O63.) THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
enforcement of the orthodox European policy of the period. As a 
result, the French colonies developed but slowly during the periods 
of peace and were subject to the most varied and uncertain fortunes 
during war. During the earlier stages of war, however, the French 
colonies of Canada, Acadia, and Isle Royale, or Cape Breton, usually 
enjoyed exceptional prosperity. During war the customary policy 
pursued in times of peace had often to be reversed, and regions from 
which revenue was sought to be extracted might become, during war, 
the centres of extensive expenditure. 
During the French régime, Canada normally suffered from in- 
adequate development, the French Government being as a rule too 
eager to reap abundantly where it had sown but scantily. It, there- 
fore, entrusted to monopolistic trade corporations the task of ex- 
ploiting the country, in order that the Government might, on the 
one hand, avoid the expense of developing the colonies, while, on the 
other, seeking to tax the companies upon their anticipated profits 
due to the exclusive monopoly of colonial trade and shipping which 
had been granted to them: The effect upon the French North 
American colonies of the chronic condition of warfare which charac- 
terized the relations between Britain and France during the greater 
part of the eighteenth century, was somewhat varied. During 
the period of active hostilities in the interior of the continent, the 
Canadian population suffered in two ways, first and chiefly in being 
dragged from their homes to serve either as soldiers in the field or as 
workmen and portageurs under the odious Corvé system of forced 
labour, and secondly, in the neglect of their farms and domestic in- 
dustries, which meant the serious retarding of the development of 
the country. | 
In so far, however, as the warfare was chiefly confined to a struggle 
upon the high seas and the maintenance of a condition of well equipped 
preparedness on land, the Canadian colony usually found the situation 
to its immediate advantage, although commonly to its ultimate loss 
through the very waste of national resources, from the fragments of 
which the temporary prosperity was derived. During the period 
from 1735 to the first fall of Louisburg in 1745, while Canada was 
maintained on a basis of fair equipment, there was little serious war- 
fare in the inland regions. The purchase by the Home Government 
of considerable supplies to be used within the country contributed 
greatly to the economic advantage of the colony as a whole. Even 
more advantageous, however, was the great business in the imports 
and exports carried on through the rapidly developing port of Louis- 
burg. The significance of this important centre in the prolonged 
Anglo-French struggle was due to the fact that it furnished a very 
