1645-51.] NEW REGULATIONS. 331 



in the affairs of the colony. The Company of the 

 Hundred Associates, whose outlay had been great 

 and their profit small, transferred to the inhabitants 

 of the colony their monopoly of the fur-trade, and 

 with it thek' debts. The inhabitants also assumed 

 their obligations to furnish arms, munitions, sol- 

 diers, and works of defence, to pay the Governor 

 and other officials, introduce emigrants, and con- 

 tribute to support the missions. The Company 

 was to receive, besides, an annual acknowledge- 

 ment of a thousand pounds of beaver, and was to 

 retain all seigniorial rights. The inhabitants were 

 to form a corporation, of which any one of them 

 might be a member ; and no individual could trade 

 on his own account, except on condition of selling 

 at a fixed price to the magazine of this new com- 

 pany.^ 



This change took place in 1645. It was fol- 

 lowed, in 1647, by the establishment of a Council, 

 composed of the Governor-General, the Superior 

 of the Jesuits, and the Governor of Montreal, who 

 were invested with absolute powers, legislative, 

 judicial, and executive. The Governor- General 

 had an appointment of twenty-five thousand livres, 

 besides the privilege of bringing over seventy tons 

 of freight, yearly, in the Company's ships. Out of 

 this he was required to pay the soldiers, repair the 

 forts, and supply arms and munitions. Ten thou- 

 sand livres and thu'ty tons of freight, with similar 

 conditions, were assigned to the Governor of Mont- 



1 Articles accordes entre les Directeurs et Assode's de la Compaynie de la 

 ^eue France el les Deputes des Habitans du dit Pays, 6 Mars, 1645. MS. 



