INTRODUCTION                          xvii
capped in fighting it out competitively on quality and price. Old France by individual craftsmen could produce textiles that were objects of luxury; but the English clothier had the organization to supply them in hundred-bolt lots uniform in texture, quality, and dye. So great was the inferiority of French scarlet cloth of commercial grades, that at times the French monopoly was forced to buy of England. Furthermore, all trade goods were supplied through a monopoly to the French trader, and all beaver was bought at the bureau of the same monopoly at a far less price than could be had at Albany. The European market must not be starved or glutted by fluctuations in the price of French beaver hats; hence the hatters must have a constant supply of raw material at a fixed price; accordingly regulations in New France to control output and price of beaver must conform.
To add to the difficulty the French government in a mood of ill-timed parsimony was prepared to spend no more on western adventures than the pay of the officers and soldiers detached to western garrisons. All other charges were to be laid on the trade. Special licenses to take one or two canoes of trade goods to the West were the price paid private traders for the transportation of the commandant and his wife to his wilderness post. Sometimes the commandant was given the monopoly of his post's trade; usually he then entered into a bargain with a Montreal trader who in return promised him a payment for each of his customary three years' incumbency, and various other advantages. The trader then recouped himself by limiting the amount and enhancing the price of his goods until the Indian in disgust sought his needs elsewhere.
When this procedure was abandoned the posts were farmed to men who agreed to pay the king a yearly fee for the monopoly, to charge themselves with necessary Indian presents, to carry out supplies for commandant, missionaries, and troops, and to perform various small services. Then the cry of monopoly arose; next time the post might be farmed by licenses. Five hundred or six hundred livres would be collected for each of the ten or twelve canoe licenses issued annually for Detroit, Mackinac, or the Illinois.   In either case the return from farm or conges was partly