_Talon.--Restriction and Monopoly.--Views of Colbert.--Political
Galvanism.--A Father of the People._
|Tracy’s work was done, and he left Canada with the glittering
_noblesse_ in his train. Courcelle and Talon remained to rule alone; and
now the great experiment was begun. Paternal royalty would try its hand
at building up a colony, and Talon was its chosen agent. His appearance
did him no justice. The regular contour of his oval face, about which
fell to his shoulders a cataract of curls, natural or supposititious;
the smooth lines of his well-formed features, brows delicately arched,
and a mouth more suggestive of feminine sensibility than of masculine
force,--would certainly have misled the disciple of Lavater. * Yet there
was no want of manhood in him. He was most happily chosen for the task
placed in his hands, and from first to last approved himself a vigorous
executive officer. He was a true disciple of Colbert, formed in his
school and animated by his spirit.
* His portrait is at the Hôtel Dieu of Quebec. An engraving
from it will be found in the third volume of Shea’s
Charlevoix.
Being on the spot, he was better able than his master to judge the
working of the new order of things. With regard to the company, he
writes that it will profit by impoverishing the colony; that its
monopolies dishearten the people and paralyze enterprise; that it is
thwarting the intentions of the king, who wishes trade to be encouraged;
and that, if its exclusive privileges are maintained, Canada in ten
years will be less populous than now. * But Colbert clung to his plan,
though he wrote in reply that to satisfy the colonists he had persuaded
the company to forego the monopolies for a year. ** As this proved
insufficient, the company was at length forced to give up permanently
its right of exclusive trade, still exacting its share of beaver and
moose skins. This was its chief source of profit; it begrudged every sou
deducted from it for charges of government, and the king was constantly
obliged to do at his own cost that which the company should have done.
In one point it showed a ceaseless activity; and this was the levying of
duties, in which it was never known to fail.
Trade, even after its exercise was permitted, was continually vexed by
the hand of authority. One of Tracy’s first measures had been to issue
a decree reducing the price of wheat one half. The council took up the
work of regulation, and fixed the price of all imported goods in three
several tariffs,--one for Quebec, one for Three Rivers, and
* Talon a Colbert, 4 Oct., 1665.
** Colbert a Talon, 5 Avril, 1666.
one for Montreal. * It may well be believed that there was in Canada
little capital and little enterprise. Industrially and commercially, the
colony was almost dead. Talon set himself to galvanize it; and, if
one man could have supplied the intelligence and energy of a whole
community, the results would have been triumphant.
He had received elaborate instructions, and they indicate an ardent wish
for the prosperity of Canada. Colbert had written to him that the
true means to strengthen the colony was to “cause justice to reign,
establish a good police, protect the inhabitants, discipline them
against enemies, and procure for them peace, repose, and plenty.”
** “And as,” the minister further says, “the king regards his
Canadian subjects, from the highest to the lowest, almost as his own
children, and wishes them to enjoy equally with the people of France
the mildness and happiness of his reign, the Sieur Talon will study to
solace them in all things and encourage them to trade and industry. And,
seeing that nothing can better promote this end than entering into the
details of their households and of all their little affairs, it will
not be amiss that he visit all their settlements one after the other
in order to learn their true condition, provide as much as possible for
their wants, and, performing the duty of a good head of a family, put
them in the way of making some profit.” The intendant was also told to
encourage fathers to inspire their children with
* Tariff of Prices, in N. Y. Colonial Docs. IX. 36
** Colbert a Talon, 6 Avril, 1666.
piety, together with “profound love and respect for the royal person
of his Majesty.” *
Talon entered on his work with admirable zeal. Sometimes he used
authority, sometimes persuasion, sometimes promises of reward.
Sometimes, again, he tried the force of example. Thus he built a ship to
show the people how to do it, and rouse them to imitation. ** Three or
four years later, the experiment was repeated. This time it was at the
cost of the king, who applied the sum of forty thousand livres *** to
the double purpose of promoting the art of ship-building, and saving
the colonists from vagrant habits by giving them employment. Talon wrote
that three hundred and fifty men had been supplied that summer with work
at the charge of government. ****
He despatched two engineers to search for coal, lead, iron, copper,
and other minerals. Important discoveries of iron were made; but three
generations were destined to pass before the mines were successfully
worked. (v) The copper of Lake Superior raised the intendants hopes for
a time, but he was soon forced to the conclusion that it was too remote
to be of practical value. He labored vigorously to develop arts and
manufactures; made a barrel of tar, and sent it to the king as a
specimen; caused some of the colonists to make cloth
* Instruction au Sieur Talon, 27 Mars, 1665.
** Talon a Colbert, Oct., 1667; Colbert a Talon, 20 Fev.,
1668.
*** Dépêche de Colbert, 11 Fev., 1671.
**** Talon a Colbert, 2 Nov., 1671.
(v) Charlevoix speaks of these mines as having been
forgotten for seventy years, and rediscovered in his time.
After passing. through various hands, they were finally
worked on the king’s account.
of the wool of the sheep which the king had sent out; encouraged others
to establish a tannery, and also a factory of hats and of shoes. The
Sieur Follin was induced by the grant of a monopoly to begin the making
of soap and potash. * The people were ordered to grow hemp, ** and urged
to gather the nettles of the country as material for cordage; and the
Ursulines were supplied with flax and wool, in order that they might
teach girls to weave and spin.
Talon was especially anxious to establish trade between Canada and the
West Indies; and, to make a beginning, he freighted the vessel he
had built with salted cod, salmon, eels, pease, fish-oil, staves, and
planks, and sent her thither to exchange her cargo for sugar, which
she was in turn to exchange in France for goods suited for the Canadian
market. *** Another favorite object with him was the fishery of seals
and white porpoises for the sake of their oil; and some of the chief
merchants were urged to undertake it, as well as the establishment of
stationary cod-fisheries along the Lower St. Lawrence. But, with every
encouragement, many years passed before this valuable industry was
placed on a firm basis.
Talon saw with concern the huge consumption of wine and brandy among
the settlers, costing them, as he wrote to Colbert, a hundred thousand
livres a year; and, to keep this money in the
* Registre du Conseil Souverain.
** Marie de l’Incarnation, Choix des Lettres de 871.
*** Le Mercier, Rel. 1667, 3; Dépêches de Talon
colony, he declared his intention of building a brewery. The minister
approved the plan, not only on economic grounds, but because “the vice
of drunkenness would thereafter cause no more scandal by reason of the
cold nature of beer, the vapors whereof rarely deprive men of the use
of judgment.” * The brewery was accordingly built, to the great
satisfaction of the poorer colonists.
Nor did the active intendant fail to acquit himself of the duty of
domiciliary visits, enjoined upon him by the royal instructions; a
point on which he was of one mind with his superiors, for he writes that
“those charged in this country with his Majesty’s affairs are
under a strict obligation to enter into the detail of families.” **
Accordingly we learn from Mother Juchereau, that "he studied with the
affection of a father how to succor the poor and cause the colony to
grow; entered into the minutest particulars; visited the houses of the
inhabitants, and caused them to visit him; learned what crops each one
was raising; taught those who had wheat to sell it at a profit, helped
those who had none, and encouraged everybody.” And Dollier de Casson
represents him as visiting in turn every house at Montreal, and giving
aid from the king to such as needed it. *** Horses, cattle, sheep,
and other domestic animals, were sent out at the royal charge in
considerable numbers, and
* Colbert à Talon, 20 Fev., 1668.
** Mémoire de 1667.
*** Histoire du Montréal, a.d. 1666, 1667.
distributed gratuitously, with an order that none of the young should
be killed till the country was sufficiently stocked. Large quantities
of goods were also sent from the same high quarter. Some of these were
distributed as gifts, and the rest bartered for corn to supply the
troops. As the intendant perceived that the farmers lost much time in
coming from their distant clearings to buy necessaries at Quebec, he
caused his agents to furnish them with the king’s goods at their
own houses, to the great annoyance of the merchants of Quebec, who
complained that their accustomed trade was thus forestalled. *
These were not the only cares which occupied the mind of Talon. He tried
to open a road across the country to Acadia, an almost impossible task,
in which he and his successors completely failed. Under his auspices,
Albanel penetrated to Hudson’s Bay, and Saint Lusson took possession
in the king’s name of the country of the Upper Lakes. It was Talon,
in short, who prepared the way for the remarkable series of explorations
described in another work. ** Again and again he urged upon Colbert
and the king a measure from which, had it taken effect, momentous
consequences must have sprung. This was the purchase or seizure of New
York, involving the isolation of New England, the subjection of the
Iroquois, and the undisputed control of half the continent.
* Talon a Colbert, 10 Nov., 1670.
** Discovery of the Great West
Great as were his opportunities of abusing his trust, it does not appear
that he took advantage of them. He held lands and houses in Canada,
* owned the brewery which he had established, and embarked in various
enterprises of productive industry; but, so far as I can discover, he is
nowhere accused of making illicit gains, and there is reason to believe
that he acquitted himself of his charge with entire fidelity. ** His
health failed in 1668, and for this and other causes he asked for his
recall. Colbert granted it with strong expressions of regret; and when,
two years later, he resumed the intendancy, the colony seems to have
welcomed his return.
* In 1682, the Intendant Meules, in a despatch to the
minister, makes a statement of Talon’s property in Quebec.
The chief items are the brewery and a house of some value on
the descent of Mountain Street. He owned, also, the valuable
seigniory, afterwards barony, Des Islets, in the immediate
neighborhood.
** Some imputations against him, not of much weight, are,
however, made in a memorial of Aubert de la Chesnaye, a
merchant of Quebec