Posted at 7:00 a.m.
Charles Aubert de La Chesnaye was “New France’s most eminent businessman”, according to the bronze plaque that adorns a stone building on rue du Sault-au-Matelot, in the Lower -Quebec City, remnant of its 17th century residence-warehousee century.
And all things considered, it is perhaps the most important in the history of Quebec, one could argue.
humble birth
Charles Aubert – he had not yet added de La Chesnaye to his name – was born in Amiens on February 12, 1632, of bourgeois parents without any particular fortune, whom he described in his will as “honest people”.
He was 23 when he arrived in New France in 1655 as the representative of a group of merchants from Rouen.
In 1659, he acquired land along the river in Lower Town, where he undertook the construction of a large two-storey stone residence, soon to be joined by a warehouse.
Charles Aubert thus made his hand in business, as well as no doubt a substantial nest egg.
In October 1663, he won for 46,500 pounds the affermage (a form of lease allowing the exploitation of a property) of the monopoly of Tadoussac on the trade in beaver and moose skins.
The most important landowner of his time
He soon began to acquire land, the third pillar of his fortune along with trading and trade. Before long, he would be the most important landowner of his day.
He took the first important step in 1662, when he became co-owner of the seigneury of Beaupré by buying a share in the company founded to exploit the huge estate, which stretched from the Montmorency River to Cap Tourmente.
IMAGE FROM THE QUEBEC CITY ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE
Detail of the cartouche of a map from 1688, showing the house of La Chesnaye (in the center, in white)
Over the years, he thus multiplied acquisitions from one end of New France to the other.
Its properties fell into two categories. Those that had to be cleared and developed at great expense, such as the seigneuries of Repentigny and Rivière-du-Loup, and those of the region of Quebec, of great value and fruitfulness.
Settlement Contractor
“His object in purchasing farms and seigneuries was not to speculate, nor merely to secure the consideration which went with the possession of vast lands,” wrote historian Yves F. Zoltvany , died in 2021, who was a professor at Laval University for a long time.
He was above all an entrepreneur in colonization, who wanted to establish part of his business on the sale of wheat, peas and other essential foodstuffs.
Yves F. Zoltvany, historian — died in 2021 — and former professor at Laval University
The hundreds of notarial acts relating to his transactions draw the portrait of “a man deeply interested in the economic development of the colony”, he maintains in a long article which he devoted to La Chesnaye in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography.
La Chesnaye lent more or less large sums, both to the lords and to the inhabitants, usually for improvements to their properties.
Multi-entrepreneur
He started logging in 1670, encouraged by Intendant Talon, who wanted to exploit this resource. Two years later, again supported by Talon, he set foot in the seigneury of Percé, which was to serve as a fishing station.
He added a brickyard to his assets at the turn of the 1680s, and even took an interest – briefly – in mining.
Major operations
La Chesnaye had become in 1666 the representative in New France of the Compagnie des Indes Occidentales, which had held a monopoly on trade with the colony since 1664.
In 1672 he leased the rights held by the Compagnie des Indes Occidentales to beaver and moose skins for 47,000 livres a year. To better control his business, he then settled in La Rochelle, the nerve center of trade with New France. He will return to Quebec in 1678.
After its abolition by Louis XIV in 1674, many of the privileges of the Compagnie des Indes Occidentales relating to pelts were taken over by a new company, the Compagnie de la Ferme. Against an annual fee of 119,000 pounds, La Chesnaye leased the rights of the company in New France, thus securing the monopoly of beaver pelts. The scope of the enterprise, however, exceeded its means, however considerable.
By 1677 his debts had reached £1 million. He was saved from impending bankruptcy by a group of French financiers who injected new capital into the Compagnie de la Ferme.
Simultaneously, his gaze had traveled far to the north, as far as Hudson Bay, where the English had set up a profitable trade in beaver pelts.
In 1679, he met Pierre-Esprit Radisson, with whom he established the foundations of the Compagnie du Nord, dedicated to the exploitation of furs in Hudson Bay.
the apogee
Around 1681, the French financiers who had rescued him from a bad situation with the Compagnie de la Ferme, dissatisfied with their performance, wanted to liquidate their business in New France. They thus transferred their titles to La Chesnaye against a sum of 410,000 pounds, payable in four annual installments.
To guarantee his commitments, he had to mortgage all his property, the value of which was listed by notarial deed. His fortune, in 1681, amounted to 476,000 pounds.
La Chesnaye’s affairs had then reached their zenith.
The decline
The fire that ravaged the Lower Town of Quebec in 1682 marked the beginning of a slow reversal of fortunes, accentuated by the long and costly conflict with the Iroquois.
His properties had been spared by the disaster, but he advanced large sums to his fellow citizens so that they could rebuild their buildings.
He thus exhausted his cash reserves, at the time when the Compagnie de la Ferme demanded the payment of arrears amounting to 213,000 pounds. La Chesnaye freed itself from its debt in 1685.
The company fared no better. Struck by the defection of Radisson, returned to the English, the company had suffered significant losses.
La Chesnaye nevertheless continued its activities.
With a few other traders, in 1689 he notably acquired the concession of Blanc-Sablon, which included part of the coast of Labrador and Newfoundland, to establish a whaling and cod fishing center there.
But all his business was not flourishing and he had accumulated debts. It was to pay them that he sold several of his seigneuries during the 1690s.
In 1693, in gratitude for his efforts for the advancement of the colony, King Louis XIV granted him his letters of nobility.
IMAGE LIBRARY AND NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF QUEBEC
Letters of nobility from King Louis XIV in favor of Charles Aubert de La Chesnaye
The end
La Chesnaye died in Quebec on September 20, 1702.
Two years earlier, he had taken the precaution of giving each of his three sons the sum of 24,500 pounds in annuities and landed property.
The settlement of his estate, extremely complex because of the maze of his claims and debts, was never concluded. His last seigneuries were sold in 1709.
Unlike unaffiliated merchants, who returned to France with profits made in New France, “La Chesnaye invested his earnings in the colony and lent money to the inhabitants,” wrote Zoltvany. It was largely these methods that, unfortunately, ultimately led him to ruin.”
The town of Lachenaie perpetuates its name.