Canada was in vogue and several families from Normandy and the Perche
took sail to come and reside in it; there were nobles, the most of them
poor, we might say, who found out from the first, that M. de Montmagny
was too disinterested to be willing to consider the change they desired
for their advantage. They intrigued against him five or six families
without the participation of the others, got leave from him to go to
France to ask for favors and there had one of themselves as governor;
obtained liberty in the beaver trade, which until then had been
strictly forbidden to the inhabitants who had been reserved the fruits
of the country to advance the culture of the land such as pease, Indian
corn, and wheat bread. That was the first title of the inhabitants to
trade with the indians.
To arrive at that end they promised to pay annually 1000 beaver to the
Paris office for its seignorial right which it did not receive through
its attention and management of its affairs.
They got permission to form a Board from their principal men, to
transact with the governor all matters in the country for peace, for
war, the settlement of accounts of their society or little republic,
and also sitting on cases concerning interests of private individuals.
It was then that to keep up this sham republic or society, a tax of
one-fourth was imposed on the export of beaver.
By these means the authority of the Company and its store were ruined
and the whole was turning to the advantage of those four or six
families, the others, either poor or slighted by the authority of M.
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