The Great Intendant

Hola, soy Angela. Today’s magnificent post will be all about a man named Jean Talon who was the Great Intendant of New France. He lived from 1626 until 1694 and did lots of memorable things for New France. I’ll give you a short background of what he did.

 

Jean Talon, statue in front of the Quebec Parliament Building

 

Jean Talon had a revolutionary role in the development of New France. Talon aspired to change the economic base of the colony from fur-trading to agriculture, but it couldn’t be done unless the population grew. And so, Talon had organized a plan for settlers to come to New France and called them Les Filles du Roi (The king’s daughters). The plan he had was for these women to marry and have children which he provided financial support for. He paid grants consecutively every year to couples with large families and over one thousand women came to New France within the time that he was Intendant.

Once the population grew, Talon proceeded to begin his goal to diversify the economy in France. He introduced a shoe factory, a shipyard and lumber industry. He popularized the mining of copper and iron which helped the colony greatly. He encouraged farming in which he brought in pigs, cattle, horses, and got colonists to harvest wheat and other products suchlike.

He managed to get the citizens of New France to respect him by having them be a part of what decisions he made. He visited the people’s households and discussed their needs and problems at that time. He did this from 1665 until 1672 when he was recalled to France by the King. Because he made all these vast improvements to New France, he was known as the Great Intendant.

Here’s a video I made that captures nearly all this information in under two minutes:

 

 

 

 

Cites I used:

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/jean-talon/

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Talon