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Company of One Hundred Associates
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The Company of One Hundred Associates was a fur trade enterprise created at a time when all territories explored by the French and seized as a part of the French colonial empire were the property of the King of France. In order to assert the King's sovereignty over these seized territories and to exploit its resources, France needed to establish permanent settlements and fortifications. As such, in 1613 a Royal charter granted an exclusive monopoly for New France to a select few aristocratic friends of the King who formed a company to invest in this vast territory.
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The Company of One Hundred Associates was a fur trade enterprise created at a time when all territories explored by the French and seized as a part of the French colonial empire were the property of the King of France. In order to assert the King's sovereignty over these seized territories and to exploit its resources, France needed to establish permanent settlements and fortifications. As such, in 1613 a Royal charter granted an exclusive monopoly for New France to a select few aristocratic friends of the King who formed a company to invest in this vast territory. Neither the Royal government of France nor any of these companies saw any real value in Quebec or Acadia beyond the fur trade because it was the gold, silver, precious gems, plus the spices and sugar crops from the warmer climates of the southern hemisphere around the Caribbean that was the prime source of exploitation. The riches available in these lands meant that France had fierce competition from England, the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal that led to repeated wars.
From 1613 to 1620, the Compagnie des Marchands operated in New France but as a result of a breach of their contract, lost their rights in 1621 to the Compagnie de Montmorency. However, in 1627, Cardinal Richelieu replaced this company with the Company of One Hundred Associates (Compagnie des Cent-Associés), ensuring that not only the State benefited, but that the Roman Catholic Church would as well.
The Company of One Hundred Associates, owned by bourgeois merchants and aristocratic court and church officials, was granted a complete monopoly over the fur trade and a limited monopoly of other commercial exploits in New France, a territory that encompassed all of Acadia, Canada, New France, Newfoundland, and the Louisiana. From 1629 to 1635 Samuel de Champlain was the Company of One Hundred Associates commander in New France. Under the Ancien Regime in France, every community was governed by a lord and a priest plus a magistrate appointed only with the lord and priest's concurrence. As such, a component of the Cardinal Richelieu charter given the Company of One Hundred Associates provided for Roman Catholic priests to be part of all settlements and explorations and priests were given governing authority in conjunction with any appointed Intendants. The charter also required the company to bring an average of 160 settlers to New France over the next twenty five years and to support their settlement for the first three years.
From the start, the Company of One Hundred Associates encountered numerous difficulties with its exploitation of New France including territorial battles with the British. By 1631 the company had to find new investors willing to accept the risks. In order to attract people and capital, the company had to allocate portions of its trading monopoly to new subsidiary companies. These subsidiary partners, such as the Compagnie des Habitants in Quebec, were made up of wealthy members of the elite from various parts of France. Nevertheless, over the ensuing two decades this concept too had very limited success and France turned its attention to more important things in 1635 when it joined the Thirty Years' War in Europe.
Discontent with settlers in Quebec over the Company of One Hundred Associates total control of the fur trade caused numerous problems and matters worsened during the 1650s when war with the Iroquois First Nations severely hampered the fur trade and threatened continued colonization. Unable to deal with the numerous and ongoing difficulties, in 1663 the Company of One Hundred Associates surrendered its charter.
Bibliography
- Levi, Anthony (2000). Cardinal Richelieu: And the Making of France. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers. ISBN 078670778X.
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