© Cathrine Davis, 2018
Threads Across the Atlantic: Tracing the European
Origins of Eighteenth-Century Imported Cloth in New
France Using Lead Seal Evidence from Three French
Colonial Sites
Mémoire
Cathrine Davis
Maîtrise en histoire - avec mémoire
Maître ès arts (M.A.)
ii
R
ÉSUMÉLes sceaux de plomb sont des artefacts relativement inconnus mais très importants comme sources d’information sur les textiles et leur consommation aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles. Ces étiquettes en plomb souvent attachées aux textiles ont servi comme indicateurs de qualité, de possession et de paiement des impôts sur ces textiles et autres biens commerciaux. Trouvés sur plusieurs sites archéologiques en Amérique du Nord, ces sceaux sont des indicateurs des origines éuropéennes des textiles ainsi que des réseaux marchands nécessaires pour les transporter vers la Nouvelle-France, un espace colonial fort dépendant de la métropole. Cette étude vise à découvrir de nouveaux détails sur les formes de consommation textile uniques de trois sites différents par leur localisation, leurs fonctions et leur population en utilisant les sceaux de plomb qui s’y trouvent. Les sceaux de trois sites français de l’époque coloniale seront examinés; le fort Saint-Joseph (Niles, MI), fort Ticonderoga (à Ticonderoga, NY, aussi connu sur le nom de fort Carillon) et la forteresse de Louisbourg (Louisbourg, NÉ).
iii
A
BSTRACTLead seals are relatively unknown artifacts, but are important as sources of information concerning textiles and their consumption in the seventeeth and eighteenth centuries. These lead tags were often attached to textiles and were proof of quality, ownership, and payment of taxes on textiles and other commercial goods. Found at many archaeological sites in North America, these seals are indicators of the European origins of imported textiles as well as merchant networks needed in order to transport them to New France, a colonial territory that was very dependent on the metropole. This study aims to discover new details concerning the unique consumption patterns present as three sites with different functions, locations, and populations, using the lead seals found at these sites. Seals from three French sites from the colonial period will be examined; Fort St. Joseph (Niles, MI), Fort Ticonderoga (Ticonderoga, NY, also known as Fort Carillon), and Fortress Louisbourg (Louisbourg, NS).
iv
T
ABLE OFC
ONTENTSRésumé ... ii
Abstract ... iii
Table of Contents ... iv
Abbreviations and Units ... vii
Dedicace ... viii
Aknowledgements ... ix
Introduction ... 1
A Brief Note on the People Mentioned in this Study ... 1
Small Beginnings ... 3
Research Questions ... 4
Progression of this study ... 9
Historiography ... 11
Central, but little-known: Lead seals in Numismatics ... 11
Seals and North American Historical Archaeology ... 12
The Economic history of France: the raison d’être of French lead seals ... 14
Commercial History of the French Atlantic ... 15
Textiles and the History of New France ... 17
Textiles and Commerce among Canadien colonists and habitants... 17
The Fur Trade and Native American Clothing Consumption ... 18
Methodology and Sources Used in this Study ... 22
Sources Used in this Study ... 22
v
Chapter 1: Contextual Information ... 30
1.1 The World of Lead Seals ... 30
1.1.1 Lead seals in Seventeenth and Eighteenth-Century France and New France ... 30
1.1.2 Bales, seals, and packaging in the 18th century ... 36
1.2 Reuse and Related Items... 39
1.2.1 Reuse ... 39
1.2.2 Similar items from Louisbourg ... 42
1.3 Cloth Use and Consumption in New France ... 44
Chapter 2: Fort St. Joseph ... 48
2.1 Historical & Archaeological Resumé: Clothing & Textiles at Fort St. Joseph ... 48
2.1.1 Native dress at Fort St. Joseph and in the Pays d’en Haut ... 50
2.1.2 Canadien dress at Fort St. Joseph and the Pays d’en Haut ... 55
2.1.3 Trade Lists and Documentation from Fort St. Joseph ... 57
2.2 Lead Seals from Fort St. Joseph ... 59
2.2.1 French seals from Fort St. Joseph ... 59
2.2.2 English Yorkshire Seals ... 66
Chapter 3: Fort Ticonderoga (Fort Carillon) ... 68
3.1 A Brief Historical, Archaeological, and Sartorial Overview ... 68
3.2 Lead seals from Fort Ticonderoga ... 70
Chapter 4: Louisbourg ... 81
4.1 Historical and Archaeological Overview ... 81
vi
4.3 Lead Seals from Louisbourg... 84
4.3.1 French Lead Seals ... 85
4.3.2 English “Jersey” Lion Seals ... 108
Chapter 5: Discussion of Findings ... 110
5.1. Merchants, Négociants, Networks, and the Canada Trade: A Case Study of the Mariette Family and Their Affairs as Revealed by Lead Seals ... 110
5.1.1 Seals of the Montauban Merchant Families ... 110
5.1.2 Montauban and the Canada trade ... 114
5.1.3 Procurateurs, négociants, and marchands ... 115
5.2 A Discussion and Comparison of Textiles at Fort St. Joseph, Fort Ticonderoga, and Fortress Louisbourg based on Lead Seal Identification and Interpretation ... 117
Conclusions ... 122
Epilogue ... 124
Annex ... 126
Bibliography ... 202
Sources ... 202
A- Primary Manuscript Sources ... 202
B- Printed Primary Sources ... 202
C- Maps ... 204
Research Aids and Dictionaries ... 204
Studies ... 204
vii
A
BBREVIATIONS ANDU
NITSArchives Centers
ANOM : Archives nationales d’outre-mer BAC : Bibliothèque et Archives Canada
BAnQ-Q : Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec, centre d’archives de Québec.
DBC : Dictionnaire biographique du Canada
Museums
THM: The History Museum, South Bend, IN (formerly the Center for History, identified as CFH in previous works)
FSJM: The Fort St. Joseph Museum
Units and Unit Equivalencies
Monetary Systems:
# - Livres s – Sols d – Deniers
1# = 20s = 240d (12d=1s)1 Textile Measures2:
1 Aune de Paris = 3 pieds, 7 pouces, 8 lignes3
1 Aune de Toulouse et Languedoc = “demi aune davantage que Paris”4
1 Dominique CARDON, The Dyer's Handbook: Memoirs of an 18th Century Master Colourist. Havertown,
PA, Oxbow Books, 2016, p. 147.
2 Jacques SAVARY, Le Parfait négociant, ou Instruction générale pour ce qui regarde le commerce de toute
sorte de marchandises…par le sieur Jacques Savary, Paris, Chez Louis Bellain, 1675, p. 63, 65-66.
3 1 pied = 12 pouces = 144 lignes (12 lignes in a pouce). An aune de Paris is roughly equivalent to 118cm.
E.S. WINSLOW, The Universal Modern Cambist, and Foreign and Domestic Commercial Calculator…, Eighth Edition, Boston, E.S. Winslow, 1872, p. 20a.
4 (5 pieds, 5 pouces, 6 lignes) Other regional differences in the aune can be found in Le Parfait Négociant
viii
D
EDICACEDedicated to Ivor Noël Hume. Though we never met, he helped me stumble my way into historical archaeology and the world of artifact identification through the passion inherent in his writings.
“Beware the self-professed expert, for he has ceased to learn; and look closely at the man who bestows that distinction on another, for it means only that the recipient is less ignorant than he.”
ix
A
KNOWLEDGEMENTSThis study would have been impossible without the cooperation, collaboration, and guidance of many. Firstly I would like to thank the curators who enabled and facilitated my access to the artifacts included in this study, especially Heidi Moses and other Parks Canada staff at Fortress Louisbourg, Matt Keagle and Miranda Peters at Fort Ticonderoga, the staff at The History Museum (South Bend, IN), and the past and present curators of the Niles History Center (Niles, MI). Secondly I wish to acknowledge the guidance, patience, and companionship of my director, Alain Laberge, who kept faith and enthusiasm in my ideas even when I was struggling to believe in myself, and who supported me through my education in Québec both during my undergraduate and graduate programs. I would also be remiss not to acknowledge the instruction and mentorship of Michael Nassaney, who first introduced me to lead seals and who directed the study that provided the roots of this comparison. I would additionally like to thank Michel De Waele and Allison Bain for their input and for serving on my thesis committee. Additionally I would like to thank Greg Waselkov, Stuart Elton, Michel Royer, Mike Patrick, Philippe Halbert, Beau Robbins, David MacDonald, Nick Barber, Sophie Imbeault, Renald Lessard, Marie-Hélaine Fallu, Michel Thevenin, Joseph Gagné, and many, many other colleagues, friends, and family members (including my ever patient parents and grandparents) who have supported me throughout my research and during the writing process. Additionally I am compelled to acknowledge the financial aid that supported this research, especially those funds provided by the Bourse Rév. Dr. Bernard-J.-O'Connor en numismatique, the CIÉQ (Centre interuniversitaire des études québecois), and the Faculté des lettres et de sciences humaines at Université Laval.
1
I
NTRODUCTION ABRIEF NOTE ON THE PEOPLE MENTIONED IN THIS STUDYThroughout its history, New France was a geographic area that was home to many different cultural groups, both of European and Native American origin. In this study I will address these cultural groups in various ways when possible in order to be as specific as possible. I fully recognize that even as I write this, the manner in which ethnicity and identity are treated, both culturally and otherwise, is in constant evolution as descendant groups and those that study their history come to terms with the legacy of colonialism. My interpretation is far from written in stone. I am sure I will have critics, and that my own ideas on these topics may evolve in the future as discourse on the subject thickens, but for the purposes of this study, I will operate under the following assumptions. Firstly, “Native American” will often be used as a blanket term to refer to peoples present in the Americas before the arrival of Europeans due to the non-specificity of most period accounts. However, when possible, I will use specific tribal names. In this case, the tribal names I choose to use are the modern anglicized versions of names used in eighteenth century French accounts (though I acknowledge that these may not be the original names used by the tribe to describe itself, my overall goal is to avoid confusion within this thesis).
Secondly, in regards to discussions of the genetic and cultural combination of various Native American groups and French language groups, I will operate under the following assumptions. 1) That no group or individual in the eighteenth-century is to be referred to as Métis(se) or métis(se) with the exception of the Red River Métis of Manitoba, as this term has with time acquired a certain very direct legal association with this particular group and their self-identification. I will also regard this as the only example of ethnogenesis as a result of cultural métissage (see below). Though variations on the term Métis(se) (and métis(se)) were used in the eighteenth-century by the French speakers in Louisiana in order to call attention to the baptismal state of individuals, it was in an effort to categorize them in an imposed system of classification within that particular colonial context. This has little to do with the use of such terms in Canada (including the Illinois country until 1717 and
2
the Pays d’en Haut), and Acadia, which are the focus of this study5. It is also worth noting that in the eighteenth century, it is incredibly rare for an individual of mixed French speaking and Native American descent in northern New France (Acadie, Canada) to be referred to (or to refer to themselves) as métis(se). Rather, they tend to be associated or to associate themselves with either one group or the other6. 2) That for discussions of the incorporation of elements of Native American cultures into European cultures and vice versa (in material or immaterial manners), the term “cultural métissage” will be employed to describe this phenomenon. 3) In regards to French speaking cultures of European descent and ancestry, there is a distinction that should be made between French-Canadians (those French-speaking populations that populate and settled the geographic area of Canada and Acadia in New France) and the French (metropolitan French-speakers). Though New France should be thought of as a province within the kingdom of France, just the same as those in the metropole, it must also be stated that France itself contained within its boundaries many distinct cultural and ethnic subgroups. One could even argue that just as the Potawatomi and Iroquois are referred to using the term “Native American,” the Bretons, Picards, and Lyonnais in the eighteenth century (and still to some degree, in the present) were distinct regional groups (in dialect, dress, and other cultural markers) within the geographic area designated as France, though they may be referred to (or refer to themselves) as “French.” French-Canadians in the eighteenth century were often separated from visitors and troops from the metropole through the use of the term “Canadien(ne)s” (or canadien(ne)s in adjectival form) to specify their particular geographic situation and culture, which was in essence a blend of various regional cultures from France proper7. In this study, I will be using this original term- canadien(s) and acadien(s) to refer to those French speaking populations living in northern New France, and “French” to refer to
5 Gilles HAVARD, Empires et métissages : Indiens et Français dans le Pays d’en Haut, 1660-1715, Second
edition, Québec, Septentrion, 2017, p. 474-475; on the administration of the Illinois country, see Glenn R. CONRAD, “Administration of the Illinois Country: The French Debate,” The Journal of the Louisiana
Historical Association, Vol.36, No. 1 (1995) p. 31-53.
6 HAVARD, Empires et métissages…p. 475.
7 Of course, ironically, the term Canadien was adopted from the original French and used by Anglophone
populations living in the modern geographical area of Canada to describe themselves, leading to the use of “Canadian’ in modern English, and leading the Anglophone populations of Canada to distinguish themselves from their French predecessors and neighbors through use of the term “French-Canadian.”
3
French speakers with immediate metropolitan origins8. This is, of course, keeping in mind that though eighteenth-century Canadiens sought continually to enhance their “French-ness” through close imitation of metropolitan styles and lifeways, but that this emulation was along a continuum between success and failure to perfectly imitate the desired subject. With my definitions set according to the above reasoning, I hope to avoid confusion and offense to descendant groups implicated in this study.
SMALL BEGINNINGS
This study will examine lead seals from three French archaeological sites in North America and how these little known artifacts can help further the understanding of commercial and cultural networks associated with textiles. Lead seals are small tags of stamped lead that were placed on merchandise by European merchants, artisans, and government inspection offices. They often hold information that allows us to learn more about the people and places associated with textile manufacture, and what role merchandise played in daily life. Lead seals are often found at various sites in North America, particularly those dating from the seventeenth to eighteenth centuries. Three of these sites are included in this study : Fortress Louisbourg (Louisbourg, NS.), Fort Ticonderoga (Ticonderoga, NY —also known as Fort Carillon), and Fort St. Joseph (Niles, MI). Since these sites are varied in function, raison d’être, cultural environment, and geographic situation, the seals present within this study should be representative of the differences.
Despite their European origins, lead seals are of special interest to historical archaeologists working on North American sites. They can provide information about textiles that have long since been lost to the ravages of time. These imported textiles were an integral part of the daily life and commerce in North American colonies in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Textiles were especially important in the North American fur trade and at associated sites. In this system, pelts (usually those of beaver), were acquired by European traders and their Native American middlemen in exchange for European goods. It is known that textiles accounted for about forty percent of trade goods
8Acadiens are those French speaking populations that inhabited territory in the government of Acadie,
4
present in merchant stocks in Montréal at the start of the eighteenth century9. Native Americans were avid consumers of textiles, and in many cases used them to express membership in a certain cultural or social group, and status or function within these groups. It should be noted that these cultural groups could be Native American or European in nature, and that in both cases dress was used as a means of non-verbal communication10. Without the aid of probate inventories or other written documents available to help us better understand the individuals and tribe members and their styles and dress, lead seals found at archaeological sites associated with Native Americans are one of the only ways we can understand the role of cloth in their everyday activities.
Seals present at the sites in this study that are not as implicated in fur trade activity and that are more aptly described as urban or military centers are also informative, despite the presence of various documentary sources regarding clothing at these sites. In these cases, seals can help confirm or support interpretations of clothing based on personal correspondence and clothing orders, inventories, etc., but they can also help prove the existence of unmentioned textiles present at that site. These “unmentioned” textiles could even include contraband items or fabric obtained and used illicitly. Together with documentary sources, seals from these locations can help connect the site and its textiles to specific merchants in France and their North American distributors, or to trading companies. Identifying these links helps complete yet another part of the enormous puzzle of trade connections between Europe and New France. Seals can also provide us with new data on textile consumption that contradicts existing documents and studies. In short, lead seal research can contribute greatly to the understanding of past textiles and can help not only archaeologists and historians that study transatlantic trade and textile consumption in the French Atlantic better understand the impacts of early globalization on a site level.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The ultimate goal of this study is to use lead seals to explore three main ideas that
9 LouiseDECHÊNE,Habitants et Marchands de Montréal au XVIIe Siècle, Paris, Librairie Plon, 1974, p. 151,
Tableau 16.
10 This is indeed the case for cultures all over the world today and in the past: dress is both a practical
5
enable a better understanding of the French Atlantic and the beginnings of modern globalization; 1) the patterns of textile consumption in New France (including the varieties of textiles available in the colony), 2) the breadth, structure, and individuals involved in transatlantic merchant connections, and 3) the social and cultural influences on textile consumption and production11. Seals themselves are only the roots of this study, and their identification and interpretation serve as starting points in the exploration of locations, persons, and past events. Therefore, the information that seals convey to us in their function as documentary artifacts must be supplemented and expanded upon using auxiliary archival documents and existing studies. Some of my principle primary sources include archives held at the Bibliothéque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ), in microfilmed sub-series C11A and C11B of the Archives nationales d’Outre-Mer, which include inventories that mention the names of négociants and locations present on seals12. They also tie these people and places to specific textiles, both imported in the form of finished clothing items and as raw material. Other various secondary sources enable the identification of seals, including sigillographic works mentioned in the historiography to follow. Many seals are identified using various online sources and digitized period documents that contain information on specific towns or regions mentioned on seals or seal fragments in combination with various other regional histories. Once identified the seals can be used to guide research in order to learn more about the places and people that the seal connects. Other secondary sources help to situate this study by furnishing general information on the various aspects of commerce at the start of the modern Atlantic World.
What I hope to find in this study are details and patterns that reinforce and support extant historical knowledge concerning textile consumption in New France. Since lead seals are less biased than documents and their presence at a site is unencumbered by narratives written from an upper class, white, male European viewpoint, they are likely to
11 It should be noted that the word “transatlantic” has some attachment to the slave trade through which
Africans were sold and trafficked to the Americas (though not exclusively to the Americas). In this case, I am not talking about the slave trade specifically, but rather all textile commerce between the Old and New Worlds. However I do recognize that textiles did play a role in human trafficking in the infamous “triangle trade,” from the fifteenth into the nineteenth century. Robert S.DUPLESSIS, The Material Atlantic: Clothing,
Commerce, and Colonization in the Atlantic World, 1650-1800, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press,
2015, 351 p.
12 The term négociant holds a distinct meaning that is different from that of the term merchant (marchand),
6
produce information on the aspects of society that are rarely mentioned on paper. I expect to see a heightened number of varieties of seals and of the textiles they represent at Louisbourg, because it is a port city and has a more urban identity than the other two sites. The urban flavor of Louisbourg would implicate higher percentages of cottons and silks than more rural locations in the St. Lawrence Valley and further inland13. These urban tendencies are noted by Duplessis and others in their analysis of period sources from New France and elsewhere in New World colonies14.
This study is not particularily concerned with information on laws, regulations, and economic prohibitions of seventeenth and eighteenth-century France (and other European countries) concerning textiles. Based on other studies, it appears that these regulations did not have a huge consequence on textile consumption, in spite of threats and severe punishments promised to those who bought and wore foreign textiles15. Numerous authors have also presented the French government as an entity forced to react in response to changes in the consumption and production of textiles as influenced by the forces of fashion and the changing winds of commerce, rather than an active influence on these forces16. Even if the government controlled the production and inspection of textiles, changes in the market and in fashion controlled and created government responses. However, seals that may be linked to English or Dutch contraband or to counterfeits will certainly be noted if they appear, especially considering the supposedly commonplace illicit trade spanning the corridor between Montréal and Albany where Fort Ticonderoga is located17. This is of course not discounting the possible presence of contraband at Fort St.
13 The presence of cotton texiles would be expected to expand as the end of the French régime approaches
and into the British period, as cotton replaces woolens as the textile of choice in the Atlantic world. Robert S. DUPLESSIS, “Cottons Consumption in the Seventeenth- and Eighteenth- Century North Atlantic,” RIELLO, Giorgio and PARTHASARATHI, Prasannan, eds., The Spinning World: A Global History of Cotton Textiles,
1200-1850. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2009, p. 227-246.
14 Giorgio RIELLO and Prasannan PARTHASARATHI, eds., The Spinning World: A Global History of Cotton
Textiles, 1200-1850, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2009, p. 489. ; DUPLESSIS, The Material Atlantic..., 351 p.
15 DUPLESSIS, The Material Atlantic..., p.224. The laxity of enforcement of these laws and restrictions in a
colonial environment is also remarked upon in some studies as a result of the limits of centralized power in an expanding empire. Christopher HODSON and BrettRUSHFORTH, “Absolutely Atlantic: Colonialism and the
Early Modern French State in Recent Historiography,” History Compass, Vol.8 Issue 1 (2010), p. 101-117.
16 DUPLESSIS, The Material Atlantic..., p. 223-224; Christopher MOORE, “Merchant Trade in Louisbourg, Isle
Royale,” Master’s thesis, Ottawa, University of Ottawa, 1977, p. 6.
7
Joseph that would show penetration of these illegal goods into the heart of French influence in the west18.
It is my suspicion that the seals from Fort Ticonderoga are mostly linked to the military presence there and the clothing and supply of French troops, and that seals associated with cloth intended for trade with Native American allies will be rare, if present at all. It appears that commerce was infrequent at the fort, in spite of the presence of large numbers of allies on the eve of offensives. Also, it is worth mentioning that given the preparatory nature of these gatherings and the inadequate of military supplies throughout New France during the French and Indian War (likely a consequence of the infamous Canada Affair), any lead seals present on textiles given as gifts to allies may very well have been melted down into ammunition or more practical items19. The possibilities of the reuse of lead seals is discussed in depth later on in this study.
In regards to the varieties of textiles that are most likely represented by the seals at Fort St. Joseph, little guesswork or hypothesizing is needed. In my undergraduate thesis I explored the seals from this site and found that the majority of textiles that could be linked to the seals present there were woolens, likely intended for trade. Among the woolen varieties identified were mazamets, dourgnes, écarlatines, and other high quality woolens and broadcloths20. Other seals that may be found at this site could be linked to finer textiles including hosiery or lace, as is the case at nearby Fort Michilimackinac21. These details would appear to reinforce the metropolitan tastes of the French inhabitants. Though the possibility that they are evidence of the consumption or adoption of European fashions by
18 Throughout the French period, Native American trade with the enemy at Fort Oswego (Chouagen) was a
constant concern and threat in the eyes of French colonial administrators. Many of the primary correspondence documents found at the BAnQ-Q mention the looming threat of trade at Oswego (C11A).
19 The Canada Affair was the scandal that insued after the discovery of the mismanagement and
embezzlement of the colony’s finances by the colonial government during the French and Indian War following the loss of Canada. SteveDELISLE, “An Introduction to the 1757 General Inventory of the King’s Storehouses at Carillon,” The Bulletin of the Fort Ticonderoga Museum, Vol. XVII, No.2 (2017), p. 11-12; Fred ANDERSON, The Crucible of War: The Seven Years' War and the Fate of Empire in British North
America, 1754-1766, New York, Knopf, 2007, p. 187-189; Lynn L. MORAND, Craft Industries at Fort
Michilimackinac, Mackinac Island, Mich, Mackinac State Historic Parks, 1994, p. 40-44; Cathrine DAVIS, “Lead Seals from Colonial Fort St. Joseph (20BE23),” Undergraduate Thesis, Kalamazoo, Western Michigan University, 2014, p. 67-69.
20 DAVIS, “Lead Seals from Colonial Fort St. Joseph (20BE23),” p. 65-66, 69-72.
21 Diane L. ADAMS, Lead Seals from Fort Michilimackinac, 1715-1781, Mackinac Island, MI, Mackinac
8
local tribes or should not be completely discounted. As a result of the work already done concerning this site, the section on Fort St. Joseph will be a résumé of previous findings. However, new information and precisions will of course be included.
New France is a subject that is gaining in popularity in the United States, due to its ability to cross borders and to reunite the remnants of a French colonial empire spread across a continent. Researchers hope to better understand the daily lives of various cultures within this zone of French influence, from Louisbourg to the American South, and in what ways they existed and coped with the colonial projects of Ancien Régime France. At the center of the colonial experiment, we see the goods and merchandise sent from the metropole to women and men throughout America, and who used them to express themselves culturally and individually through their possessions and clothing styles.
In spite of the ever-growing field of knowledge concerning New France and the Atlantic world, textiles are still only one small part of the historiography, often relegated to a few pages or footnotes in works on the general history of the fur trade, French commerce, or the history of Canada. I propose to elucidate the voyage of textiles and the importance of their consumption in the colonies both in New France and France using lead seals as a guide. Found throughout North America, these seals are still enigmatic. However, in the past few decades, a select few archaeological studies have demonstrated the potential of seals as witnesses to the larger world of transatlantic textile commerce22. Therefore, I will use lead seals as a starting point to lead my investigation of textile consumption in New France, choosing collections from three sites with distinctly different (yet shared) histories; a trading post in the Pays d’en Haut (Fort St. Joseph), a central French and Indian War military post in the hotly contested Lake Champlain Valley (Fort Ticonderoga), and a fortified town and entrepôt on the Atlantic (Fortress Louisbourg)23. This study will also allow insight into how textile consumption in New France influenced regions in France concerned with textile production and commerce with Canada.
22 These sources will be discussed later in the chapter on historiography.
23 Among these collections, the materials recovered from Louisbourg and some of the material from Fort St.
Joseph were recovered through modern archaeological work, while the majority of seals from Fort Ticonderoga and Fort St. Joseph were recovered at some point in the past, and were not found as part of a formal excavation. Their context information is clearly tied to the sites, but their precise location of recovery is unknown.
9
In order to support the lead seal evidence, I consider some subjects linked inevitably to the study of textiles in New France: the economic history of France, the history of Atlantic commerce, and the cultural and economic history of New France. This study rests with one foot in economic history and the other in the numismatic archaeology of French North America24.
PROGRESSION OF THIS STUDY
Due to the innate interdisciplinarity of my subject, my study lends itself awkwardly to the organizational conventions of works common in both history and archaeology. This issue is further exasturbated by the inclusion of large collections from three different sites that must be examined independently as well as comparatively, and the well known difficulty of understanding textiles in France and New France25. The goals of this study, in brief, are to 1) document, 2) identify, 3) interpret, 4) compare and contrast, and 5) conclude. Step one, documentation, is accomplished by means of the lengthy classification and plates included in the annex of this thesis. These are simultaneously my sources and my subjects, and must be included in this study to allow the critique of my work and to provide other researchers with the possibility to compare and contrast their own lead seals with those mentioned and analysed in this study. The analysis, in essence, is steps two, three, four, and five combined. Identification and interpretation are very intertwined as is, and to include a section dedicated soley to the identification of seals would cause unnecessary repetition in any section dedicated to documentation or interpretation. Step four is in fact the combination of these three site wide analyses in order to discuss the differences and similarities between them, which will lead eminently to some discoveries which will then be discussed and later summarized in that section. In order to aid in the identification and interpretation of seals, it is necessary to be familiar with some base knowledge concerning lead seals as well as the operation of inspection systems in Ancien Régime France. Therefore, a preliminary section of contextual information containing
24 More specifically, this study is a material culture study of artifacts that borrows some ideas from
archaeology and is designed to be of aid to archaeologists seeking to identify lead seals, but is above all a thesis produced within a history program and therefore seeking to satisfy historical exigences.
25"Peu d'auteurs se sont véritablement intéressés aux tissus en Nouvelle-France probablement en raison de la
complexité du sujet." Jean REGIS and AndréPROULX, Le commerce à Place Royale sous le Régime français, Québec, Gouvernement du Québec, Ministère de la culture et des communications, 1995, Collection Patrimoine, Vol. 94, p. 343.
10
sections on offices using lead seals and their greater connection to the French economy, merchants and trade networks, packaging in the eighteenth century and the role of seals within such processes, and some other useful information to consider concerning seals that will come into play later in this study.
The organization of this thesis, therefore, is as follows. The introduction and historiography preceed a section on the discussion of sources and methodology, after which the first chapter will present contextual information and an introduction to lead seals that will help explain the terminology on the seals discussed later on. Three analysis chapters will follow, one for each site. It is important to recognize that the chapter on Fort St. Joseph will include updated information and a general summary of the findings avaliable in my undergraduate thesis on that site, whereas the chapters on Fort Ticonderoga (Carillon) and Louisbourg will feature an analysis of collections that have never been previously studied in depth26. Chapter five will consist of comparisons and contrasts between the three sites and a discussion of these patterns, and finally a conclusion will tie my study together and relate it to the world around us.
11
H
ISTORIOGRAPHY CENTRAL, BUT LITTLE-KNOWN:LEAD SEALS IN NUMISMATICSLead seals were first used in the Hellenistic period, though seals of the Byzantine Empire are arguably the most commonly studied27. First used commercially, historic lead seals (sixteenth through seventeenth centuries) communicated information concerning tax payment, quality checks during production and circulation of merchandise (especially textiles),and possession of goods (as used by merchants or commercial companies during transportation and before sale)28. Today, the study of lead seals is largely concentrated in Europe, especially in the Netherlands, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, where antiquarians, collectors, academics, and museums (like the Museum de Lakenhal in Leiden or the British Museum in London) often find them. In the case of the United Kingdom, a now longstanding tradition of mudlarking and metal detecting has given rise to online databases and forums dedicated to the identification of lead seals, among other artifact types, along with the establishment of guidelines to protect archaeological sites within these hobbies29. One of the first studies on historic lead seals, and the most useful to my research is the work of Antoine Sabatier. Written in the first part of the twentieth century, his book focuses on seals found in the region of the Saône and Seine rivers in France, most of which were part of his private collections. This book uses official documents to explain various types of seals and includes many plates in the back of the book and illustrations that are indispensable in the identification of a large variety of French lead seals30.
Perhaps the most commonly used study among archaeologists in North America to identify seals is the work of Geoffrey Egan on lead seals and related items in the British Museum31. Though this work is mostly concerned with the identification of English lead seals, some foreign seals are also included. Though unarguably packed with information on
27 NicolasOIKONOMIDÈS, Byzantine Lead Seals, Washington D.C., Dumbarton Oaks, 1985, 28 p.
28 GeoffreyEGAN, Lead Seals and related items in the British Museum, London, Department of Medieval and
Later Antiquities, British Museum, 1994, Occasional papers of the British Museum, No. 93, 199 p; Antoine SABATIER, Sigillographie historique des administrations fiscales, communautés ouvrières et institutions
diverses ayant employé des sceaux de plomb (XIV-XVIII siècles): plombs histories de la Saône et de la Seine,
Paris, H. Champion, 1912, 527p.
29 One of the more prominent forum sites is http://bagseals.org. 30 SABATIER, Sigillographie historique…, 527 p.
12
English seals and the function of seals in general, this work relies on Sabatier for the identification of most of the French seals included, and as such does little to aid in the identification of French lead seals not included in Sabatier’s study. In the footsteps of Egan, the most recent book on lead seals is one on lead cloth seals written by Stuart F. Elton32. Though also focused mainly on English lead seals, it expands upon general information on lead seals and their use and provides an up-to-date view of the world of lead seal studies. This book is wonderfully illustrated and elaborates on many seals that are also present on the popular website bagseals.org, which is curated by the author. In spite of its name, all varieties of lead seals can be found on this public online database that could provide a model for future collaborative lead seal research. At least one article on North American lead seals, which includes some French seals, was recently written by David Macdonald, professor emeritus and archaeologist specializing in ancient coins. This article is brief, but it provides a clean, crisp overview of lead seals and a helpful bibliography for those starting in historic sigillography33.
SEALS AND NORTH AMERICAN HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY
North American archaeologists that work on colonial sites in the United States and in Canada have begun to take an interest in lead seals in recent years. In regards to the archaeology of the the thirteen American colonies, seals found in this territory are often English and are somewhat easily identifiable using the work of Egan. In addition, the indispensable archaeological field guide to early American artifacts by Ivor Noël Hume provides information on some common English seals, while providing some flawed information on at least one French seal34. Though these works remain nevertheless useful, their lack of French materials presents a lacuna in the historiography.
With relatively few resources on lead seals available to archaeologists that work on French sites, some have conducted further research on lead seals found at these sites in hopes of better understanding them. The majority limit themselves to a short explanation of
32 Stuart F. ELTON, Cloth Seals: An Illustrated Guide to the Identification of Lead Seals Attached to Cloth,
Summertown, Oxford, Archaeopress Archaeology, 2017, 414 p.
33 David MACDONALD, “Introduction to Colonial Era Lead Seals,” Le Journal, Vol.29, No.4 (2013), p. 1-6. 34 Ivor Noël HUME, A Guide to Artifacts of Colonial America, New York, Knopf, 1970 (1969), p.270-271. In
this guide, a seal from Nîmes (possibly a draperie seal) is incorrectly identified as a seal of the “French India Company.”
13
seals within larger site reports or within studies focused on classification and typology of artifacts from a single site. Some sites that have included lead seals studies on general artifacts are Fort Ouiatenon, Fort St. Joseph, and Fort Michilimackinac35. The only book written by an archaeologist that specifically focuses on lead seals from a French site is that of Diane Adams, which examines archaeologically recovered seals from the site of Fort Michilimackinac36.My undergraduate thesis on seals from Fort St. Joseph has roots in this small but essential report, but also includes a brief comparison of these seals with the seals reported on in the work of Stone and Adams37.
The slow adoption of lead seals as an archaeological subject could be due to the migration of interest from material culture towards larger interpretive questions. However, it may be a side effect of attitudes resulting from the continual reinterpretation of archaeology’s relationship to history. The inclusion of both archaeology and history are needed to make sense of lead seals as documents and as artifacts38. Research on French lead seals found at sites in the United States appears to suffer because of the barrier posed by the lack of comprehension of eighteenth-century French necessary to make sense of many of the phrases commonly found on seals, or as the result of an inability to read French sources required for their identification. Even the in depth study conducted by Adams was based largely on English language sources, and includes only Sabatier and Louise Dechêne’s work as French language sources39. Clearly, a study that concentrates on lead seals from several French sites in North America that relies on French language sources is much needed both in archaeological and historical circles.
35 Vergil E. NOBLE, “Functional Analysis and Intra-Site Analysis in Historical Archaeology: A Case Study
from Fort Ouiatenon,” Master’s Thesis, East Lansing, MI, Michigan State University, 1983, 359 p; Charles A. HULSE, “An Archaeological Evaluation of Fort St. Joseph: An Eighteenth Century Military Post and
Settlement in Berrien Country, Michigan,” Master’s Thesis, East Lansing, MI, Michigan State University, 1977, 483 p; Lyle STONE, Fort Michilimackinac 1715-1781: An Archaeological Perspective on the
Revolutionary Frontier, Lansing, The Museum, Michigan State University, 1974, 367 p.
36 Diane L. ADAMS, Lead Seals from Fort Michilimackinac, 1715-1781, 48p. 37 DAVIS, “Lead Seals from Colonial Fort St. Joseph (20BE23),” 101 p.
38 Jacques MATHIEU, “Comment analyser un objet,” Jocelyn LÉTOURNEAU ed., Le Coffre à Outils du
Chercheur Débutant. Quebec, Les Éditions du Boreal, 2006, p.107-114.
14
THE ECONOMIC HISTORY OF FRANCE: THE RAISON D’ÊTRE OF FRENCH LEAD SEALS
The Economic history of France has in the past focused mostly on famous figures and their lives or economic policies. One of the earliest important works concerning the economy of the Ancien Régime is that of Charles Woolsey Cole. This book is an excellent summary of the system and economic changes imposed by Jean Baptiste Colbert, minster of finances to Louis XIV. However, this study focuses intensely on the life of Colbert and his contemporaries, and contains less information on commerce and inspection at the time40.Likewise, the other works of Cole tend to focus on biographical details of the life of Colbert and subsequent ministers, rather then on the policies in place, and lack detailed information on the role of these seventeeth-century changes in the eighteenth century41. More recent studies, including several written by Pierre Goubert, focus on how economic systems and changes to this system affected the daily lives of ordinary people in France. These books, written by a prolific author, are a product of the rise of social history and are now regarded as key texts and a starting point for any study or analysis concerning the history of French economy in this period. Goubert’s Beauvais et les Beauvaisis de 1600 à 1730 and Louis XIV and Twenty Million Frenchmen focus on the influence of absolutism on the economy and the everyday people involved in commerce, production, and manufacturing42.
More recently, the work of Philip Minard on French production and inspection systems present during the reign of Colbertism directly discusses the work and organizaton of offices and other entities that used seals43. This work is important in interpreting the confusing web of bureaucracy that existed in seventeenth and eighteenth-century France, and much of it focuses on the textile industry in particular because of its prominence in world trade at the time. Textile production is also discussed in Paul Butel’s book, which commits a whole chapter to textiles, discussing different regions of production, the
40 Charles Woolsey COLE, Colbert and a Century of French Mercantilism, Hamden, CN, Archon Books,
1964 (1939), Vol. 1, 532 p. Vol. 2 675 p.
41 Charles WoolseyCOLE, French Mercantilism : 1683-1700, New York, Octagon Books, 1971 (1943), 353
p.
42 Pierre GOUBERT, Beauvais et le Beauvaisis de 1600 à 1730, Paris, S.E.V.P.E.N., 1960, 653 p; Pierre
GOUBERT, Louis XIV and Twenty Million Frenchmen, Trans. by Anne CARTER, New York, Pantheon Books, 1970, 350 p.
43 Philip MINARD, La Fortune du colbertisme: État et industrie dans la France des Lumières, Paris, Fayard,
15
changing nature of the industry and longstanding textile traditions in various regions, while also touching on consumption and changing tastes in textiles within France44. Butel is also important as a pertinent source of information on translatlantic commerce- he and others demonstrate how French economic policies extended to New France. Though these geographic areas are so often treated separately, they ought to be considered jointly if one is to truly understand life in either location 45.
COMMERCIAL HISTORY OF THE FRENCH ATLANTIC
The French Atlantic is a subject in vogue among archaeologists and historians alike because it allows the integration of many regions in the colonial periphery into the larger narrative of the French empire in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries46. Studies of the Atlantic world are an opportunity to demonstrate how past connections between peoples and geographic regions have influenced the beginnings of globalization and the rise of today’s society and culture. The French colonial empire influenced the past and present of people living in Québec, the Carribean, India, Africa, South America, and beyond. In regards to Canada, explorations of these colonial commercial connections have often focused on the study of marchands immigrés that came to New France to “get rich quick” and return to France, and less on the négociants that never left France but were still involved in the Canada trade47. Merchants, négociants and their affairs on both sides of the Atlantic are examined in many studies, including those by Dale Miquelon, J.F. Bosher, Brice Martinetti and Olivier Le Gouic48. The information presented in these studies concerning individuals and companies involved in the Canada trade presents itself as a useful enumeration of names and associations that can be cross referenced with names on
44 Paul BUTEL, L’Économie francaise au XVIIIe siècle, Paris, C.D.U et Sedes, 1993, p. 220-239.
45 Laurent DUBOIS, “The French Atlantic,” Jack P. GREENE et Philip D. MORGAN, dir., Atlantic History :
A Critical Appraisal, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2008, p.137-161.
46 Ibid., p. 137-8.
47 Ibid., p. 140. The Canada trade is the provisioning of metropolitan goods to Canada in the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries. This term is used by many scholars, especially J.F. Bosher.
48 Dale MIQUELON, “Havy and Lefebvre of Quebec : A Case Study of Metropolitan Participation in Canadian
Trade, 1730-60,” Canadian Historical Review, Vol. 56 No. 1, 1975, p. 1-24; DaleMIQUELON, Dugard of
Rouen : French Trade to Canada and the West Indies 1729-1770, Montreal and London, McGill-Queen’s
University Press, 1978, p 282; J. F. BOSHER, The Canada Merchants 1713-1763, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1987, p.234; Brice MARTINETTI, Les Négociants de La Rochelle au XVIIIe siècle, Rennes, Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2013. Collection “Histoire,” 447 p; Olivier LE GOUIC, Lyon et la mer au XVIIIe
siècle : Connexions atlantiques et commerce colonial, Rennes, Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2011, 384
16
seals included in this study. They also operate as a framework for my explorations of new connections between French négociants and sites in New France, and my attempts to explain the circulation of these textiles.
Other studies explore specific quantitative data concerning cargoes and the movement of goods from port in Europe until their arrival at a colonial port, or focus on one port in particular and the aspects of economic life in that location (trade in and out of the port, families that dominate the towns commerce, the economy of the town). These works contain information that is relevant to my study, expecially those that include details on textiles and merchants dealing in them. Information on the destinations of cargo being shipped to Canada and the families involved in textile commerce of French port towns, such as La Rochelle, as presented by John G. Clark and other studies are also useful49.
Though my interests lie primarily in the French Atlantic, other studies that consider parallel colonial situations are important to consider. The Spinning World of Riello and Parthasarathi provide case studies on textiles throughout the world50. Other works such as those of Robert Duplessis concerning textiles in the Atlantic world focus on colonies and less on production in the metropole, but discuss patterns in clothing consumption related to cultural, geographical, and climatic differences51. Duplessis also mentions means of textile acquisition in the colonies and how access played a role in consumption. Additionally, he does not cover the use of textiles by European colonists to the detriment of Native American patterns of use, and in his inclusivity therefore fills a hole in the historiography of the “Amerindian Atlantic52.” This book is a solid guideline to build my study of consumerism upon, and the use of lead seals is an added dimension that I suspect will prove in accord with these observations.
49 John G. CLARK, La Rochelle and the Atlantic Economy during the Eighteenth Century, Baltimore, The
Johns Hopkins University Press, 1981, 286 p.
50 RIELLO and PARTHASARATHI, The Spinning World, 489 p. 51 DUPLESSIS, The Material Atlantic..., 320 p.
52 Paul COHEN, “Was there an Amerindian Atlantic? Reflections on the Limits of a Historiographical
17 TEXTILES AND THE HISTORY OF NEW FRANCE
Textiles and Commerce among Canadien colonists and habitants
Textile consumption in Canadien culture in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries has been researched, but not as extensively as other subjects. Sparse information on textiles appears in works on commercial links with France, or the subject is given some treatment in general histories of the colony. Perhaps the best sources of information on textile use in New France include the section on textiles in Louise Dechêne’s study on Montréal merchants and Sophie White’s book on the Illinois country and Louisiana53. Though White’s work does not necessarily focus on the St. Lawrence Valley or Acadia, some of her information is reasonably applicable to the Pays d’en Haut. Studies that focus more generally on the economy of New France are typically more interested in the fur trade, forestry, and the collection of raw materials and their export to the metropole54. However, some more recent works have included a little more information on goods destined for the colony. As previously mentioned, Dechêne focuses briefly on textiles in merchant stocks in Montréal, which may include some items meant for local sale. She also presents tables and illustrations that help the reader better comprehend information on the popularity and quantity of European goods present in Canada.
In the same vein as Dechêne’s work, some other general works on New France have sections that speak to the commercial activity, colonial merchants, and European importations55. As a result, I have a rough idea of the larger movements and events in the economic life of the colony. In terms of specifics of dress and textile use, there are few resources available. Séguin includes some sparse information on clothing in his classic La civilisation traditionnelle de l' "habitant " aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles56. Perhaps the best
53 Sophie WHITE, Wild Frenchmen and Frenchified Indians: Material Culture and Race in Colonial
Louisiana, Philadelphia, University of Philadelphia Press, 2012, 329p.; Louise DECHÊNE, Habitants et Marchands de Montréal au XVIIe Siècle, Paris, Librairie Plon, 1974, p. 150-154.
54 Jean LUNN, “Economic Development in New France, 1713-1760,” Doctoral Dissertation, Université
McGill, 1942, 495 p; Harold A. INNIS, The Fur Trade In Canada : an Introduction to Canadian Economic
History, New Haven, Yale University Press, 1962, 446 p; Bernard ALLAIRE, Pelleteries, manchons, et
chapeaux de castor: Les fourrures nord-américaines à Paris 1500-1632, Sillery, Septentrion, 1999, 400 p.
55 MarcelTRUDEL, La Nouvelle-France par les textes : les cadres de vie, Québec, Bibliothèque québecoise,
2011 (2003), 399 p; GuyFREGAULT, La civilisation de la Nouvelle-France (1713-1744), Quebec, Biblio-Fides 2014 (1944), 285 p.
56 Robert LionelSÉGUIN, La civilisation traditionnelle de l' "habitant " aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, Ottawa,
18
resources on clothing in New France are the Lexique illustré du costume en Nouvelle-France of Suzanne and André Gousse, and a book that focuses largely on clothing on Île d’Orléans in the seventeeth and early eighteenth centuries57. The latter mostly pulls from probate inventories of common people, so it provides a foil to the inventories of the noblesse that are much more often mentioned in texts. My research on Louisbourg has resulted in the discovery of a few sources regarding textile imports and clothing there. I have relied on the work of Christopher Moore for general historical information on the site, but his work for Parks Canada on commerce on at Louisbourg and on Île Royale has been insdispensable, as have works by Ken Donovan58.
The Fur Trade and Native American Clothing Consumption
Contrary to the situation of research concerning clothing and textile consumption among the French inhabitants of New France, the historiography of Native American dress and the fur trade is a rich one. It is a historiography with roots in observations recorded in the seventeeth and and eighteenth centuries by European travelers, missionaries, and military officers59. One very important and well known work that discusses cultural constructs and the exchange of trade goods between Europeans and Native Americans is The Middle Ground, which is widely used by both historians and archaeologists60. In this book, Richard White discusses how seventeenth through nineteenth-century Native Americans coped with colonialism and how they played French and English colonial projects to their advantage as they sought to sustain their power and agency in a changing world61. White and other authors that have followed in his line of reasoning have in a way
57 Suzanne and AndréGOUSSE, Lexique illustré du costume en Nouvelle-France, 1740-1760, Chambly, La
Fleur de Lyse, 1995, 62 p; BernardAUDET, Le costume paysan dans la région de Québec au XVIIe siècle: Île
d'Orléans, Ottawa, Leméac, 1980, 214 p.
58ChristopherMOORE, Commodity Imports of Louisbourg, Fortress of Louisbourg unpublished manuscript
report, No. 317, 1975, 115 p; MOORE, Christopher, “Merchant Trade in Louisbourg, Isle Royale,” Master’s
thesis, Ottawa, University of Ottawa, 1977, 144 p.; Kenneth DONOVAN, "Tattered Clothes and Powdered Wigs: Case Studies of the Poor and Well-To-Do in Eighteenth-Century Louisbourg," Kenneth DONOVAN, ed., Cape Breton at 200: Historical Essays in Honour of the Island’s Bicentennial 1785-1985, Sydney, NS, Cape Breton University Press, 1985, p. 1-20.
59 J.C.B., Voyage au Canada dans le nord de l’Amérique septentrionale fait depuis l’an 1751 à 1761,
Québec, Imprimerie Léger Brousseau, 1887, 255 p; Pierre POUCHOT, Mémoires sur la dernière guerre de
l'Amérique septentrionale, Sillery, Septentrion, 2003, 324 p; Louis-Antoine deBOUGAINVILLE, Écrits sur le
Canada, Sillery, Septentrion, 2003, 430 p.
60 Richard WHITE, The Middle Ground : Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region,
1650-1815, Second edition, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2010 (1991), 576 p.
19
returned agency to colonial era Native Americans previously ignored in past studies tainted by political rhetoric, prejudices, and misinterpretation. His approach provides basic viewpoints that play into many other studies discussing the textile preferences of Native Americans as consumers and the impact that these preferences had on European merchants and manufacturers. However, this approach has been recently criticized for portraying Native Americans as reactionaries instead of as instigators of change. This style of thinking has been brought to the forefront in recent publications, especially the book Masters of Empire, whose title refers to Native Americans rather than the Europeans historically portrayed as such62.
One important source to consider in my work is Bruce Trigger’s Natives and Newcomers, a book that uses an approach that pulls from both anthropology and history, and includes archaeological data to support his interpretation of the traditional narrative regarding the early period of French colonization63. Trigger puts forth a rationialist argument that Native American consumption of European goods was driven more by the utilitarian qualities of these goods than other motivations, as noted by Havard. Havard warns, however, that a similar approach runs the risk of falling into ethnocentrism by assuming that Native Americans thought in terms of utility, just as Europeas often did64. I would suggest that the true nature of Native American consumerism lies somewhere between this rationalist approach and culturally motivated consumption based on intrinsic attributes offered by goods not commonplace in traditional society.
Trigger is a prime example of the use of interdisciplinarity in studies of the past. Interdisciplinary studies are fairly common in the case of the fur trade, with another prime example being the work of Dean Anderson. His analysis of the Montréal merchant records uses archival sources to compliment archaeological findings at various fur trade posts in a quest to better understand the flow and distribution of trade goods in the Western Great
62 Michael MCDONNELL,Masters of Empire: Great Lakes Indians and the Making of America, New York,
Macmillan, 2015, 416 p.
63 Bruce TRIGGER, Natives and Newcomers: Canada’s “Heroic Age” Reconsidered, Montreal,
McGill-Queens Press, 1986, 430 p.
20
Lakes region65. Where Two Worlds Meet, a book that reads more like an exhibit than an in depth study, is also incredibly useful because it uses objects as starting points to explain how European goods made their way to the Great Lakes, all while written in a way that reaches the larger public66. It is useful because it accomplishes a similar goal to the one I have set for this study in its explanation of larger phenomena in the history of New France using small and often overlooked artifacts.
Another classic study that approaches Native American consumption along with a spatial analysis of the fur trade is Give Us Good Measure67. This book takes a different angle of approach on the fur trade: through the use of geography alongside historical and archaeological data, it shows patterns in the trade between trading posts around and near Hudson’s Bay. It also explains how the fur trade evolved over time, from a system heavily controlled by Native Americans and the construct of gift giving, up until the fusion of this model with more European economic traditions68.
Like Louise Dechêne’s study that enumerates the merchandise in stocks at Montréal, Empires et Métissages by Gilles Havard includes within it a section on material culture and trade goods as well as an essential and in depth analysis of Native and French relations in the Pays d’en Haut69. This work adds further to the study of the “Amerindien Atlantic” in that it discusses how the Pays d’en Haut and other borderlands of New France were not necessarily peripheries, as colonialist discourse would classify them, but were rather important commercial and cultural centers that were full and active participants in the Atlantic economy70. Finally, a classic text on the economic history of the fur trade by Harold Innis, though “beaver-centric” provides basic background on the fur trade as an economic system and provides an understanding of the fur trade as the beginnings of the
65 DeanANDERSON, “The Flow of European Trade Goods into the Western Great Lakes Region, 1715-1760,”
J.S.H. BROWN, W.J. ECCLES, and D.P. HELDMAN eds., The Fur Trade Revisted, East Lansing, MI, Michigan State University Press, 1994, p. 93-115.
66 Carolyn GILMAN (dir.), Where Two Worlds Meet : the Great Lakes Fur Trade, St. Paul, MN, Minnesota
Historical Society Press, 1982, 136 p.
67 Arthur J. RAY and Donald B. FREEMAN, “Give us Good Measure”: an Economic Analysis of Relations
between the Indians and the Hudson’s Bay Company before 1763, Toronto, University of Toronto Press,
1978, 298 p.
68 Ibid., p. 236.
69 HAVARD, Empires et métissages…, 603 p.
21
Canadian economy, fitting it into the rest of Canadian history71. This study includes information on the fur trade from its very beginnings up until its decline in the twentieth century.
Drawing from the sources discussed in the above historiography will enable me to inform and ground my approach to lead seals by providing me with the most holistic possible view of the world within which they circulated. These sources will guide my interpretation of textile use at North American sites as well as my understanding of production and inspection systems in place in Europe. They provide me with the building blocks I need in order to arrange this study in a manner that uses already existing work on lead seals and numismatic archaeology as a base.
71 INNIS, The Fur Trade In Canada…, 446 p.
