Government of Canada, 1749.

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I have already spoken on the government of this country. Today I wish to add a note relative to the subject. The inhabitants of Canada as such pay nothing to the king to date: however, last year a form of payment was introduced, in the amount of three percent on all merchandise imported from France commercially; in addition a surplus must be paid on all furs exported to France from Canada; no payment is required for the same merchandise destined for the French colonies, nor for imports from those regions. It is said that merchant ships are free to deliver their cargo here from all French regions and colonies and that, similarly, merchants in Québec are totally free to expedite their merchandise to any French province or colony. The latter generally have few ships, as the people of Canada require high salaries and it is the French merchants themselves who bring their merchandise here. The Shipments come mainly from the following French cities: firstly, La Rochelle and Bordeaux, but Marseille as well, Nantes, Havre-de-grâce, Saint-Malo, among others. The royal navy that brings merchandise and other items here on a yearly basis, leaves from Brest or Rochefort. Merchants from Québec hire other ships on which they expedite flour, wheat, peas, wood, etc., to French islands in South America.

The walls around the city of Montréal were constructed at the king’s expense approximately ten years ago, under the reserve that the city would slowly reimburse the royal treasury, until the debt is erased. The city reimburses the crown 6000 livres yearly for the walls; the priests contribute a third of the amount, and the remainder is payable by the inhabitants. The king had the Québec walls constructed at his own expense, without burden to the inhabitants, as they have duty taxes to pay.

The West Indies Company has the trade monopoly on beaver furs and it is managed by its employees only. As for other furs, trading is open to all. There are many areas, in Canada’s interior, where the French trade merchandise; they are called trading posts. The only properties belonging to the king are the fortresses in Québec, Fort Chamblais [Chambly], Fort Saint-Jean, Saint-Frédéric, Montréal, Frontenac and Niagara; the others belong to traders or to private individuals. The king singularly governs the Niagara trade. No inhabitant from Montréal is permitted to trade freely with the Savages; he must first obtain the authority and permission of the governor-general, and pay a major sum of money.

In Québec, the governor-general and the intendant conduct business in buildings constructed by the king, but in Montréal nothing has been built for them; the king has only given permission to provide them with rented space. The house of the former governor-general, monsieur Vaudreuil, was rented for the present governor-general and is named the Château. For his part, the governor of Montréal has not been provided with a lodging by the king and nothing is rented for his use; he must himself rent his own lodging. The king owns no property here,

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other than the prison.

The storekeeper has a function similar to that of an intendant or, more precisely, to that of a chief keeper of supplies from the home country. He is in charge of all the king’s merchandise and food provisions, all that the king has brought here destined for trade with the savages and for many other purposes. The storekeeper is not permitted to deliver any items without a prior order, and this order comes from the commissary or his second-in-command.

I previously stated that no one has the freedom to conduct fur trading with the Savages without the prior permission of the governor-general. This is not granted free of charge; a rather large sum of money must be paid relative to the importance of the trading region in question. A merchant who sends a boat filled with various types of merchandise and with a crew of 4 or 5 men must pay a sum of 500 to 600 livres for the authorization to do so, and there are regions in which the authorization can cost up to 1000 livres. Often authorization is not granted even when high sums of money are offered, and the reason is that the governor-general, who provides the authorization and receives payment, has granted or will grant permission to friends or family. It is the governor-general who receives the money, but as custom would have it he must remit half of the amount to the poor. Is the custom faithfully observed? Who can say!

Source: Kalm, Pehr, Travels of Pehr Kalm in Canada in 1749 (Montréal: Éditions Pierre Tisseyre, n.d.), p. 520-521. Notes: Annotated translation of the travel journal by Jacques Rousseau and Guy Béthune, in collaboration with Pierre Morisset

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