_Company of New France._--This association was personally controlled and managed by Richelieu; and had members in official positions about the court, and in Paris, Rouen, and other cities of France. Among these were Marquis Deffiat, superintendent of finance; Champlain; Claude de Roquemont; the Commander de Razilly; Sebastian Cramoisy, the Parisian publisher; Jean de Lauson, long the president of the company, and intendant of Canada; Louis Houel, secretary of the King, and controller of the salt works at Brouage; and several leading merchants of Paris, Rouen, Dieppe, and Bordeaux. The reasons for the formation of this company, the royal charter granted to it, and its articles of association, are given in _Mercure François_, vol. xiv. (1628), pp. 232-267. For a complete list of the (107) members, see Creuxius' _Hist. Canad._; for a copy of the list, with the company's charter, and other interesting particulars, see Sulte's _Histoire des Canadiens-Français_ (Montreal, 1882-84), vol. ii., pp. 27-33. The company was granted jurisdiction over the territory extending from Florida to the Arctic Circle, and from Newfoundland to the "great fresh lake" (Huron). Only Catholics were permitted to join this association, or to settle in its colonies; and no Huguenot or foreigner might enter Canada. The capture of Quebec by the English (1629) temporarily broke up this monopoly; but it resumed operations when that region was retroceded to France (vol. ii., _note_ 42). The charter of the company obliged it to send 4,000 colonists thither before 1643; to lodge and support them during three years; and then to give them cleared lands for their maintenance. The vast expense attending this undertaking was beyond the ability of the Associates; therefore, in 1645, they transferred to the inhabitants of Quebec their monopoly of the fur trade, with their debts and other obligations,--retaining, however, their seigniorial rights. Finally (Feb. 24, 1663), the Hundred Associates abandoned their charter, and New France again became the property of the crown. All these monopolies appear to have sought mainly their own financial interests. They sustained the Quebec settlement, but in penurious fashion, and only so far as it aided their trade with the natives; but they did nothing to make it an agricultural community, or to forward Champlain's schemes for the permanent colonization of Canada,--neither of which objects could well be attained under the feudal tenure by which the colonists held land under the companies.