Before concluding this chapter we may here also quote Pouchot's appreciation of the trade conditions of Canada at the end of the French régime, since it supplements former notes on this head and helps us to understand the position of Montreal as the center of the up-country fur trade at the end of the French régime.
The trade of Canada, he tells us, "is made on the king's account and by individuals. The intendant has the general direction of this business. The king has magazines at Quebec, Montreal, St. Johns, Chambly and Carillon, and for the posts further up at La Présentation, Niagara, Frontenac, the fort at the Portage, at Presqu'lle, Rivière aux Bœufs and at Fort Duquesne.
"The magazine at Quebec is a dépôt to supply that at Montreal and also issues supplies for trade with our domiciliated Indians, the Abenakis, and others down the river. The magazine at Montreal furnishes merchandises to all the posts above mentioned. Its trade directly with them was but small until the king appointed a commissary. These magazines furnish all the provisions for the war, as well as for trade and for the king's service. They also in part supply the artillery.
"The king has at all these places storekeepers nominated by the intendant, to whom they report direct. The intendant has under him a commissary of ordnance of the marine, who remains at Montreal to attend to the details of the upper country."
The writer criticizes as unsuitable for Indians much of the merchandise sent out, as mirrors mounted on morocco, silk stuffs and remnants of various other fabrics, handkerchiefs, hose, and in short, all the remnants of the shops. There was much waste for the king—much reversion of his profits—but still it was a very profitable trade.
"The Indians gave in exchange for these goods the skins of roebucks, stags, bears, beavers, otters, pécans, squirrels, martens, lynxes, foxes, muskrats, wood-rats, wolves, caribous and moose. They trade also for bread, pork, salt, prunes, molasses, all kinds of meats and fish, bears' oil, which they value more than goose oil, and the down of aquatic birds. All these different exchanges are reduced in value to the beaver skin, which is commonly reckoned as a bottle of brandy at thirty sols. A pound of castor is valued at four livres, ten sols, and skins weigh from two and a half to three pounds. The price of our goods varies with the distance of the localities."
The second kind of trade was carried by individuals.
The posts in the interior were assigned to officers in favour. They took with them a storekeeper to trade for them. "As they had no money, they found merchants at Quebec and Montreal who supplied, upon credit, all the goods necessary, which they called equipping them. They agreed upon their prices, and gave peltry to the merchants in return. They had to earn profits for both parties. These officers had often to negotiate for the king with the natives near the posts and to give them goods as presents. They were paid by the intendant upon the approval and order of the governor. This occasioned many hypothecated accounts which turned to the most certain profit of these commandants, especially in time of war.
"These commandants, as well as private traders, were obliged to take out licenses from the governor, which cost from four to five hundred livres, in order to be allowed to carry their goods to the post and to charge some effects to the king's account. This feature always presented a prominent obstacle to trade establishments of Canada, as they were obliged to take out these licenses every time they wished to go into the interior of the country. The most distant posts in the Northwest were the most highly coveted, on account of the abundance and low prices of peltries and the high price of goods.