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 l

e. 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

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 cond

ation 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

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 wa

nt, 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 wh

c 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 coll

inary 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

many things requiring money had to be done. A new country like Canada could not be opened up for settlement without ex

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 ot

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.

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 ex

s 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, an

sting 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

eated 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,

r France. The intendant, always ready to show the way, entered into partnership with a merchant and shipped to the West Indies salmon, eels, salt and dried cod, peas, staves, fish-oil, planks, and small masts much needed in the islands. The establishment of commercial relations between Canada and the West Indies was an event of no small moment. During the following years this trade pr

correspondence to the existence of coal where none is now to be found. In 1667 he wrote to Colbert that a coal-mine had been discovered at the foot of the Quebec rock. 'This coal,' he said, 'is good enough for the forge. If the test is satisfactory, I shall see that our vessels take loads of it to serve as ballast. It would be a great help in our naval construction; we could then do without the English coal.' Next year the intendant wrote again: 'The coal-mine opened at Quebec, which originated in the cellar of a lower-town resident and is continued through the cape under the Chateau Saint-Louis, could not be worked, I fear, without imperilling the stability of the chateau. However, I shall try to follow anoth

ing part of their surplus product, and also to do something to check the increasing importation of spirits which caused so much trouble and disorder. However questionable the efficacy of beer in promoting temperance, Talon's object is worthy of applause. Three years later the intendant wrote that his brewery was capable

rote again: 'This pear ninety-two girls came from France and they are already married to soldiers and labourers.' In 1670 one hundred and fifty girls arrived, and Talon wrote on November 10: 'All the girls who came this year are married, except fifteen whom I have placed in well-known families to await the time when the soldiers who sought them for their wives are established and able to maintain them.' It was indeed a matrimonial period, and it is not surprising that marriage was the order of the day. Every incentive to that end was brought to bear. The intendant gave fifty livres in household supplies and some provisions to each young woman who contracted marriage. According to the king's decree, each youth who married at or before the age of twenty was entitled to a gift of twenty livres, called 'the king's gift.' The same decree imposed a penalty upon all fathers who had not married their sons at twenty and their daughters at sixteen. In the same spirit, it enacted also that all Canadians having ten children living should be entitled to a pension of three hundred livres annually; four hundred livres was the reward for twelve. 'Marry early' was the royal mandate. Colbert, writing to Talon in 1668, says: 'I pray you to

country, received sixteen hundred livres. During the years 1665-68 six thousand livres were expended to aid the marriage of young gentlewomen wit

try where they would be well provided for. In 1670 Colbert wrote to the archbishop of Rouen: 'As in the parishes about Rouen fifty or sixty girls might be found who would be very glad to go to Canada to be married, I beg you to employ your credit and authority with the cures of thirty or forty of these parishes, to try to find in each of them one or two girls disposed to go voluntarily for the sake of settlement in life.' Such was the quality of the female emigration to Canada. The girls were drawn from reputable ins

nd about four hundred decided to make their home in Canada. They were generously subsidized. Each soldier electing to settle in the colony received one hundred livres, or fifty livres with provisions for one year, at his choice. Each sergeant received one hundred and fifty livres, or one hundred livres with one

ot but give a great impulse to population. The inc

to believe that, without any further female immigration, the country will see more than one hundred marriages next year. I consider it unnecessary to send girls next year; the better to give the habitants a chance

r of families 533. In 1668 the number of families was 1139 and the population 6282. In thre

ed Associates to M. de Montmagny, the governor who succeeded Champlain. But from 1665 to 1668 forty-one mares and stallions and eighty sheep were brought from France. Domestic animals continued to be introduced until 1672. Fourteen horses and fifty sheep were sent in 1669, thirteen horses in 1670, the same number of horses and a few asses in 16

cial reformer and the reviver of trade and industry, the sagacious and painstaking intendant in his remote corner of the globe was laying the foundations of an economic and political system, and opening to the young country the road of commercial, in