Page 7 - Fur Trade program Curriculum

The Fur Trade

New France established its subsistence on the economic foundation that became its
first and main source of revenue: the commerce of furs.

This commerce generated an attractive and lucrative economic activity based on barter,
namely the fur trade. The Natives traded pelts and fur skins for trading goods
manufactured in Europe and offered by the French.
The activities of the coureurs des bois contributed to the rapid expansion of the territory
of New France, north of the Great Lakes to Hudson Bay, and south to the Gulf of
Mexico. At the end of the XVIIth century, they journeyed regularly on the main rivers in
northern Québec and Ontario, as well as to the south and southwest. Long before they
were named, several large American States, such as Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin,
Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Iowa, Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana had
been visited by the coureurs des bois.
In the early XVIIth century, the Native nations that traded with the French belonged to
two distinct linguistic families: the Algic or Algonquian family and the Huron-Iroquoian
family.
At the time, the nations of the Algonquian family were nomads and they roamed over
the greatest part of what is today Québec. The most populous nations were the
Micmacs, Montagnais, Attikamek, Cree and Algonquins. On the other hand, the nations