CHAPTER THREE 



THE EARLY FUR TRADE OF LOUISIANA 



IT is A difficult matter to give a concise and yet complete 

 history of the early fur trade of that great section of 

 North America which for many years was known as 

 Louisiana, for what was done in those pioneer days has 

 remained buried in dusty tomes and archives, and forgotten 

 official records, with no one sufficiently interested to un- 

 earth the pertinent facts from their burial grounds and 

 give them a place in printed words available to those seek- 

 ing such historical knowledge. 



One such collection of records has been made, however, 

 and that is the volume issued by the Columbia University 

 of New York, as a part of the printed studies in history, 

 economics, and public law series. This book, "The Com- 

 merce of Louisiana During the French Regime, 1699-1763," 

 by N. M. Miller Surrey, Ph. D., is probably one of the 

 most valuable works of its kind for the student who elects 

 to make studies of any phase of the early settlement of 

 this part of the North American continent. The matter 

 that follows, devoted to the early fur trade of Louisiana, 

 has been drawn very freely from Mrs. Surrey's excellent 

 compilation and from the bibliography, followed many 

 other sources of information. 



The establishment of the Lower Louisiana colony proved 

 a costly venture to France, Chambers tells us,- and at a 

 time when she was finding her financial resources taxed to 

 the utmost. So the king and his advisors gladly seized upon 

 the opportunity to put the burden of the colony's mainte- 

 nance on other shoulders and a bargain was struck with 

 Antoine Crozat, a French merchant of great wealth and 

 capacity for business. In consideration of his sending at 

 least two shiploads of settlers yearly to the colony, and his 

 bearing a large proportion of the expenses for the subse- 

 quent six years, Crozat was granted seigneurial jurisdiction 

 over Louisiana by Louis XIV, after whom this great inland 



2 Chamhers, Mississippi Valley Beginnings, p. 57. 



