The Lost Code

The Mother Country

Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Senior Minister of Louis XIV

Musée de la civilisation, Séminaire de Québec collection. Jean-Baptiste Colbert. Unknown artist. N° 1993.16697

Card Money (1733)

Musée de la civilisation, Séminaire de Québec collection, 1991.2294

The colony was administered by the mother country, the Kingdom of France. The governor and intendant received their instructions from the minister of the navy. The economy was governed by the mother country and all colonial fur production was sent to France to be processed into finished products and resold. In the colonies, only the most critical industries were permitted, and only if they did not compete with French industries. All the funds needed to run the colony as well as the products sold there were sent from France.