What fur did New France trade?

What fur did New France trade?

beaver pelts
The most important players in the early fur trade were Indigenous peoples and the French. The French gave European goods to Indigenous people in exchange for beaver pelts. The fur trade was the most important industry in New France. With the money they made from furs, the French sent settlers to Canada.

What did the French use the fur for?

The fur trade began in the 1500’s as an exchange between Indians and Europeans. The Indians traded furs for such goods as tools and weapons. Beaver fur, which was used in Europe to make felt hats, became the most valuable of these furs. The Indians, in turn, gave pelts to the French.

What types of fur pelts were traded?

Beaver pelts were in the greatest demand, but other animals such as mink, muskrat, fox and sable marten were also trapped. In the 1830s, when beaver lost its value as a staple fur, HBC maintained a profitable trade emphasizing fancy fur. Although the fur trade continues today, HBC is no longer in the fur business.

What did the coureurs de bois trade for fur?

These expeditions were part of the beginning of the fur trade in the North American interior. Initially they traded for beaver coats and furs. However, as the market grew, coureurs de bois were trapping and trading prime beavers whose skins were to be felted in Europe.

How did the fur trade shape the growth of New France?

Additionally, the fur trade shaped patterns of mobility and settlement in New France through its requirements of an itinerant labour force and inland trading posts. Some of these posts – like those at Quebec, Detroit, and Green Bay – became the nuclei of permanent population centres.

How did the fur trade impact France?

The fur trade helped create and maintain alliances and social relations between Europeans and Native groups. Native groups linked buying and selling with other social relations. They viewed exchanges as gifts rather than trade. Gifts created special bonds between societies and reinforced social alliances.

What were the French fur trappers called?

Voyageurs
Voyageurs (“travelers” in French) were men hired to work for the fur trade companies to transport trade goods throughout the vast territory to rendezvous posts. At the rendezvous points, these goods were exchanged for furs, which were then sent to larger cities for shipment to the east coast.

When did the French fur trade start?

Origins. French explorer Jacques Cartier in his three voyages into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence in the 1530s and 1540s conducted some of the earliest fur trading between European and First Nations peoples associated with 16th century and later explorations in North America.

What were French fur trappers called?

How did France change after 1663?

After 1663 and the establishment of the Sovereign Council economic development changed. The Company of 100 Associates was dissolved and the couriers du Bois were replaced by Government licensed traders, or Voyageurs. The Governor’s power was reduced and power was shared equally between the members of the council.

When did the French start the fur trade?

French explorer Jacques Cartier in his three voyages into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence in the 1530s and 1540s conducted some of the earliest fur trading between European and First Nations peoples associated with 16th century and later explorations in North America.

When did coureur de Bois become a fur trader?

Coureur de bois, (French: “wood runner”) French Canadian fur trader of the late 17th and early 18th centuries.

How was the fur trade regulated in New France?

By 1745, the fur trade was a highly regulated business. Anyone who wanted to enter the fur trade had to have a permit and any pelts sold outside of New France had to go through the Compagnie des Indes occidentales (West Indies Company). To legally trade with Indigenous people, traders had to buy a permit that cost 1 000 livres.

How many coureurs des bois were there in New France?

In 1680, the intendant Duchesneau estimated there were eight hundred coureurs des bois, or about 40% of the adult male population. Reports like that were wildly exaggerated: in reality, even at their zenith coureurs des bois remained a very small percentage of the population of New France.

How did the Conge system differ from the coureur des Bois?

The congé system, therefore, created the voyageur, the legal and respectable counterpart to the coureur des bois. Under the voyageurs, the fur trade began to favor a more organized business model of the times, including monopolistic ownership and hired labor.