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Title: Contributions of the French in Canada

Date of first publication: 1934

Author: Harold Adams Innis (1894-1952)

Date first posted: January 24, 2026

Date last updated: January 24, 2026

Faded Page eBook #20260130

This eBook was produced by: Hugh Dagg, John Routh, Brittany Jeans & the online Distributed Proofreaders Canada team at https://www.pgdpcanada.net

When Cartier made his landfall at Bonavista in Newfoundland, on May 10, 1534, and proceeded to the straits of Belle Isle, he was following a route well known to the fishermen of the ports of St. Malo and La Rochelle. In his expeditions of that year, of 1535-6, and with Roberval at a later date, he circumvented the obstacle of Newfoundland, unravelled the mysteries of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and of the river, and definitely established the limitations of further exploration beyond the series of rapids which terminate at Montreal, and of further colonization. He was the first to outline the Canadian problem. His successors, French, English and Canadian, followed in his path and pressed the fight which has continued throughout Canadian history.

Obstacles to the opening of the St. Lawrence were so serious as to restrict development until the end of the century, and it was not until treasure from the new world opened a market for cod through the rise in prices in Spain that England’s encroachment on Newfoundland forced fishermen from France, to such points as Canso, in Nova Scotia, and Gaspé, in the gulf. France attempted to control the mainland, and de la Roche, with settlement in 1597 and 1598 on Sable Island, as the key to the approaches of the continent, was followed by Tadoussac at the mouth of the Saguenay in 1600 under Chauvin from Honfleur, St. Croix Island in 1604, Port Royal in Annapolis basin in 1605, and Quebec in 1608. In these posts France staked her claims to the Atlantic mainland and outlined the boundaries of Canada in the Maritimes and in control of the St. Lawrence, the entrance to the continent, which dominated the later Dominion. In spite of numerous realignments the outlines of the area marked by the French survived in the unity of Canada.

Having gained control over the interior at Quebec the French, under such leadership as Champlain and his successors provided, fought their way to the interior, losing temporarily to the English from 1629 to 1632, but pushing on and establishing outposts at Three Rivers in 1634, and Montreal in 1642, protecting the latter point by a post at the mouth of the Richelieu. Unable to master the rapids of the Upper St. Lawrence they pushed by the Ottawa and the French river to Georgian Bay and to Lake Simcoe and Lake Ontario by the Toronto portage to the south, and to Lake Superior and Lake Michigan in the West. In the face of intense aggression from the Iroquois, supported by the Dutch from New Amsterdam (New York), which involved destruction of Huron allies in 1648-50, loss of control over the Ottawa route, and the necessity on the part of traders such as Radisson and Groseilliers using the St. Maurice route and eventually deserting the St. Lawrence for Hudson Bay, the French held on and with fresh support after 1663 eventually conquered under La Salle and Frontenac the Upper St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario, with key ports to the northern areas at Fort Frontenac (Kingston), 1673-1689 and 1694, and later at Niagara, 1679 and 1687-9, and Fort St. Joseph on the Detroit river, 1686 and 1701. The uncertainty of success in the struggle is indicated by the shifting dates and the temporary character of the ports. To the north France fought with such success as to eventually bring practical control over Hudson Bay.

The enormous demands on the energies of the French in extending a line of communication to the mouth of the Mississippi, in controlling the two main entrances to the northern part of the continent, Hudson Bay and the St. Lawrence, in blocking competition from the English (after 1664) and the Iroquois to the south, and in extending trade over increasing areas to the westward in a commodity subject to violent fluctuations in supply and demand, imposed a severe strain on the French economy. Card money and inflation were among the early symptoms, and the loss of Hudson Bay and Nova Scotia in the treaty of Utrecht (1713) were the effects. Within a narrower field the struggle continued with even greater intensity. On Lake Ontario the English established Oswego and the French reinforced Fort Frontenac and Fort Niagara and maintained more effective control over the Toronto portage. Harassed in the south by the English and the Iroquois, and in the north by the Hudson’s Bay Company, they pushed westward from Kaministiquia (Fort William) under La Vérendrye and his sons and successors eventually coming in sight of the Rocky Mountains and establishing posts on the Saskatchewan. Again the strain proved insupportable, inflation developed and New France collapsed.

The penetration and extension of control of the St. Lawrence was accomplished in the face of geographic obstacles such as Niagara, the St. Lawrence rapids and pronounced seasonal navigation, and of violent fluctuations in the price, quality and production of fur, the chief export staple. Moreover, the French were exposed to competition from an increasingly efficient industrialism in England. The growth of metropolitanism in England contrasted with the difficulty of maintaining a strong central control in France. London assumed an increasing range of interests in industry, trade and finance whereas La Rochelle, St. Malo and other ports became weakened in the strife for supremacy. The effectiveness of economic organization in Great Britain was reflected in her military and naval success in the struggle with France and the weakness of her political organization in the loss of the thirteen colonies. The weakness of French economic organization was offset in part by political organization and by a strong cultural background. The seignorial system, the church, and the state combined with French institutions to conquer and extend control of the St. Lawrence. With this cultural background, English economic organization with the support of American and Scotch aggressiveness and with effective technological equipment such as boats and ships on the lakes, and business organization extended control outlined by the French to the Pacific Coast. Again the combination broke down as a result of competition from Hudson Bay and after 1821 the St. Lawrence organization retreated from the Northwest.

With retreat the combination of French culture and British economic organization which achieved a continental unity and roughly marked out the boundaries of the present Dominion began to break up and the basic elements which in cooperation were so successful, in conflict brought rebellion. Montreal and Upper Canada as centres of British commercialism insisted on control which would make possible the construction of canals on the Upper St. Lawrence. The struggle “not of principles but of races” weakened the economy of the St. Lawrence basin to the point of the rebellions of 1837 and was solved by Lord Durham’s report and the Act of Union. Cooperation followed and the position of the St. Lawrence was strengthened by canals and by railroads and eventually Confederation was achieved. The French-Canadian contributed to the re-establishment of unity between the Maritimes and the St. Lawrence which had been stamped a unity by France. Sir George-Étienne Cartier continued the work of his namesake. The expansion of Canada since Confederation and especially since completion of the Canadian Pacific railway and deepening of the St. Lawrence waterways has been a result of cooperation between French culture and British economic organization. During the marked period of expansion after 1900 a French-Canadian, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, was at the head of the government. The St. Lawrence again dominated the Dominion and unity over an area from the Atlantic to the Pacific prevailed as it had in the period before 1821.

The present Dominion as an extension of the St. Lawrence has been achieved on the basis of French culture and Anglo-Saxon economic organization. The achievement has involved the labors of four centuries and has been carried out in the main with the outlay of tremendous energy. The rapid expansion of the twentieth century has tended to obscure the difficulties of the road which lay behind and the significance of the work which had been done in preparation. Fundamentally it has implied political cooperation through government ownership and devices which have been Canadian rather than Anglo-American. These devices have been hammered out under the stress of enormous obstacles. They have been responsible for the evolution of a Canadian culture or a Canadian point of view.

Difficulties have not arisen during the period of rapid expansion. With the decline in rate of expansion and particularly with the depression, problems of unity and of the maintenance of a strong and equitable economic organization have become serious. We have been limited by our cultural background in applying ordinary solutions. The enormous debt involved in the installation of canals and construction of transportation facilities from the Atlantic to the Pacific have implied heavy fixed charges which have borne with unequal weight on the classes and regions of the Dominion. Interest on a heavy fixed debt which has little relation to severe fluctuations in income, and railway and shipping rates which are comparatively stationary as a result of the influence of competition from the United States, imply minor sources of relief such as the bankruptcy of steamship lines and the disappearance of dividends on Canadian Pacific common stock. As a result producers of raw materials for export, particularly wheat, are crushed between low prices and yields and heavy debt charges in terms of interest, railway rates, and direct and indirect taxation. The effects on exports are felt in turn by industry and particularly by labor in the form of lower wages and unemployment. Moreover, we are exposed to the effects of enormous ground swells from major swings of the business cycle in the United States and elsewhere. Speculative activity on a vast scale has been followed by heavy losses in the depression. We are faced in the future with a relative decline in elasticity through the disappearance of virgin natural resources and with the growth of nationalism which narrows the possibilities of our exports.

The effects of these shocks have been obvious. Regionalism and discontent are results which accentuate rather than solve the problems. They can be remedied only by reference to the fundamental unity of the Dominion and by the sustained cooperation of French culture and British American economic organization. Such cooperation is required to face new tasks and is hampered by the existence and faith in devices which have solved earlier problems. The vested interests of expansion are quick to exploit the weaknesses of union in a period of transition. Legalism and rigidity are inherent in cooperation during periods of expansion. Confederation involved a political charter essential to economic expansion. The decline of economic expansion implies acute problems. Solutions involve fresh emphasis on the cultural approach. We shall gain fresh inspiration in facing these problems by a more adequate appreciation of the contributions of French culture in solving the problem of the St. Lawrence. The genius of a people which called forth such statesmen as Cartier, Champlain, Frontenac, Hocquart, Murray, Haldimand, Cartier and Laurier is an asset to which we do well to pay tribute in days in which that asset has become of paramount importance.

TRANSCRIBER NOTES

Misspelled words and printer errors have been corrected. Where multiple spellings occur, majority use has been employed.