The great entrepreneurs of yesteryear | An entrepreneur in New France

Quebec did not wait for the Quiet Revolution to see the emergence of great Francophone entrepreneurs. This summer, we present to you some of them, whose exploits span from 1655 to the beginning of the 20th century.^e century. Today: Marie-Anne Barbel.

Rather than importing dishes and pots from overseas, risking a break in (and in) the supply chain, why not manufacture them locally in Canada? This is the conclusion reached by businesswoman Marie-Anne Barbel, in Quebec, in 1746.

The term “business woman” did not exist at the time. “Supply chain” neither, for that matter.

Marie-Anne Barbel was nevertheless one of those enterprising women who had made an essential contribution to their husband’s business activities and who had continued them after his death, often with even greater success.

Daughter of the notary Jacques Barbel, she was born in Quebec on August 26, 1704. In December 1723, at the age of 19, she married Louis Fornel, from a family of “bourgeois merchants”. They will have 14 children, 5 of whom will reach adulthood.

big projects

Also a merchant, Louis Fornel first devoted himself to his store in the Place Royale. He multiplies the real estate and land acquisitions and is granted a seigneury which he will name Bourg-Louis.

In 1737, he joined forces with Huguenot businessmen François Havy and Jean Lefebvre to acquire sealing rights on the Labrador coast. Six years later, he reached Baie des Esquimaux (Hamilton Inlet), where he hoped to establish trading relations with the Inuit. But his request for a concession, which upset powerful interests, was contested by Intendant Hocquart.

In anticipation of his wanderings in Labrador, Fornel delegated by proxy to his wife the entire management of his affairs in Quebec. Marie-Anne Barbel can therefore take all the decisions she deems necessary.

It was a wise precaution, which Fornel may not have had time to congratulate himself on when he died following a brief illness in 1745, at the age of 46.

The 41-year-old widow has 5 minor children. She resolutely decides to continue the activities of the Place Royale store. Quickly, it consolidates its real estate assets.

One of her first acts was to conclude the acquisition of the house next to hers, Place Royale, which her husband had undertaken in 1742.

A pottery factory

The War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748) spilled over into North America from 1744, causing multiple supply difficulties for the merchants of the small French colony.

Marie-Anne Barbel saw it as an opportunity to set up a pottery factory on one of her properties, the production of which could be sold in her store in Place Royale.

In a letter dated 1746, Havy and Lefebvre note that “there is no land of France and apparently as long as the war lasts, it will be the same. But here is a resource that the country finds in Mademoiselle Fornel who has raised a factory. She has a very good worker and her land is good”.

In the article of Dictionary of Canadian Biography dedicated to Marie-Anne Barbel, the historian Dale Miquelon further emphasizes that the pottery pieces, decorated with lead and copper glazes and of such quality that they were mistaken for French products, achieved immediate success.

According to the 1752 contract that binds him to his boss, the potter François Jacques must make “three-quart terrines, one-pint pots, plates and small one-pint terrines”, notes Lilianne Plamondon in the master’s thesis she devoted to the widow Fornel.

However, the case and the trick do not turn out as well as the dynamic entrepreneur would have hoped. Potters and disputes follow one another. She will not be able to mend the broken pots.

Hit

In 1749, Marie-Anne Barbel achieved what had eluded her husband: Intendant Bigot granted her the concession of Baie des Esquimaux for 12 years.

At the same time, for 7,000 pounds a year, Barbel, Havy and Lefebvre (Veuve Fornel and company) obtained a six-year lease for the Tadoussac fur trade and its five trading posts.

Trading and sealing posts are expensive. We had to build seasonal shelters for men and equipment, charter ships, plan for supplies from France and Quebec.

Results are not guaranteed. The first year was burdened by an exceptionally harsh winter. The receipts of 50,428 pounds in oils and furs do not cover the investment of 125,766 pounds. Faced with these poor results, Intendant Bigot threatened Marie-Anne Barbel to withdraw the Tadoussac concession. In a long missive addressed to Versailles, the entrepreneur vigorously defends her rights and her balance sheet.

Fortunately, the situation recovered in the following years. At the turn of the 1750s, the company employed more than 40 men — coopers, gunsmiths, blacksmiths, sailors, clerks, hunters, etc. — to whom it paid 14,000 pounds in wages.

Marie-Anne Barbel made enough profits from the fur trade to increase her real estate investments. At the end of 1753, she owned seven houses in the lower town, another rue Saint-Louis, land bordering the shore, the seigneury of Bourg-Louis and five other lands in the surrounding region.

Alas, trouble and cannonballs will soon rain down…

Defeat

The Seven Years’ War (1756-1763) was preceded in 1754 by skirmishes between the French and English colonies, which were already disrupting economic activity.

In 1755, when the fur trade was in decline, Marie-Anne Barbel did not renew the lease on the Tadoussac farm. His pottery had already ceased operations.

The siege of Quebec, undertaken by Wolfe in June 1759, saw the city ravaged by the projectiles of the English batteries installed on the heights of Lévis. The properties of Marie-Anne Barbel did not escape the iron storm: five of her eight houses were destroyed.

Some will be rebuilt after the war, but the new circumstances do not allow him to relaunch his other businesses.

“Marie-Anne Barbel will surpass her late husband by the variety and scope of her commercial and financial activities,” wrote Lilianne Plamondon, in one of the articles she devoted to her.

She died on November 16, 1793. She had reached the age of 89—a final feat.