‘Rich by Nature, Poor by Policy’: The premature birth and quick death of commercial brewing in , 1667-1675

Matthew J Bellamy

Introduction Canadian landscape. The question that this article seeks to explore is: why? In March 1667, the energetic Intendant of the colony of New France, Jean Talon, There is an enduring debate in Canadian wrote to his superiors in Paris, France. historiography over the effects of State As Intendant of New France, Talon was in activism in the economic life of the control of the colony's entire civil admin- nation. For many, state intervention has istration and charged with stimulating been beneficial to development. Some the economic development of the belea- have even gone so far as to argue that guered colony. To that end, he proposed State activism defines the spirit of building the colony's first commercial Canadian capitalism and ultimately has . ‘The conditions here are ideal,’ shaped the Canadian identity.1 ‘[W]e Jean Talon optimistically wrote, ‘for the have experimented in another method of production of the weaker drink.’ By the providing public services,’ the historian ‘weaker drink,’ Talon meant . And Frank Underhill stated in 1929, ‘than that under his mercantilist watch, commercial of trusting to the private capitalist in brewing was induced into existence. search of profit’.2 A similar sentiment was echoed approximately fifty years Every advantage was given to this first later. ‘The Canadian dialectic never child of Canadian commercial brewing. allowed for the dynamic of free enter- Fully state-owned and controlled, the prise culture,’ the public thinker Herschel Brasserie du Roy operated in a protected Hardin trumpeted, ‘to take hold at the environment devoid of competition and centre of the country's life’.3 Without the with unlimited access to raw materials, state's activist impulse, the nation's capital and markets. Yet in less than a canals, railroads and airlines would not decade commercial brewing came, and have come into existence; the Canadian then just as quickly vanished from the West would not have been settled; man- ufacturing would not have emerged as early as it did; and certain industries would not have existed at all. Instead, * This article has undergone peer review. Canada would have remained an eco-

Brewery History Number 137 19 nomic hinterland on the periphery of the ‘Rich By Nature’: A land of barley, Empire; a nation exploited, dependent and fresh water and underdeveloped. Indeed, according to the most nationalistic of this school of With perfect prose and penmanship, thought, Canada might not exist today as Jean Baptiste Colbert, the French a sovereign transcontinental geo-politi- Minister of Marine and the foremost cal entity if it wasn't for state activism mercantilist of his era, responded to many decades ago.4 Talon's letter of April 1667.

While this perspective is contentious, I share in your confidence that all the few deny the claim that government necessary ingredients for making that drink has played a more active role in shaping are to be found abundantly in the area and the economy in Canada than it has that soon the colonists will find their elsewhere, specifically in the United commodity to be beer…5 States. Fewer still dispute the fact that Canada is a nation ‘rich by nature.’ On a Colbert's statement demonstrated the per capita basis, Canada has more natu- emerging faith in Canada as a territory ral resource wealth than almost any which was ‘rich by nature’. other nation on the face of the globe. What is debated, however, is the effect While it was the quest for an elusive of government intervention on the eco- North-West passage to the Orient that nomic life of the nation. Opinion vocifer- first brought European adventurers to ously differs as to the consequence of Canada's shores in the 16th century, it was the economic acts of past Canadian the abundance of natural resources that governments; since the Second World kept them coming back. When the French War Canada's public policy has yawed explorer Samuel de Champlain entered from dirigisme to neo-conservatism on the mouth of the St. Lawrence in 1603, he the issue of the state's place in the econ- was initially optimistic that he had found a omy. route to the Far East. But the rapids at Lachine quickly dashed his hopes. Awe- What follows enters into this ongoing struck by the natural beauty of the area debate by looking at the state's role in and the potential fortune to be made from the birth of commercial brewing in the exploitation of natural resources, he Canada during the Ancien Regime. The returned in 1608 to found City. Over paper argues that Jean Talon's rigid the next 150 years, the French battled it adherence to the monopolistic dictates of out with their European rivals for control of mercantilism produced a stillborn child, the vast natural wealth of North America. one insensitive to local tastes and lack- ing any intuition of the working of a diver- At the same time, the English were mak- sified, sui generis economy. ing their presence felt on the continent.

20 Journal of the Brewery History Society Without the access to New World gold of The single biggest ingredient in beer is many of their European competitors, they water, it comprises more than 90% of the exploited the natural wealth of North brew. Canada has an abundance of fresh America and traded their way to riches. water. Indeed, the expansive northern From the northern half of the continent, nation is near the top of water-rich they extracted fish, furs, timber, and countries, trailing only Brazil, Russia and wheat. China. Estimates of Canada's supply of fresh water vary from 5.5% to 20% of the Looking back on this formative period, world's total.8 historians have generally emphasized the role played by natural resources in Thus, Canada has a great deal of water the early development of Canada. The and it has facilitated the economic devel- giant of the second generation of profes- opment of the nation. The arrangement of sional economists in Canada, Harold streams and rivers flowing into Hudson Adam Innis (1894-1952), formulated a Bay and into the Mackenzie and St. ‘staple thesis’ to explain Canadian growth Lawrence Rivers, for instance, permitted and economic integration. The pattern and canoes to travel west and north across pace of early Canadian development, the length and breadth of the land that Innis and his many disciples maintained, became Canada. ‘It is no mere accident,’ was determined by the pursuit of primary Innis stated, ‘that the present Dominion products - fish, fur, timber and wheat - coincides roughly with the fur-trading and their export to foreign markets.6 areas of northern North America’.9 A According to Innis, growth and develop- few years after Innis's pronouncement, ment was best explained by the the eminent Canadian historian Donald dynamics of the staple trades. Even Creighton echoed the sentiment. those historians who have recently Speaking specifically of the river system become skeptical of the universality of that flowed below Talon's proposed brew- Innis's conclusions do not deny the basic ery at Quebec City, Creighton stated fact that Canada has been ‘rich by that the St. Lawrence ‘was a force in nature’.7 The more perplexing question is history, not merely because of its whether public policy has made the accomplishments, but because of its nation poorer than nature had intended. shining, ever-receding possibilities’.10

Certainly at the time of Talon's letter in Some of these same waters would go 1667 there was good reason to believe into making the first of the nation. that the region had the natural gifts nec- Later, other brewers would find their essary to produce beer. Four key natural wellspring for success in the numerous ingredients were needed to manufacture aquifers of the region (i.e. the under- the product: water, barley, hops and ground formations of permeable rock or yeast. loose material which can produce useful

Brewery History Number 137 21 quantities of water when tapped by a and the Renaissance is that of beer well). Thus Canada was blessed when it replacing , by which the former was came to the first essential ingredient in reinforced, made more durable, and beer. But the blessings did not end there. given a deeper flavour by the introduc- When Talon sent his scouts out to scour tion of hops. This transition, while having the colony for the key components nec- roots dating back to Carolingian Europe, essary for making the ‘weaker drink’, he took place during the 14th century.12 emphasized the need to have good grain. Previously, the vast majority of brewers Grain was to beer what grapes were to had made use of a variety of bitter herbs wine. Without grain, the production of and flowers (e.g. dandelion, heather, beer was impossible. Yeast fermented marigold and burdock root) to offset the the sugars from grain to create alcohol. sweet taste of the fermented grains. But Thus if Talon was to brew beer, he had to hops proved superior to these other have grain. additives because of their preservative powers. Hops contained resins that The most popular grain used in beer helped prevent contamination of the production was and is barley. Barley is a beer by bacteria and thus helped beer basic cereal grain that is not particularly last longer and travel better. Not all good for milling into flour for making exported beer was necessarily made bread or bakery goods. But it is perfectly with hops, but hopped beer was more suited for making beer. As the food and likely to survive transportation over any beverage authority P.R. Ashurst attests, distance.13 the best barley grows in the northern hemisphere between latitudes of 45° Like barley, the hop plant grew best and 55°.11 Situated at 46.8° latitude, under specific climatic and soil conditions Quebec City is perfectly placed to pro- - all of which prevailed in New France. A duce a barley crop. The fact was not lost minimum of 120 frost-free days was on Talon, who wrote at length about New needed for the flowering of the hop France's agricultural potential and the plant. Direct sunlight and long day length possibilities of cultivating diverse crops (15 hours or more) were also necessary. such as barley and hops. Thus hop cultivation was limited to those geographical areas, like New France, Hops were the last ingredient necessary which were situated between 35º and for the production of beer. By the 16th 55º latitude. Shortly after making the century they were commonly used as a decision to build a brewery, Talon planted flavouring and stabilizing agent in brew- 6,000 poles of hops on his seigneury, ing. One major change in the history of which he stated, manifesting his beer and brewing, which has been European mindset, ‘produce as much recently and richly detailed by Richard fruit as well and as good as that of hops W. Unger in Beer in the Middle Ages in Flanders’.14

22 Journal of the Brewery History Society Thus, when it came to the natural ingre- few handfuls of grain, some water, and a dients necessary for producing the pot or a kettle were enough to get the ‘weaker drink’, they could all be found process started. While skimmers and within the confines of the colony. Canada tubs were ubiquitous utensils in the first was indeed a land wealthy by nature. half of the 17th century, no household What was now needed was some reason, with surviving estate records possessed be it practical, moral and/or economic, to the more sophisticated mash vats or transform Mother Nature's gifts into beer. coolers, which were standard pieces of equipment in the brew houses of Europe. Often colonists like Hébert added a com- Brewing before Talon bination of their favorite ingredients to their beer; things like molasses, dande- In a corner of the world not naturally lions, ginger, maple syrup, spruce given to producing wine or brandy, beer boughs, checkerberries, sassafras roots, was made not for want, but out of neces- and hops.16 There are very few written sity. In colonial times milk and even water records on these domestic brewers, but were full of dangerous microorganisms we know that the colonial authorities that often caused people to get seriously tried, especially in the 17th century, to ill. But beer was relatively free of such encourage production of domestic beer in dangers. Its unique combination of high New France.17 acidity, hops and alcohol was a brew in which harmful bacteria rarely survived. Three years after Louis Hébert landed in New France, the Récolletes founded a The first brewers in New France were convent on a parcel of land near the domestic; they were people like, Saint-Charles River in Quebec. As the Canada's first pioneer, Louis Hébert who first superior of the Canadian Récollet had come to New France to plant and mission, Denis Jamet was responsible for harvest the land. Hébert arrived in the provisioning those under his watch. With colony in 1617 and immediately planted wine being scarce and expensive to wheat for bread and barley for beer. Born import, Jamet turned to brewing. In 1620 and bred a Parisian, Hébert would have he optimistically wrote that preferred to have made wine, but the cli- matic and soil conditions in New France in a couple of years, we shall be able to feed were such that it made vinification practi- twelve persons without begging anything cally impossible.15 Like many of his fel- whatsoever from France, because we shall low settlers, Hébert and his wife brewed raise enough grain for making bread and beer in their kitchen, usually in the same beer.18 pot or kettle that they used for preparing the family's meals. Beer required few But the project did not come to fruition as ingredients and only basic equipment: a soon as had been expected. Indeed the

Brewery History Number 137 23 brewery was still not complete in 1634 England was some of the best on earth, when Father Le Jeune announced to the ‘yet I dare not prefer it before a good Provincial Superior of his Jesuit order Beere.’20 This appetite for beer gave birth that he intended to build a brewery in to a nascent brewing industry the likes of order to supply his community with a which did not exist in New France.21 healthy beverage. During the Ancien Regime imported brandy and wine filled the mugs of most Since their arrival in New France, the French Canadians. Only when Talon built Jesuit Fathers had been deprived of a the Brasserie du Roy did commercial daily ration of wine, to which they had brewing begin in Canada. Talon was been accustomed in France. Without motivated to induce the birth of the indus- wine, they also turned to beer. ‘As for try for both moral and economic reasons. drinks, we shall have to make some beer; but we shall wait until … a brewery is erected’.19 It was a long wait. The brew- The economic imperative to brew the ery, which was built at Sillery, near ‘Weaker Drink’ Quebec, was not completed until March of 1647. Like all of the of the On the 117 day voyage from France to early seventeenth century it was a small the New World, Jean Talon spent much of operation, in this case involving a single his time in his cabin tirelessly poring over brewer. Le Journal des Jesuites recorded maps and official documents, all the while that ‘Our Brother Ambroise had made it making copious notations. As the newly [i.e. brewing] his occupation from the first appointed Intendant of the floundering to the twentieth day of that month.’ Father colony of New France, he had his work Ambroise's brew was exclusively for the cut out for him. wine-deprived Fathers. On the periphery of France's commercial Thus in New France, the art of brewing empire, New France had been plagued was practiced in the homes and religious with difficulties for decades. Many of the houses of the colony. Small-scale and problems stemmed from the fact that the localized, brewing emerged for practical care for the development of the colony rather than commercial purposes. This had devolved upon chartered trading was not the case elsewhere in North companies. These fur trading concession America where English, Dutch and holders had been saddled with the obli- German settlers brought with them a gation to settle, administer and protect strong tradition of beer drinking and beer New France and they naturally dispensed making. Outside of New France, beer with these costly duties when they could was brewed for want as much as neces- or made only a token effort to comply with sity. As the New World promoter William these charter obligations. As a result, the Wood stated in 1630, the water in New development of the colony progressed

24 Journal of the Brewery History Society very slowly. To make matters worse, for a During his long tenure as Louis XIV's quarter of a century, the French-Iroquois chief lieutenant, Colbert strove to build up war bedeviled the neglected colony, throw- France's economic power so as to ing the fur trade - the principal economic strengthen the state and to use the state activity of New France - into disarray. The to promote France's economic self-suffi- population was small - numbering only ciency and enrich the nation. As the 3,215 inhabitants in 1665 - and spread embodiment of the French state, Colbert out across three settled districts: Quebec, intervened in virtually every economic Trois Rivières, and Ville-Marie (i.e. activity.22 He issued numerous orders Montreal). Quebec, the chief town, bore the and decrees with respect to the technical proud title of the capital of New France. characteristics of manufactured items Yet it contained barely 70 houses, with and the conduct of merchants. He fos- about 550 inhabitants. The finances of tered the multiplication of guilds with the the colony were in a precarious state, avowed intention of improving quality due in large part to an unfavorable bal- controls, even though the real objective ance of trade. New France therefore was to obtain more revenue for the needed saving. Crown. He subsidized manufactures royales, both to supply their royal mas- After the death of his chief minister ters with luxury goods and to establish Cardinal Jules Mazarin in 1661, the King new industries. Finally, in an attempt to of France, Louis XIV, took the reins of his secure a ‘favourable’ balance of trade, administration into his own hands. he created a system of prohibitions and Behind the pomp and ceremony of his protective tariffs.23 Very few of these court, the Ancien Régime was slowly mercantilist measures worked and as a decaying. France's finances, like those of result, when Louis XIV died in 1715, New France, were in tatters and the France hovered on the brink of bank- army, losing ground to the English in ruptcy. Nevertheless, before his death North America, was in disarray. in 1683, Colbert never lost faith in the interventionist state. In a mercantilist In an attempt to turn things around, Louis age, Colbert was the supreme mercan- XIV appointed Jean Baptiste Colbert to tilist.24 administer France's overseas posses- sions and set the empire on a sound What Colbert was to France, Talon was to financial footing. For more than twenty New France. During his years as years (1661-1683) Colbert acted as Louis Intendant of the colony, he used the full XIV's principal minister. His influence power of his office to foster the develop- was such that the French coined the term ment of the colony. Within the system of colbertisme. At its core, colbertisme was French mercantilism, the colonies were a manifesto for an activist, protectionist meant to play a subordinate economic and interventionist state in the economy. role to the kingdom in Europe, which was

Brewery History Number 137 25 to be made as self-sufficient as possible a brewery was economically justified on and less reliant on foreign suppliers of three grounds. goods. By French standards, Canada was not as valuable as the colonies in the First, a brewery would diversify the econ- French West Indies because it produced omy. Of the 5.4 million livres worth of little, apart from furs and salt cod, which possible annual resources enumerated could not be obtained at home. Talon by Samuel de Champlain in 1618 - e.g. sought to rectify this imbalance and often fish, mines, wood, hemp, cloth and fur - spoke of New France becoming ‘an asset only fur yielded an appreciable return. to old France’. To ensure that the French But the fur trade was often disrupted by colonies continued to be a good market war, specifically between the French and for French manufactures, only the pro- the Iroquois. The years after 1650 had duction of essential goods (e.g. housing, been particularly difficult. With the food, and certain beverages like beer) destruction of the Huron by the Iroquois was consistently tolerated in the colony. in 1648-50, the fur trade fell into disarray The colonies were to supply cheap raw and the economy of New France went materials to the manufactories and the into a tailspin. Year after year the consumers of France. One of the more wretched colony maintained its struggle distinctive features of Colbert's form of for existence amidst deadly perils, French mercantilism was that it was rela- receiving almost no help from France, tively relaxed in that it allowed for some and as a result seemed destined to secondary manufacturing in Canada, destruction.25 Talon was worried about especially if it aided agriculture. having the fortunes of the colony tied so tightly to one or two staple-based indus- Talon's intendancy thus saw a whirlwind tries. A brewery would help diversify the of activity, as the king's money seeded colonial economy. his pet projects. Talon usually had a direct interest in the projects, functioning Secondly, a brewery would improve the as a combined Intendant-entrepreneur. colony's balance of trade, according to After two years of work he reported Talon, by fostering the growth of exports enthusiastically to Colbert that New in a value-added product (i.e. beer) and France was on the path to prosperity and limiting imports of more expensive drinks that he would double his efforts to like wine and brandy. These two popular diversify and stimulate the growth of the alcoholic beverages were costly com- economy. modities. During the period under review, an imported barrel of wine could cost With this economic objective in mind, anywhere between 60 and 75 livres, Talon turned his attention to building the while a barrel of imported brandy could colony's first commercial brewery. Talon cost from 88 to 100 livres. In 1667, Talon maintained that the state's investment in calculated that importing brandy and

26 Journal of the Brewery History Society wine was costing his colonial government New France, rarely was a surplus gener- 100,000 livres a year.26 This was playing ated. The ‘French-Iroquois War’ further havoc with the colonial government's stunted the growth of the farms. Farmers attempts to balance the books and the could not hope to farm more than what merchants' ability to engage in trade. The was absolutely needed when their lives scarcity of good silver and gold coins in were at risk.30 Having crushed the New France was a real and persistent Iroquois with a massive troop surge, problem for those engaged in commerce, Talon began thinking of additional ways be it the state or the colonial merchant. to stimulate the growth of agriculture. If a Hard currency was so scarce during brewery were constructed, Talon main- Talon's intendancy that wheat, beaver tained, then local farmers would have a pelts and moose skins each attained domestic market for their products. the status of legal tender.27 The same scarcity of gold and silver led Talon's suc- It will stimulate the habitants to work on farm- cessor, Intendant Jacques de Meulles ing the earth, [Talon confidently stated,] (1682-86), to issue card money.28 Within because they will be assured that the excess this context, Talon viewed beer as more grain will be used for making this drink.31 than just a temperance drink. By substi- tuting locally produced beer for French- Talon estimated that a brewery would made brandy and wine, the state could need about 36,000 bushels (12,000 reduce the expenditures on imported minots) of grain per year. In this sense goods and help keep hard currency in the the construction of a commercial brewery colony. As Talon stated: ‘the colonists will would stimulate the development of the find their commodity to be beer, instead domestic agricultural sector. of brandy, which is expensive’.29 Furthermore, if the brewery was built on According to Talon therefore there were such a scale as to produce more beer sound economic reasons to justify the than could be domestically consumed, building of a domestic commercial brew- then the surplus could be shipped to for- ery. It did not matter to him that he eign markets, specifically the French would be the first to engage in commer- West Indies, thus helping the colonial cial operations. It did not matter to him government overcome its balance of that there was very little brewing of any trade deficit. sort prior to his arrival. In fact, from a moral perspective, this was part of the And finally, a brewery would act as an problem. The lack of a commercial brew- outlet for the agricultural surplus of the ery, he maintained, had deprived the colony's farmers. Prior to Talon's arrival, colonists of a ‘weaker drink’, and forced farms were dispersed, small, and danger- them into the grip of the demon brandy. ous places to live. Due to the feudal Thus there was a moral, as well as an nature and social function of the farm in economic, imperative to brew beer.

Brewery History Number 137 27 The moral imperative to brew the furs. The documents of the Ancien ‘Weaker Drink’ Régime are filled with accounts of sup- posed debauchery, drunken disorders Drunkenness among the population of and even alcohol-induced murders by the New France was perceived as a grave indigenous peoples. As early as 1644 the problem by colonial authorities. French Ursuline Marie de L'lncarnation claimed settlers brought with them a well-estab- that ‘the French having let the Indians lished taste for alcohol in their daily lives, taste brandy and wine, find these much specifically for brandy and wine. Through- to their taste, but they need only drink out the colony alcohol was regularly con- of them once to become almost mad sumed in the home as a beverage and a and raging’.35 A similar sentiment was tonic.32 It saturated all areas of work and expressed in 1662 by François de Laval, leisure. On the frontier, male workers Bishop of Quebec, when he described spent much of their free time and hard- the effects of alcohol on the native earned money in the colony's numerous population in his Pastoral Letter of 24 taverns and cabarets. Trois Rivières, with February: its 25 houses, had 20 grog shops; and Quebec and Montreal were just as wet.33 The village or the cabin where savages drink The inhabitants of New France often spirits is an image of hell: fire is flickering ended heavy bouts of work with drinking about on all sides: they hack away with axes sprees. This caused Talon no end of con- and knives, spilling blood everywhere; every- cern. ‘Our men waste at the cabaret where are heard dreadful yells and howling. everything that they have just earned,’ he They are at each other's throats. They rip lamented.34 Fur traders spent most of each other's ears off. The father and mother what they earned on booze and turned all throw their little children onto hot coals or into holidays on the calendar into prolonged boiling caldrons. drunken binges. On one occasion they managed to burn down a fur-trading post A year later, Pierre Boucher, a one-time during Christmas festivities. Wherever French soldier who spent much of his there was a military garrison to be found later life living among the aboriginal peo- in the colony, idle soldiers flowed through ple and learning their ways and some tavern doors and carried their rowdy native languages, commented that all socializing into the streets. According to ‘the savages who are close to the Talon, it was a disgusting and disgraceful Europeans become destitute drunks’.36 situation and something had to be done. Statements such as this led the Jesuits and Recollets to conclude that the liquor Colonial authorities were just as con- trade was ‘one of the most pernicious cerned about the level of drunkenness obstacles that the Demon has given rise among aboriginal people, who received to as the French attempt to establish spirits from the French in exchange for relations with this group of infidels and

28 Journal of the Brewery History Society barbarians’.37 The evils of the demon their furs to the Dutch and English to the brandy were corroborated by the reports south and the French fur trade would of traders and the indigenous population, suffer. Added to which, once in contact as well as by letters of Talon and with the English or Dutch, the commercial Colbert.38 Brandy, according to Colbert, elite maintained, sounding a pragmatic was the source of ‘drunkenness and the chord, the natives would not only acquire vices that generally company it’, as well rum or gin, but, while helpless under the as ‘the cause of scandal’.39 drink's influence, would be subject to the preaching of ‘heretics’. Therefore, in their Over the course of the 17th century the opinion Talon had a simple choice to clergy was increasingly concerned about make: He could maintain the status quo the devastating effect of brandy upon and have an indigenous population with aboriginal Christians living close to brandy and orthodoxy at the hands of the French settlements, and as a result they French; or he could prohibit the use of became extremely critical of the brandy brandy and drive the indigenous peoples trade. Educated at a Jesuit college and to gin, rum and heresy at the hands of the dedicated to the Catholic Church, Talon Dutch and the English.42 was sympathetic to this perspective, at least as a guiding moral principle. ‘I Talon however was a man of grand plans. believe it will be good,’ he preached, ‘to He had already proved he was able to stop the drunkenness of the savages conceive of innovative solutions to public who are so continually in that state that policy problems. As the Intendant of the it prevents them from profiting from our province of Hainault (1655-1665) he religion’.40 But he also understood the often merited the Crown's praise for his economic imperative of his mission in zeal and creativity. This time he thought New France. Indeed, Talon, like his spon- that perhaps the inhabitants of his colony sor Colbert, was interested primarily in could be persuaded to drink something promoting the prosperity of the colony: less damaging than brandy. Perhaps the moral aspects of commerce were, in they could be tempted to consume a his mind, subordinate to its economic ‘weaker drink’; something less alcoholic advantages.41 Thus before doing any- than brandy; something more temperate, thing draconian, Talon met with the colo- something like wine or beer. nial commercial elite so as to obtain their opinion on the brandy question. Talon's preference was for wine as it held a special place among Roman Catholics Perhaps not surprisingly, their stance was and in French culture. For Roman different from that of the Church. Rather Catholics, wine represented the blood of than advocating prohibition, they main- Christ and was therefore necessary for tained that if completely denied brandy, the celebration of the Roman Catholic the indigenous tribes would simply take mass. At the Last Supper, Jesus com-

Brewery History Number 137 29 manded his followers to remember him matic conditions of New France were by eating bread (his body) and drinking closer to those of the northern nations of wine (his blood) until he returned. ‘In this Europe than to those of France. cup is the new covenant in my blood; do Nevertheless, early in his administration this, whenever you drink it, in remem- he sent explorers to the far reaches of the brance of me.’ Roman Catholicism thus colony in search of grape vines. Upon endowed wine with a sanctity and mystery. their return, the explorers reported that Canada did indeed have wild vines, but For the French, wine was on its way to they were not good for producing wine. becoming what Roland Barthes has What Canada did have however was an termed a ‘totem drink’, commonly drunk ideal environment for the manufacture of by those of every social class. In the beer - a drink that could easily substitute same way that a primitive totem united all for wine as the people's ‘weaker drink.’ those who worshiped it, so the totem of wine in France united those who shared Talon welcomed the news. Beer, he and served its special meaning. Wine thought, would serve as an acceptable drinking in France was an assertion of alternative to wine. Having grown up near the national way of life. As Barthes notes, Artois, a region well known for its beer ‘a Frenchman who kept this myth [of production, and having served as an wine] at arm's length would expose administrator in French Flanders and himself to minor but definite problems of Hainault, where beer drinking was more integration’.43 Wine had been produced widespread than elsewhere in France, in France since the century after the Talon was predisposed to the idea of Roman Conquest.44 An anonymous large-scale beer production.47 report on the population and consump- tion patterns of Paris estimated that in Thus Talon had a moral imperative to 1637 about 190 pints (23.75 gallons) of start up a commercial brewery in New wine were consumed per Parisian per France. By manufacturing a temperate year.45 By 1700 that number had alcoholic beverage, he believed he could increased to 202 pints (25.25 gallons) per wean the population off hard liquor and person per annum.46 thereby reduce the depravity and self- destruction within the colony. In France, grapes were easily cultivated. This was not the case in the north and east of Europe, where few grapes were The Brasserie du Roy grown. As a result, the inhabitants of these northern nations - i.e. England, Ireland, On 5 April 1671 Jean Talon wrote to Louis Scotland, Germany, Belgium and Holland XIV proudly declaring: ‘The brewery is - consumed much more beer than wine. complete. It can produce 2,000 barrels of The problem for Talon was that the cli- beer for the West Indies, if they can

30 Journal of the Brewery History Society absorb as much as that, and two other Brasserie du Roy was comparable to any thousands for the domestic market’.48 contemporary European brewery. Talon The brewery was a massive enterprise, had spared no expense. both in terms of output and physical dimension. There was nothing like it else- As with home brewing, commercial brew- where in the New World. ing began with making the malt - i.e. ‘malting’. Talon's brewery had all the Fully state-owned and controlled, it facilities - i.e. a germinator and a kiln - for dwarfed other commercial breweries in ‘malting’ on a large scale. The germinator North America. It could produce 4,000 was a large room in the cellar where the barrels of beer per year. This level of pro- water-soaked barley grain was placed to duction was impressive by New World germinate. It utilized all the latest science standards (albeit not by European stan- and technology. The floor was paved with dards).49 At the English colony in limestone slabs and a drainage system Massachusetts Bay, where a strong beer- was installed to discharge the waste drinking and beer-producing culture water. The south and west walls of this existed since the 1630s, brewing was still large room were thick and coated with a cottage industry in 1670.50 Some 50 lime mortar. Two fireplaces were placed years after the construction of Talon's in the walls of the foundation to keep a brewery, the ‘typical’ brewery in the constant temperature in the room. These English colonies was still only about half were used, especially during the cold its size.51 When Molson began brewing season, to maintain the heat needed for in his 36 by 60 foot brewery in Montreal in the germination of the grain. When the 1786, he manufactured only 120 barrels germination was concluded, the malted of beer that year.52 Talon was planning to grain would be spread thinly on the floor brew thirty-three times that amount, at a to permit its drying, and the first batch of time when the population of New France green malt would be ready for the kiln. was one-twentieth of what it was in 1786. In 1810, Virginia had seven breweries The kiln, in which the germinated barley producing altogether 4,200 barrels of was heated so as to stop the grain from beer.53 The excessive size of Talon's brew- germinating any further, was housed in a ery was a principal cause of its failure.54 large decorative tower at the front of Talon's brewery. The large limestone and long-timber building stood on a stone foundation, After the barley was kiln dried, it passed measuring approximately 147 by 46 feet. through the mill and was transformed into If one included the attic, the floor beneath malt. Milling the grains - i.e. cracking or the attic, the ground floor and the half- crushing the grain kernels so as to cellar, the brewery had four levels, and expose the cotyledon which contained an above ground height of 50 feet.55 The the majority of the carbohydrates and

Brewery History Number 137 31 sugars - made it easier for them to be Hops were added throughout the boiling absorbed in the water in which they were process for bitterness and/or aroma. The mixed. The archaeologist Marcel Moursette large copper boilers used by Talon had a has recently unearthed evidence that combined capacity of 100 barrels and suggests that the Brasserie du Roy were ‘worth more than 1,000 livres’.59 housed its own mill, driven by four hors- es.56 This was unusual for 17th century The brewery thus represented a huge breweries and again demonstrates that investment, a fact not lost on Talon and Talon's brewery was on the cutting-edge contemporaries. The Brasserie du Roy of technology. was ‘a very grand brewery,’ in the words of Marie de L'Incarnation, ‘with very Mashing was the next step in the grand costs’.60 When the bankrupt process. The process converted the brewery was put up for sale in 1676, the starches released during the malting price asked by Talon was 43,192 livres. stage into sugars that could be ferment- But there were no buyers. When the ed. The milled grain was dropped into new Intendant, Jacques de Meulles, hot water in a large vessel known as a appraised the building in 1682, he stated mash tun. In this vessel, the grain and that it was worth no more than 8,000 water were mixed together to create a livres. With no purchaser in sight, the cereal mash. The leftover sugar-rich King, taking into consideration the valu- water, known as wort, was separated able services rendered by Talon during from the spent grains. In the less his administration, bought the aban- advanced breweries of Europe and in doned and rundown brewery for 30,000 most (if not all) of the commercial brew- livres. eries elsewhere in North America, the wort was separated from the spent grains What had gone so horribly wrong? Why by baling it out using a bowl or ladles.57 didn't the brewery succeed? What factors The more advanced breweries, like contributed to its failure? The short Brasserie du Roy, used a false bottom answer is that Canada was poor by policy. composed of plates perforated with a multitude of small holes to strain the wort from the spent grain.58 Poor by policy

Brewing is the next step in the cycle. In an attempt to ensure the success of Here, the wort was placed in the brew the state's new commercial brewery, on 5 kettle or boiler, where it was brought to a March 1668 the Sovereign Council prom- boil. During this stage many chemical ulgated a decree. It restricted the amount and technical reactions took place, and of wine and distilled spirits that could be important decisions about the flavour, imported into the colony to 800 barrels color, and aroma of the beer were made. and 400 barrels, respectively, per year.61

32 Journal of the Brewery History Society I believe, [Talon soberly stated] it will be good with a European population of less than that no one be allowed to import wine or 15,000 in 1670 with easy access to rum brandy to Canada except under specific and wine proved unwilling to consume conditions, and not to sell it in cabarets to 2,000 barrels of Canadian beer.65 vagabonds.62 Perhaps, on the other hand, Talon had come to realize that his plan was fatally However, there would be 1,200 barrels of flawed in that it failed to account for the alcohol, in addition to the 4,000 barrels of short life of beer in transit. Whereas wine beer Talon was planning to produce at his and distilled liquor traveled relatively well brewery, available for local consumption in the 1600s, beer did not. Shipped beer every year. leaked, occupied tremendous space and cost a great deal to transport. Further- Admittedly Talon had hoped to export half more, a sea voyage of six to eight weeks the beer manufactured in New France. from Quebec to the West Indies in warm But trade with the West Indies proved dif- weather risked the delivery of stale beer. ficult. In 1670 Talon dispatched three Whatever the reason, the export trade in ships from Quebec to Cayenne and Le Canadian beer did not develop as Talon Tortue in Guiana, each loaded with dried had hoped and as a result there was fish, peas, flour, port, and beer. The fol- double the amount of beer for domestic lowing year, two ships set out. In 1672 consumption as Talon had initially envis- and 1673 only one ship made the trip to aged. Talon would pay a heavy price for the West Indies in each year. By 1674 the attempting to meddle in a market that he trade had stopped all together. 50 years could not control. later inter-colonial trade would blossom somewhat, as French Canadians sent Talon had also hoped that beer would lumber, flour, salt meat, dried and salt replace brandy as a medium of exchange cod, salmon, biscuits, butter, fish oil, and in the fur trade. But this too did not mate- vegetables of every sort, but not beer, to rialize as Talon had envisioned. Beer was the West Indies.63 It is difficult to say just a relatively high-bulk, low-value good that how much beer was aboard the few ships did not travel well. In addition, the native that made the voyage to the West Indies population preferred brandy to beer. In during the early 1670s. According to the 1749, Pehr Kalm noted that brandy was historian Emile Vaillancourt, it was ‘only a the good that the fur traders took with few barrels’.64 them: ‘This is what Indians prefer above all … there is nothing they refuse to give It is even more difficult to determine why in exchange’.66 Thus it was brandy and so few barrels were exported to the not beer that continued to lubricate the fur French West Indies. Perhaps Talon had trade. As result of these two lost markets, been forced to concede that his projec- it was left up to the European population tions were overly optimistic; that a region of New France to consume Talon's beer.

Brewery History Number 137 33 At the time of the promulgation, the the competition out of business, Talon felt European population of New France he could charge virtually any price for his was 6,282. Over the next five years the beer. Thus he pegged the price at 20 population remained relatively constant, livres per barrel wholesale (the barrel growing slightly to 6,768 by 1673. Even was not included in the price) even at the higher figure, the amount of alcohol before production had started. If sold by available for domestic consumption was the mug the retail pegged price was six excessive. Talon's oak barrels, like those sols. Furthermore, the regulations stipu- imported from France, could hold 36 lated that if the price of barley was to rise imperial gallons (or 345.6 pints). This above 3 livres a minot, the price of beer meant that, during each year of Talon's would also rise. As a result Talon's beer Intendancy, there were 27.65 gallons (or often sold for 25 livres per barrel. 265.6 pints) of alcoholic drink available for every man, woman and child of At that price, the beer was too expensive. European descent in the colony. To put When Governor Louis de Buade de that number in perspective, in the British Frontenac arrived in the colony in 1672 colonies south of the border per capita he stated that, while the quality of Talon's alcohol consumption reached 3.5 gallons beer was very good, the price being in 1710.67 Even at the height of excess in charged was ‘too dear’. Talon was insen- 1830, Americans were only downing 4 sitive to the marketplace. Frontenac felt a gallons of alcohol on an individual basis. price of 15 livres instead of 25 livres While this was next to nothing in compar- would have made the ‘weaker drink’ far ison to the massive intake of New more popular. Certainly the high price France, the historian William Rorabaugh that Talon assigned to his product did considered it excessive enough to label not help to popularize the weaker drink. the United States ‘the alcoholic repub- But that was not the main factor working lic’.68 against him and the success of his brewery. In another attempt to tip the balance in his favour, Talon gave his brewery a The principal reason for the failure of monopoly on commercial brewing for ten Talon's brewery was that there was little years. Home brewers could continue to appetite for beer in Quebec prior to the produce beer for themselves and their Conquest, no matter what the price. Even loved ones, but no one could produce when the price of beer fell to below 10 beer on a commercial scale for retail livres per barrel during the first decade of sale.69 That privilege was Talon's alone. the 18th century, there was still little Again Talon was taking his lead from demand for the drink. Most of the immi- what was going on in Europe, where grants to pre-1760 Canada came from regulation was a well-established practice France's west coast, the Southwest and by the 17th century.70 Having legislated the Paris region; that is from the region

34 Journal of the Brewery History Society just below the line that divided a living solely from brewing. Denis Europeans into beer and wine drinkers.71 Constantin, who brewed beer in Quebec Instead of beer, wine and brandy held a City for two years (1744-1746), Nicolas dominant place in the hearts, minds and Jourdain, who engaged in brewing in stomachs of canadiens during the Ancien Quebec City for twelve years (1754- Regime.72 In the aristocratic circles of 1766), and Jean Gouy, who manufac- New France in the 17th and 18th century, tured beer in Quebec City for three years beer was considered the drink of the (1720-1723), all did so to supplement poor, a concept that continued until the other sources of income.74 After 1712 Conquest. And even the poor preferred beer had fallen further into disfavour, wine to beer. Only when the price of wine owing to the fact that the price of wine was so high that it placed the product out and alcohol had become more accessi- of reach did the inhabitants of New ble. Beer had always played the role of France turn to beer.73 the understudy - a relatively affordable but less desirable substitute. Despite After the disappearance of the Brasserie Talon's best efforts to bring the drink to du Roy, a few small-scale brewers centre stage, the population of New attempted to tap into this limited demand. France was not supporting it. Thus In 1704 the Charron Brothers, a religious Talon's brewery and those thereafter community in Montreal, decided to add a failed to survive for very long.75 What set brewery to their building in order to make the Brasserie du Roy apart was the beer for the paupers entrusted to their grandeur of its failure. care by public charity. The Brothers car- ried on their brewery for four years until financial difficulties caused them to lease Conclusion their operation to another. The new brewer Pierre Crepeau was no more successful It has often been assumed that the his- at turning a profit from brewing. Like the tory of brewing in Canada mirrors that Brothers before him, Crepeau's brewery which has taken place elsewhere. As in lasted only a few years. In 1718 the prop- Holland, Denmark, Germany, England, erty was seized by the Crown for unpaid Scotland, Ireland, the United States, Italy taxes and put on the auction block. and New Zealand - to name just the Thereafter, commercial brewers contin- most productive brewing nations - in ued to struggle to turn a profit. Between Canada brewing first emerged as a cot- 1718 and 1759, only a handful of individ- tage industry, with small-scale brewers uals entered into the brewing business, owning and operating their own estab- and of these, only two were still brewing lishments, reinvesting their profits, all the at the time of the Conquest. Except for while producing beer for a local market. the brewer François Bourgret dit Dufort The small body of literature on the of Montreal, no one was able to make Canadian brewing industry supports this

Brewery History Number 137 35 atomistic image, by focusing exclusively matters worse, the export trade of two on those firms - Molson,76 Alexander thousand barrels of ale to the West Indies Keith,77 Labatt and Carling78 - that have never materialized. This left twice the followed this evolutionary path. amount of beer for domestic consump- tion. Historically, excess supply has put a But Canadian commercial brewing actu- downward pressure on prices. But ally started on a grand monopolistic because Talon had granted himself a scale. Talon's insistence on monopoly cut monopoly and pegged the price of beer, the ‘industry’ off from grass roots eco- prices did not fall. This made the ‘weaker nomic development. The Brasserie du drink’ even less popular. Nevertheless, Roy, was a massive commercial concern, for four years the brewery hung on. But which manufactured half of its product for when, in 1675, the system of life support a distant market. Whereas later was withdrawn the first child of commer- Canadian brewers responded to the cial brewing in Canada was no more. impulses of the marketplace, Talon ignored market dictates, believing - erro- Over two centuries later the Canadian neously as it turned out - that if he built a intellectual Goldwin Smith reflected on brewery, then a market for his beer would the role of government in the Canadian emerge. During the Ancien Regime, he economy. ‘Rich by nature, poor by policy,’ used the full power of the state to induce he stated ‘might be written over Canada's the birth of commercial brewing. His rea- door’.79 A teetotaler, Smith had little sons for so doing were moral and eco- appetite for beer. However, if he had nomic. Economically, he believed a brew- taken a dip into the history of brewing, he ery would diversify the economy, improve might have concluded that his maxim the colony's balance of trade and provide could well have been extended to the an outlet for the agricultural surplus of birth of commercial brewing. To turn his New France's marginalized farmers. phrase slightly: Rich by nature, poor by Morally, he thought a brewery would help policy might be written over the entrance him battle the demon brandy and the of the Brasserie du Roy. debaucheries, delinquency and depravity that accompanied it.

But the industry was born prematurely. Weak as a result, the Brasserie du Roy could only survive in an artificial environ- ment of regulations and restrictions. Despite limiting the amount of brandy and wine that could be imported into the colony, the inhabitants of New France never gained a taste for beer. To make

36 Journal of the Brewery History Society References ‘post-Innisians’ do not reject the staple thesis but have moved beyond its emphasis on 1. Underhill, F. (1985) ‘Oh Canada, Our external forces, and rather stress the Land of Crown Corporations’ reprinted in endogenous factors in economic growth and Forbes, H.D. (ed.) Canadian Political development. Thought. : University of Toronto Press, 8. Estimates vary depending on how one pp.227-229. defines ‘fresh water’ - whether it means 2. ibid, p.228. ‘available,’ ‘usable,’ or merely ‘existing.’ One 3. Hardin, H. (1974) A Nation Unaware: The study claims that Canada has 20% of the Canadian Economic Culture. Vancouver: J.J world's fresh water - ranking it at the top - but Douglas Ltd, p.96. only 9% of ‘renewable’ fresh water. (See 4. See for example, Berton, P. (1970) The Llamas, M.R. and Custodio, E. (eds.) (2003) National Dream. Toronto:McClelland and Intensive Use of Groundwater: Challenges Stewart and ibid (1970) The Last Spike. and Opportunities. Lisse: Swets and Toronto: McClelland and Stewart. Zeitlinger, p.302 5. Jean-Baptiste Colbert to Jean Talon, April 9. Innis, H.A. (1956) op. cit. p.392. 6, 1667. National Archives of Canada. (here- 10. Donald Creighton quoted in The after NAC) Microfilm reel C-2374. Writings of Canadian History: Aspects of 6. Innis, H.A. (1956) The Fur Trade in English-Canadian Historical Writing: 1900- Canada: An Introduction to Canadian 1970, by Berger, C. (1986) 2nd ed. Toronto: Economic History. Toronto: University of University of Toronto Press. Toronto Press; Easterbrook, W.T. and Aitken, 11. Ashurst, P.R. (1971) ‘Hops and their use H.G.J. (1956) Canadian Economic History. in Brewing,’ in Findlay, W.P.K. (ed.) Modern Toronto: Macmillan. Brewing Technology. London: Macmillan 7. See for instance Craig, B. (2009) Press, pp.31-59. See also Unger, R.W. Backwoods Consumers & Homespun (2004) Beer in the Middle Ages and the Capitalists: The Rise of a Market Culture in Renaissance. Philadelphia: University of Eastern Canada. Toronto: University of Pennsylvania Press, pp.53-106. Toronto Press; McCalla, D. (1993) Planting 12. Unger, R.W. (2004) op. cit. pp.53-106. the Province: The Economic History of Upper 13. Ashurst, P.R. (1971) op. cit. pp.32-4. Canada. Toronto:, University of Toronto 14. Jean Talon to Louis XIV, 2 November Press; Neill, R. (1991) A History of Canadian 1671, NAC C11A, vol. 3, fol. 159-171. Economic Thought. New York: Routledge; 15. Bennett, E. (1966) ‘Louis Hébert’, Lewis, F.D. and Urquart, M.C. (1999) ‘Growth Dictionary of Canadian Biography, Toronto: and the Standard of Living in a Pioneer University of Toronto Press, vol. 1, pp.367-8. Economy: Upper Canada, 1826-1851’, 16. Heron, C. (2003) Booze: A Distilled William and Mary Quarterly, 56 Jan., pp.151- History. Toronto: Between the Lines Press, p.19. 81; McInnis, M. (1984) ‘Marketable Surpluses 17. Jugements et délibérations du Conseil in Farming, 1860’ Social Science souverain de la Nouvelle-France, 5 March History, vol. 8, pp.395-424. This group of 1668, vol. 1, p.478.

Brewery History Number 137 37 18. Cited in Vaillancourt, E. (1985) The development and workings of mercantilism, Brewing Industry in the Province of Quebec. celebrates mercantilism for accomplishing Montréal: G. Ducharme, p.14. what its proponents promised. Over the two 19. Father Paul Le Jeune to the Reverend and a half centuries to the middle of the Father Provincial of France, at Paris (Quebec eighteenth century, many of the parochial 1634) in Mealing, S.R. (ed.) (1985) The domains of Europe had coalesced into Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents: A mercantilist nation states, establishing over- Selection. Ottawa: Carleton University Press, seas empires. Others however have been far p.26. more critical of the nature and effects of 20. Wood, W. (1865) New England's mercantilism. See for example Judges, A.V. Prospect (1629-1635). Boston: Publications (1939) ‘The Idea of a Mercantile State,’ of the Prince Society, p.16. Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 21. Mittleman, A. (2008) Brewing Battles: A 4th Series, XXI, pp.41-69 and Coleman, D.C. History of American Beer. New York: Algora (1980) ‘Mercantilism Revisited,’ Historical Publishing; McWilliams, J.E. (1998) ‘Brewing Journal, XXIII Dec., pp.773-791. Beer in Massachusetts Bay 1640-1690’, The 25. Shortt, A. (1914) Canada and its New England Quarterly, vol. 71, no. 4, Dec. Provinces: The Province of Quebec. Toronto: pp.543-569; Baron, S. (1962) Brewed In Edinburgh University Press, pp.23-35 and America: A and Ale in the Trudel, M. (1973) The Beginnings of New United States.. New York: Little, Brown and France 1524-1663. Toronto: McClelland and Company, pp.14-51; Smith, G. (1998) Beer in Stewart, pp.163-281. America: The Early Years: 1587-1840. 26. Jean Talon to Jean-Baptiste Colbert, 27 Boulder, Colorado: Siris Books, pp.7-49. October 1667, NAC, Series C11A, Microfilm 22. Murat, (1984) Colbert. trans. Cook, R. reel C-2374. and Van Asselt, J. Charlottesville: University 27. Shortt, A. (1986) ‘Canadian Currency of Virginia, p.129-169. and Exchange Under French Rule: Before the 23. Trout, A. (1978) Jean-Baptiste Colbert. Introduction of Card Money’ in Shortt's A. Boston: Twayne Publishers, pp.115-34. History of Canadian Currency and Banking 24. Mercantilism’, as the economic doctrines 1660-1880. Toronto: Canadian Banker's of the two and a half centuries prior to 1776, Association, pp.105-124. which privileged the nation state over the 28. ibid. pp.125-141. interests of business and those of labour, has 29. Jean-Baptiste Colbert to Jean Talon, 6 been the subject of considerable debate April 1667. NAC, Series C11A, Microfilm reel among economic historians and historians of C-2374. economic thought. Perhaps the most 30.Trudel, M. (1973) op. cit. pp.210-230. important book written on the subject is Eli F. 31. Jean Talon to Jean-Baptiste Colbert, 27 Heckscher 1931 classic, Mercantilism October 1667, NAC, Series C11A, Microfilm (London: George Allen and Unwin, revised, reel C-2374. second edition, edited by Ernst F. Söderlund, 32. Ferland, C. (2010) Bacchus en Canada: 1955). Heckscher, in detailing the origins, Boissons, buveurs et ivresses en Nouvelle-

38 Journal of the Brewery History Society France. Quebec: Septentrion, pp.135-67. 47. Jean-Baptiste Colbert to Jean Talon, 6 33. Eccles, W.J. (1964) Canada Under April 1667, NAC, Series C11A, Microfilm reel Louis XIV 1663-1701. Toronto: Mcclelland C-2374. and Stewart, p.142. 48. Cited in Vaillancourt, E. (1985) op. cit. 34. Jean Talon to Francois de Salignac, p.19. NAC, Series C11A, Microfilm C-2375. 49. For example, the state brewery in 35. Marie de L'Incarnation to her son, 26 Denmark at the time was generating five August 1644, Word From New France: The times that amount of beer and a number of Selected Letters of Marie de L'Incarnation. commercial breweries in big cities in Europe Marshall, J. (ed.) (1967) Toronto: Oxford would have matched what Talon had planned. University Press, p.132. See Unger, R.W. (2004) op. cit. pp.107-125. 36. Boucher, P. (1882) Histoire véritable et 50. McWilliams, J.E. (1998) op. cit. pp.543- naturelle des mœurs et productions du pays 69. de la Nouvelle France. Montréal, p.118. 51. Baron, S. (1962) op. cit. pp.62-63. 37. Le Clercq, C. (1910) New Relation of 52. Denison, M. (1955) The Barley and the Gaspesia. Toronto: The Champlain Society, Stream: The Molson Story. Toronto: p.411. McClelland & Stewart Ltd. pp.2 and 27. 38. Parkman, F. (1880) The Old Regime in 53. Arnold, J.P. (2005) [1911] Origin And Canada. Boston, 8th ed., p.322. History of Beer And Brewing From Prehistoric 39. Colbert to Talon (20 February1668), Times to the Beginning of Brewing Science NAC Series C11A, Microfilm C-2374. And Technology. Cleveland, Ohio: 40. Jean Talon to Francois de Salignac, BeerBooks, p.388. NAC, Series C11A, Microfilm C-2375. 54. The excessive scale of one's operation 41. Stanley, G.F. (1953) ‘The Indians and the was a liability to other colonial brewers, In Brandy Trade during the Ancien Regime’, 1807, the big St. Roc [sic] Brewery at Revue d'histoire de l'Amérique française, Vol. Quebec, which was owned by the Scottish tri- 6, No. 4, pp.489-505. umvirate (John Young, Simon Fraser, Thomas 42. Shortt, A. (1914) op. cit. pp.467-469. Grant), failed in part because - in the words 43. Barthes, R. (1973) Mythologies. trans. of a contemporary - it had been ‘undertaken Lavers, A., St. Albans: Paladin, pp.58-61. upon too great a scale for the consumption of 44. Laubenheimer, F. (1990) Le Temps des the province at that period.’ The other rea- amphores en Gaule: Vins, huiles et sauces. sons for its failure were: (1) the competition of Paris. other, smaller breweries, and (2) the cheap- 45. Ranum, O. (1968) Paris in the Age of ness of imported rum. For a more detailed Absolutism: An Essay. New York: John Wiley discussion see Moogk's P.N. (1983) entry on & Sons, p.176. ‘John Young’ in the Dictionary of Canadian 46. Austin, G. (1985) Alcohol in Western Biography, Toronto: University of Toronto Society from Antiquity to 1800: A Press, vol. 5, pp.877-883. Chronological History. Santa Barbara: ABC- 55. Moussette, M. (1996) ‘The Site of the Clio Information Services, p.225. Intendant's Palace in Quebec City’, Historical

Brewery History Number 137 39 Archaeology, vol. 30, p.9. au Canada en 1749, traduction annotée du 56. Moussette, M. (1994) Le Site du Palais journal de route par J. Rousseau et G. de l'Intendant à Québec. Québec: Béthune. Montréal: Pierre tisseyre, p.449. Septentrion, pp.40-2. 67. Austin, G. (1985) p.295. 57. Unger, R.W. (2004) op. cit. pp.146-8. 68. Rorabaugh, W.J. (1979) The Alcoholic 58. Moussette, M. (1994) op. cit. p.43; Republic: An American Tradition. Oxford, Unger, R.W. (2004) op. cit. pp.146-8. Oxford University Press, Chapter 1. 59. Moussette, M. (1994) op. cit. p.44. 69. Nouvelle-France. Conseil souverain, 60. Vaillancourt, E. (1985) op. cit. p.21. Jugements et délibérations du conseil sou- 61. Vaillancourt, E. (1985) ibid. p.20. verain de la Nouvelle France, (Québec, Elsewhere W.J. Eccles suggests some differ- 1885), vol. 1, pp. 476-9. ent numbers. Speaking of Colbert's response 70. Unger, R.W. (2004) op. cit. especially to the idea of constructing a brewery Eccles pp.200-6. writes: ‘Colbert fully approved of the project 71. Greer, A. (1997) The People of New and he gave orders that the edict of the France. Toronto: University of Toronto, pp.11-26. Sovereign Council at Quebec, limiting the 72. Vaillancourt, E. (1985) op. cit. p.29. annual imports of wine and spirits to 8,000 73. Ferland, C. (2004) Bacchus en Canada. barrels of wine and 4,000 barrels of brandy, Boissons, buveurs et ivresses en Nouvelle- be strictly enforced.’ See Eccles, W.J. (1964) France, xviie-xviiie siècles, thèse de doctorat op. cit. p.55. Eccles does not cite where he (histoire), Université de Laval. obtained this information. Similarly, 74. Ferland, C. (2010) op. cit. pp.42-6 Vaillancourt provides no citation. However, 75. Vaillancourt, E. (1985) op. cit. p.34. the actual promulgation reads: ‘… Conseil 76. Denison, M. (1955) op. cit.; Molson, K. exceder la quantité de douze cens barriques (2001) The Molsons: Their Lives and Times, de l'vne et l'autre des liqueurs deux tiers de 1780-2000. Willowdale, Ontario: Firefly vin et vn tiers d'Eau de vye.’ See Nouvelle- Books; Woods, S.E. (1983) The Molson France. Conseil souverain, Jugements et Saga, 1763-1983. Toronto: Doubleday délibérations du conseil souverain de la Canada; Hunter, D. (2001) Molson: The Birth Nouvelle France, (Québec, 1885), vol. 1, of a Business Empire. Toronto: Viking. pp.478. 77. McCreath, P.L. (2001) The Life and 62. Jean Talon to Francois de Salignac Times of Alexander Keith: Nova Scotia's NAC, Series C11A, Microfilm C-2375. Brewmaster. Tantallon, N.S.: Four East 63. Reid, A. (1951) ‘Intercolonial Trade dur- Publications. ing the French Regime’, Canadian Historical 78. Phillips, G.C. (2000) On Tap: The Review, vol. XXXII, Sep., pp.242-51. Odyssey of Beer and Brewing in Victorian 64. Vaillancourt, E. (1985) op. cit. p.25. London-Middlesex. Sarnia, Ontario: Cheshire 65. The French West Indian colonies had a Cat Press. large West African population, but they were 79. Smith, G. (1971) [1891] Canada and the not candidates for beer consumption. Canadian Question. Toronto: University of 66. Kalm, P. (1977) Voyage de Pehr Kalm Toronto Press, p.24.

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