[cruikshank] ADAJNISTRATION OF SIR JAMES CRAIG 68 



Sorel was smaller than Three Elvers, and had declined in importance 



in consequence of the recent closing of a ship-yard which had been in 

 operation for some years. 



Montreal was the headquarters of the fur trade with the western 

 Indians, and of all kinds of trade with Upper Canada. The Northwest 

 Fur Company, composed exclusively of Scotch and English residents 

 of Montreal, employed fully 3,000 clerks, voyageurs and trappers. The 

 goods for conducting this trade were forwarded in a flotilla of forty or 

 fifty large canoes, which set out from Lachine annually about the 15th 

 of May, by the way of the Ottawa river for the head of Lake Superior. 

 Their posts were established as far west as the Rocky ]\Iountains, and 

 as far soutli as the Missouri river, some of which were so distant and 

 difficult of access that returns were not usually received until the fourth 

 year after the despatch of the goods. This trade was so extremely pro- 

 fitable, that it was said that it was not unusual for a clerk to retire after 

 fifteen or twenty , years' service with a fortune of £20,000 and a broken 

 constitution. Another powerful association of Montreal merchants had 

 lately been formed under the name of the Southwest or Michilimacki'nac 

 Company, to can-y on the fur trade within the territories of the United 

 States in the vicinity of the Mississippi and its affluents. At MJontreaJ 

 also were the stores of the Indian Department, from which a fleet of 

 thirty oanoes conveying goods to the value of about £10,000 was annually 

 despatched for distribution among the western Indians, among whom 

 they were apportioned by the resident agents at the upper posts. The 

 trade with Upper Canada had begun to attain large dimensions. Be- 

 tween April 27th and November 28th, 1807, thirty-nine scows from that 

 province arrived at Montreal, carrying 19,693 barrels of flour, 1,460 

 bushels of wheat, 127 barrels of potash, 48 barrels of pork and eight 

 packs of furs, besides 340 rafts containing 277,010 feet of oak timber, 

 4,300 feet of pine timber, 691,200 staves, 72,440 planks and 985 masts 

 and 701 cribs- of firewood, containing 6,300 cords.^ 



The influence of the Noblesse and seigniors had greatly diminished 

 since the passing of the Constitutional Act of 1791. Several of them 

 had secured seats in the first Legislative Assembly of the province, but 

 few had been elected since. Many of them had removed into the cities 

 and to^\Tis and only visited their estates at intervals for the purpose 

 of collecting their rents, which were usually paid in kind, and their re- 

 lations with their tenants were frequently far from cordial. On the 

 other hand many shop-keepers and notaries had grown comparatively 



1 Lambert Travels, Vol. I, pp. 236-249. 



Sec II., 1908. .5. 



