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With the fur trade in crisis, La Compagnie du Castor shows signs of panic. Manuscript document, signed. by [La Compagnie du Castor] Claude de Ramezay, Sieur Nicolas de la Lanouillier, and 9 others - 1716

by [La Compagnie du Castor] Claude de Ramezay, Sieur Nicolas de la Lanouillier, and 9 others

With the fur trade in crisis, La Compagnie du Castor shows signs of panic.  Manuscript document, signed. by [La Compagnie du Castor] Claude de Ramezay, Sieur Nicolas de la Lanouillier, and 9 others - 1716

With the fur trade in crisis, La Compagnie du Castor shows signs of panic. Manuscript document, signed.

by [La Compagnie du Castor] Claude de Ramezay, Sieur Nicolas de la Lanouillier, and 9 others

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Montreal: August 27, 1716. Good/In 1715, the Compagnie du Castor, directed by Nicolas de la Lanouillier, retained the monopoly on the beaver trade in Canada. The company failed to honor its bills of exchange that year, and failed in all of its payments the following spring. The company scrambled to hire intermediary suppliers to deal with the rough trappers and traders at the bottom of the fur trade, but the middlemen refused to function without guarantees of payment. The present document is a declaration made by the company director in the presence of (no less than!) the acting governor of New France, Claude de Ramezay, that a certain supplier named Brire, "who does not know how to write," delivered 190 packs of dry beaver weighing 120 pounds each, and that it was duly noted in the Bureau of Beaver Inventory (Bureau de la Recette des Castors) in Montreal. The document is signed by Lanouillier, Ramezay, and several prominent merchants. There is a note of panic in the assembly of big shots to guarantee a transaction between the monopoly and an illiterate trader. By 1720, the Compagnie du Castor was amalgamated into the Compagnie des Indes. . 1 leaf folio (35cm); torn at bottom edge with loss of text at lower right of recto and damage to signatures at lower left of verso. Repaired with blank white paper, which has toned to tan. Main text and signatures still present and legible. Condition noted. Reference: Lande, Political Economy of New France, #214.
  • Bookseller Rodger Friedman Rare Book Studio US (US)
  • Book Condition Used - Good
  • Jacket Condition In 1715, the Compagnie du Castor, directed by Nicolas de la Lanouillier, retained the monopoly on the beaver trade in Canada. T
  • Quantity Available 1
  • Publisher August 27
  • Place of Publication Montreal
  • Date Published 1716
  • Keywords Compagnie des Indes Canada fur trade commerce and trade