Charles Aubert de La Chesnaye

Charles Aubert de La Chesnaye was a French merchant, fur-trader, seigneur, financier, member of the Conseil Souverain of New France. Originally from Amiens he became New France’s leading businessman of the 17th century.

By Chesnaye’s own words he arrived in Canada quite poor in 1655 as the agent of a group of Rouen merchants. This group of merchants and Toussaint Guénet, a French financier, were given exclusive control of the Canadian import trade for an annual fee of 10,000 livres and the right to collect the 25 per cent and 10 per cent taxes on beaver pelts and moose hides for an additional amount of 50,000 livres. For two years La Chesnaye had helped to manage this enterprise and it may well have been that during this period he launched his own business career.

In October 1663 for 46,500 livres La Chesnaye became a leaseholder for the Tadoussac fur trade monopoly and the taxes on beaver pelts and moose hides. Besides the beaver trade, he owned a large store in Quebec in which he kept a stock of merchandise valued at approximately 50,000 livres. He also invested in land around Quebec and was given seigneury - the semi-feudal system of land tenure used in the North American French colonial empire.

The fur trade, the sale of merchandise, and agriculture were the three basic ventures on which La Chesnaye built his career. After 1670 he created a network of secondary activities such as lumbering, fishing, financing, a brickyard after 1679, and for a short time mining.