Les jouers de tric-trac, a mid-17th century painting by LeNain.
(the players of trick-track)
The Communauté des habitants (Company of Settlers) were colonial merchants who held the fur trade monopoly in New France from 1645 to 1663. In principle the Company of 100 Associates ceded its monopoly to all inhabitants of the colony, but in practice only a few of the wealthiest benefited.
Among the original promoters were ancestors, Michel LeNeuf du Hérisson and Jean Guyon. Jean Godefroy de Lintot would become a member in 1646.
The cost of the monopoly was the equivalent of the colony's administrative expenses plus an annual rent of 1000 livres' weight of beaver skins and the promise to import 20 colonists a year. The communauté was not a success: high interest rates, combined with a lack of experience in commerce, led to serious financial difficulties by 1652. The Conseil de Québec then declared the trade open to all settlers, not just the original communauté members. This arrangement continued until the communauté's collapse in 1663.
Source: The Canadian Encyclopedia, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com
