CHAPTER IV. A COLONIAL COLBERT (1)
Tracy had led a successful expedition against the Iroquois and coerced them into a lasting peace.
He had seen order and harmony restored in the government of the colony. His mission was over and he left Canada on August 28, 1667, Courcelle remaining as governor and Talon as intendant. From that moment the latter, though second in rank, became really the first official of New France, if we consider his work in its relation to the future welfare of the colony. We have already seen something of his views for the administration of New France.
He would have it emancipated from the jurisdiction of the West India Company; he tried also to impress on the king and his minister the advisability of augmenting the population in order to develop the resources of the colony—in a word, he sought to lay the foundations of a flourishing state. Undoubtedly Colbert wished to help and strengthen New France, but he seemed to think that Talon's aim was too ambitious. In one of his letters the intendant had gone the length of submitting a plan f or the acquisition of New Netherlands, which had been conquered by the English in 1664. He suggested that, in the negotiations for peace between France, England, and Holland, Louis XIV might stipulate for the restoration to Holland of its colony, and in the meantime come to an understanding with the States-General for its cession to France. Annexation to Canada would follow. But Colbert thought that Talon was too bold. The intendant had spoken of New France as likely to become a great kingdom. In answer, the minister said that the king saw many obstacles to the fulfilment of these expectations. To create on the shores of the St Lawrence an important state would require much emigration from France, and it would not be wise to draw so many people from the kingdom—to 'unpeople France for the purpose of peopling Canada.' Moreover if too many colonists came to Canada in one season, the area already under cultivation would not produce enough to feed the increased population, and great hardship would follow. Evidently Colbert did not here display his usual insight. Talon never had in mind the unpeopling of France. He meant simply that if the home government would undertake to send out a few hundred settlers every year, the result would be the creation of a strong and prosperous nation on the shores of the St Lawrence. The addition of five hundred immigrants annually during the whole period of Louis XIV's reign would have given Canada in 1700 a population of five hundred thousand. It was thought that the mother country could not spare so many; and yet the cost in men to France of a single battle, the bloody victory of Senef in 1674, was eight thousand French soldiers. The wars of Louis XIV killed ten times more men than the systematic colonization of Canada would have taken from the mother country. The second objection raised by Colbert was no better founded than the first. Talon did not ask for the immigration of more colonists than the country could feed. But he rightly thought that with peace assured the colony could produce food enough for a very numerous population, and that increase in production would speedily follow increase in numbers. It must not be supposed that Colbert was indifferent to the development of New France.
No other minister of the French king did more for Canada. It was under his administration that the strength which enabled the colony so long to survive its subsequent trials was acquired. But Colbert was entangled in the intricacies of European politics. Obliged to co-operate in ventures which in his heart he condemned, and which disturbed him in his work of financial and administrative reform, he yielded sometimes to the fear of weakening the trunk of the old tree by encouraging the growth of the young shoots. Talon had to give in.
But he did so in such a way as to gain his point in part. He wrote that he would speak no more of the great establishment he had thought possible, since the minister was of opinion that France had no excess of population which could be used for the peopling of Canada. At the same time he insisted on the necessity of helping the colony, and assured Colbert that, could he himself see Canada, he would be disposed to do his utmost for it, knowing that a new country cannot make its own way without being helped effectively at the outset. Talon's tact and firmness of purpose had their reward, for the next year Colbert gave ample proof that he understood Canada's situation and requirements. On the question of the West India Company also there was some divergence of view between the minister and the intendant.
As we have seen in a preceding chapter, Talon had expressed his apprehension of the evils likely to spring from the wide privileges exercised by the company. But this trading association was Colbert's creation. He had contended that the failure of the One Hundred Associates was due to inherent weakness. The new one was stronger and could do better. Perhaps difficulties might arise in the beginning on account of the inexperience and greed of some of the company's agents, but with time the situation would improve. It was not surprising that Colbert should defend the company he had organized. Nevertheless, on that point as on the other, Colbert contrived to meet Talon half-way. The Indian trade, he said, would be opened to the colonists, and for one year the company would grant freedom of trade generally to all the people of New France. In connection with the rights of this company another question, affecting the finances, was soon to arise.
By its charter the company was entitled to collect the revenues of the colony; that is to say, the taxes levied on the sale of beaver and moose skins. The tax on beaver skins was twenty-five per cent, called le droit du quart; the tax on moose skins was two sous per pound, le droit du dixieme. There was also the revenue obtained from the sale or farming out of the trading privileges at Tadoussac, la traite de Tadoussac. All these formed what was called le fonds du pays, the public fund, out of which were paid the emoluments of the governor and the public officers, the costs of the garrisons at Quebec, Montreal, and Three Rivers, the grants to religious communities, and other permanent yearly disbursements. The company had the right to collect the taxes, but was obliged to pay the public charges. Writing to Colbert, Talon said he would have been greatly pleased if, in addition to these rights, the king had retained the fiscal powers of the crown.
He declared that the taxes were productive, yet the company's agent seemed very reluctant to pay the public charges. Colbert, of course, decided that the company, in accordance with its charter, was entitled to enjoy the fiscal rights upon condition of defraying annually the ordinary public expenditure of the country, as the company which preceded it had done. Immediately another point was raised. What should be the amount of the public expenditure, or rather, to what figure should the company be allowed to reduce it? Talon maintained that the public charges defrayed by the former company amounted to 48,950 livres. [Footnote: The livre was equivalent to the later franc, about twenty cents of modern Canadian currency.] The company's agent contended that they amounted only to 29,200 livres and that the sum of 48,950 livres was exorbitant, as it exceeded by 4000 livres the highest sum ever received from farming out the revenue. [Footnote: It was the custom in New France to sell or farm out the revenues. Instead of collecting direct the fur taxes and the proceeds of the Tadoussac trade, the government granted the rights to a corporation or a private individual in return for a fixed sum annually.] To this the intendant replied by submitting evidence that the rights were farmed out for 50,000 livres in 1660 and in 1663; moreover, the rights were more valuable now, for with the conclusion of peace trade would prosper. In the end Colbert decided that the sum payable by the company should be 36,000 livres annually. The ordinary revenue of New France was thus fixed, and remained at that sum for many years. It must not be supposed that this revenue was sufficient to meet all the expenses connected with the defence and development of the colony.
There was an extraordinary fund provided by the king's treasury and devoted to the movement and maintenance of the troops, the payment of certain special emoluments, the transport of new settlers, horses, and sheep, the construction of forts, the purchase and shipment of supplies. In 1665 this extraordinary budget amounted to 358,000 livres. Talon's energetic action on the question of the revenue was inspired by his knowledge of the public needs.
He knew that many things requiring money had to be done. A new country like Canada could not be opened up for settlement without expense, and he thought that the traders who reaped the benefit of their monopoly should pay their due share of the outlay. We have already seen that Talon had begun the establishment of three villages in the vicinity of Quebec.
Let us briefly enumerate the principles which guided him in erecting these settlements. First of all, in deference to the king's instructions relative to concentration, he contrived to plant the new villages as near as possible to the capital, and evolved a plan which would group the settlers about a central point and thus provide for their mutual help and defence. In pursuance of this plan he made all his Charlesbourg land grants triangular, narrow at the head, wide at the base, so that the houses erected at the head were near each other and formed a square in the centre of the settlement. In this arrangement there was originality and good sense. After more than two centuries, Talon's idea remains stamped on the soil; and the plans of the Charlesbourg villages as surveyed in our own days show distinctly the form of settlement adopted by the intendant. Proper dwellings were made ready to receive the new-comers.
Then Talon proceeded with the establishment of settlers. To his great joy some soldiers applied for grants. He made point of having skilled workmen, some, if possible, in each village—carpenters, shoemakers, masons, or other artisans, whose services would be useful to all. He tried also to induce habitants of earlier date to join the new settlements, where their experience would be a guide and their methods an object-lesson to beginners. The grants were made on very generous terms, The soldiers and habitants, on taking possession of their land, received a substantial supply of food and the tools necessary for their work.
They were to be paid for clearing and tilling the first two acres. In return each was bound by his deed to clear and prepare for cultivation during the three or four following years another two acres, which could afterwards be allotted to an incoming settler. Talon proposed also that they should be bound to military service. For each new-comer the king assumed the total expense of clearing two acres, erecting a house, preparing and sowing the ground, and providing flour until a crop was reaped—all on condition that the occupant should clear and cultivate two additional acres within three or four years, presumably for allotment to the next new-comer. Such were the broad lines of Talon's colonization policy.
But to his mind it was not enough that he should make regulations and issue orders; he would set up a model farm himself and thus be an example in his own person. He bought land in the neighbourhood of the St Charles river and had the ground cleared at his own expense. He erected thereon a large house, a barn, and other buildings; and, in course of time, his fine property, comprising cultivated fields, meadows, and gardens, and well stocked with domestic animals, became a source of pride to him. Under Talon's wise direction and encouragement, the settlement of the country progressed rapidly.
Now that they could work in safety, the colonists set themselves to the task of clearing new farms. In his Relation of 1668 Father Le Mercier wrote: 'It is fine to see new settlements on each side of the St Lawrence for a distance of eighty leagues… The fear of aggression no longer prevents our farmers from encroaching on the forest and harvesting all kinds of grain, which the soil here grows as well as in France.' In the district of Montreal there was great activity. It was during this period that the lands of Longue-Pointe, of Pointe-aux-Trembles, and of Lachine were first cultivated. At the same time, along the river Richelieu, in the vicinity of Forts Chambly and Sorel, officers and soldiers of the Carignan-Salieres regiment were beginning to settle. 'These worthy gentlemen,' wrote Mother Marie de l'Incarnation, 'are at work, with the king's permission, establishing new French colonies. They live on their farm produce, for they have oxen, cows, and poultry.' A census taken in 1668 gave very satisfactory figures. A year before there had been 11,448 acres under cultivation. That year there were 15,649, and wheat production amounted to 130,979 bushels. Such results were encouraging. What a change in three years! One of the commodities most needed in the colony was hemp, for making coarse cloth.
Talon accordingly caused several acres to be sown with hemp. The seed was gathered and distributed among a number of farmers, on the understanding that they would bring back an equal quantity of seed next year. Then he took a very energetic step. He seized all the thread in the shops and gave notice that nobody could procure thread except in exchange for hemp. In a word, he created a monopoly of thread to promote the production of hemp; and the policy was successful. In many other ways the intendant's activity and zeal for the public good manifested themselves. He favoured the development of the St Lawrence fisheries and encouraged some of the colonists to devote their labour to them. Cod-fishing was attempted with good results. Shipbuilding was another industry of his introduction. In 1666, always desirous of setting an example, he built a small craft of one hundred and twenty tons. Later, he had the gratification of informing Colbert that a Canadian merchant was building a vessel for the purpose of fishing in the lower St Lawrence. During the following year six or seven ships were built at Quebec. The Relation of 1667 states that Talon 'took pains to find wood fit for shipbuilding, which has been begun by the construction of a barge found very useful and of a big ship ready to float.
