American Colonies: The Settling of North America

Chapter 16 loops back around to New France. In 1663 the French Crown took control of Canada from the fur-trading Company of New France and began to incentivize lagging immigration numbers with money. Like in the Chesapeake and the West Indies, most emigrants were poor young men who arrived as indentured servants (called engagés) to rich seigneurs. But the Crown failed to offer sufficient incentives for permanent residence and, in 1673 when subsidies slowed, so did emigration (365-66).

The French poor had good reason to immigrate (unlike the Dutch, with their high standard of living in the Netherlands), but cultural values kept them on their family farms. Many others were conscripted into Louis XIV’s army. Those who did immigrate preferred the warmer West Indies—Canada was seen as cold, dangerous, and demanding. Farming was difficult, and export to France was costly and time-consuming.

Throughout its existence, the French Canadian economy depended on the Crown for money (370). But most immigrants to Canada, called habitants, flourished, with better food, home ownership, no direct taxes, and lower tithes (370-71). A lack of surplus led to rough equality (371). While women in New France were still subordinate to men, they enjoyed more legal and economic equality than their English counterparts (372).