Ownership 359 



port to the United States has been doubled, amount- 

 ing now to about half of the total export, and as we 

 return of our own forest products 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 

 Associates, a company which also exercised a trading 

 and colonizing monopoly, but made no success, and 

 was dissolved in 1663. It was then that Richelieu 

 introduced 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 within their 

 domains^ the colonists becoming virtually serfs or 

 retainers of the seigneurs. This condition continued 

 until 1854, when an adjustment of rights was formu- 

 lated by the Seigneurial Tenures Act, and the govern- 

 ment aided the "habitans" to secure their freedom by 

 indemnifying the seigneurs. 



Under English rule, the granting of lands, without,, 

 however, the seignorial rights, was continued. la 



