French Louisiana in the Age of the Companies, 1712–1731

CHAPTER FIVE FRENCH LOUISIANA IN THE AGE OF THE COMPANIES, 1712–1731 Cécile Vidal1 Founded in 1699, Louisiana was unable to benefit from the action of the two French ministers who did the most in the seventeenth century to foster the creation of companies for commerce and colonization. Driven by the concern to increase the power of the State, Richelieu and especially Colbert, who had more success than his predecessor, had developed mercantilist policies that included the creation of companies on the English and Dutch model. Established in the same spirit as guilds, these companies were associations of merchants that received a monopoly from the king over trade between the metropolis and a specific region. They made it possible to raise the large amounts of capital necessary for large-scale maritime commerce and overseas colonization. By associating, the merchants lim- ited their individual risk, while the monopoly guaranteed them a profit; they therefore agreed to finance costly enterprises that the royal treasury did not have the means to support. Companies thus served the interests of traders as well as the monarchy.2 In the New World, companies quickly became involved in the French colonization of Acadia, Canada, and the West Indies. By the end of the seventeenth century, however—the time of the founding of Louisiana—these various colonies had almost all passed under direct royal authority.3 In 1712, the same year that Louisiana’s com- mercial monopoly was entrusted to financier Antoine Crozat, the 1 This essay was translated from the original French by Leslie Choquette, Institut français, Assumption College. 2 Haudrère, La Compagnie française des Indes, v. 1, pp. 9–10; G.R. Conrad, “Reluctant Imperialist: France in North America,” in Galloway, La Salle and His Legacy, pp. 93–105, reprinted in Conrad, The French Experience in Louisiana, pp. 630–38. 3 An exception is the Company of St. Domingue, which functioned from 1698 to 1720. 134 cécile vidal governor wrote, “I have noticed that all the companies have fallen and that the colonies have only increased from the time of their fall or abandon.”4 The companies were, in fact, criticized for having contributed too little to the peopling and development of the terri- tories over which they exercised their privileges. Why then did France have recourse once again to the company system in Louisiana for two decades, from 1712 to 1731?5 What conclusions can we reach about the two successive companies: that of Crozat from 1712 to 1717, followed by the Company of the Occident (later called the Company of the Indies) from 1717 to 1731? Why did the Mississippi colony finally pass under royal rule? In order to answer these ques- tions, this article will rely heavily on the remarkable work of Marcel Giraud, who devoted five volumes to A History of French Louisiana from 1699 to 1731.6 Louisiana only began to be managed by a company thirteen years after its founding. Previously, private interests had already played an important part, directly or indirectly, in the colony’s “discovery,” exploration, and settlement. In 1667, Rouen-born adventurer René Robert Cavelier de La Salle settled in Canada. Motivated by the search for glory and fortune, he quickly began to undertake voyages of exploration south of the Great Lakes, in hopes of trading furs and finding the route to China. Four years after the “discovery” of the Mississippi by cartographer Louis Jolliet and missionary Jacques Marquette in 1673, La Salle, who enjoyed the protection of Governor Frontenac, visited the Court of France, seeking authorization to explore the mouth of the river at his own expense. Colbert agreed to his request out of the desire to find an ice-free port through which it would be possible to access Canada. In 1678, La Salle returned to Quebec, and the following year he went to Illinois Country, where 4 AC, C13A, 2, fol. 672, 2 May 1712, La Mothe to the minister, cited in Giraud, Histoire de la Louisiane française, t. 1, p. 291. 5 It should be noted that the only colony the Crown never considered entrust- ing to a company was Ile Royale, founded shortly after Louisiana, because the cod fishery involved interests both too numerous and too powerful, cf. P. Moogk, “Ile Royale: The Other New France,” in Johnston, Essays in French Colonial History, p. 48. 6 Giraud, Histoire de la Louisiane française, t. 1–4; A History of French Louisiana, t. 5. The volumes of Marcel Giraud reinvigorated the study of Louisiana at the time of the Company of the Indies, previously studied by Pierre Heinrich, cf. Heinrich, La Louisiane sous la Compagnie des Indes. .

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