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This article takes the Company of New France or CNF (1627-1663) as a case study to consider the legal dimensions of early modern chartered companies – how they established themselves, how they dealt with disputes, and how they exercised the regal powers delegated to them. Drawing on recent literature that challenges the entrenched notion of companies as exclusively economic entities, it considers the Company of New France as an experimentation with new tools of capital formation and governance. The article puts the CNF in comparison with other corporations and commercial associations in France as well as contemporary chartered companies in the Atlantic. While the company shared certain characteristics with other French corporations, notably a separate legal personality, responsibility for internal governance, and a contractual relationship with the king, as an overseas commercial and colonizing enterprise, the nature of its privileges, functions, and obligations were distinct. The paper’s final section considers challenges faced by the CNF in the execution of its mandate, particularly with the establishment of a new, ostensibly subordinate corporation, the Communauté des Habitants in 1645. The frictions between these two bodies underscore the inextricable ties between trade and effective governance in the colony.
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This article explores the ways in which historians of New France are engaging with Atlantic, imperial, and comparative frameworks, as well as theoretical literature to better understand big historical processes such as state and empire formation and sovereignty. It also shows how traditional categories separating political, economic, social, and religious phenomena are breaking down, allowing for a deeper understanding of the ways in which their interactions shaped French imperial expansion. Empire formation depended on both agents and institutions. Going beyond the traditionally narrow conceptions of each, the article examines the widening range of actors who are now considered agents of empire as well as the recent move beyond Church and state to consider other institutions, notably the understudied chartered company. The latter is particularly fruitful for rethinking the relationship among traditionally separate groups of actors and institutions. Resituating the Company of New France in Atlantic, imperial, and comparative frameworks highlights the complex intertwining of religious, political, economic, and social phenomena that was at the heart of French imperialism. The article closes with a brief discussion of the parallels to nineteenth-century railroad corporations and their relationship with the state to highlight the evolving dynamic between states and corporations in a broader chronology. Finally, a number of avenues are proposed for future research into that relationship, for which New France and the French empire are particularly rich sites of inquiry.
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The historiography on the Compagnie de la Nouvelle-France (CNF) focuses primarily on its role in the colonization of New France. By examining its form, I resituate the CNF in the larger history of European experimentations with the joint-stock company. The liquidation of the company’s debts in the 1630s and 1640s forced associates, directors, and jurists to articulate their understanding of who was liable for the enterprise’s financial health. Evaluating the legal and moral arguments of the parties concerned, I argue that the complexity of the liability of associates and directors resulted from the intersection of corporate, monarchical and commercial worlds.
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The historiography on the Compagnie de la Nouvelle-France (CNF) focuses primarily on its role in the colonization of New France. By examining its form, this article resituates the CNF in the larger history of European experimentations with the joint-stock company. The liquidation of the company’s debts in the 1630s and 1640s forced associates, directors, and jurists to articulate their understanding of who was liable for the enterprise’s financial health. Evaluating the legal and moral arguments of the parties concerned, this article argues that the complexity of the liability of associates and directors resulted from the intersection of the corporate, monarchical and commercial worlds.