Trade Conditions. 421 



been always, duty or no duty, sent almost entirely 

 to the United States. In the last six or eight years, the 

 export to the United States has been doubled, 

 amounting now to about half of the total export, and 

 as the States return of its own forest products largely 

 in the form of manufactures to the extent of about 

 6 million dollars worth, a balance of trade for the 

 Canadian forest product of 12 million dollars is left. 



2. Ownership. 



When the French took possession of the country, 

 all the land belonged to the king, and could be held 

 by others only under feudal tenure, i.e., as a gift under 

 obligation of counter service. The whole country was 

 placed as a fief under the rule of the Hundred Associ- 

 ates, a company which also exercised a trading and 

 colonizing monopoly, but made no success, and was 

 dissolved in 1663. It was then that Richelieu intro- 

 duced the system of seigniorial tenure, the land being 

 divided into portions of from 100 to 500 square miles, 

 usually with a certain amount of river front, and given 

 outright to younger noblemen, favorites of the court, 

 and clerics, who were, however, obligated to subgrant 

 to colonists, thereby becoming so many immigration 

 agents. These not only treated their colonists as 

 tenants, exacting rent and service, but exercised 

 nearly absolute jurisdiction v/ithin their domains, 

 the colonists becoming virtually serfs or retainers of 

 the seigneurs. This condition continued until 1854, 

 when an adjustment of rights was formulated by 

 the Seigneurial Tenures Act, and the government 

 aided the "habitans" to secure their freedom by 



