred to by the Endonym and exonym, endonym Haudenosaunee ( ; ) are an Iroquoian languages, Iroquoian-speaking Confederation#Ind ...

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 northwestern France. It is in the prefecture of Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one ...

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 LouisXIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the List of longest-reign ...

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

French West India Company The French West India Company () was a trading company of the Kingdom of France founded in May 1664 and eventually closed in late 1674. The brainchild of King Louis XIV's First Minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert, the company was part of an ambitious ...

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

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

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- Royal Surveyor and engineer *François de Chavigny-

seigneur A seigneur () or lord 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. The seigneur owned a seigneurie, seigneury, or lordship—a form of ...

and lieutenant to Governor de Montmagny *- 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, Gr ...

, 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 C ...

- 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 (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), 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'' (; Greek: ) is a term applied in certain countries to an officer of government with varying powers, and secondly to a representative or delegate of a university, institution or other corporation, entrusted with special functions or p ...

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

Québec Quebec is Canada's largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, New Brunswick to the southeast and a coastal border ...

Trois-Rivières Trois-Rivières (, ; ) is a city in the Mauricie administrative region of Quebec, Canada. It is located 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 is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

References

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

History

Personnel

See also

References