№4-2023-18
DOI: 10.22281/2413-9912-2023-07-04-169-182
Fedin A.V.
THE JESUITS AND THE FUR TRADE IN THE 17th CENTURY NEW FRANCE
The issue of material support for the missionary activities of the Society of Jesus in New France remained one of the most painful throughout its history of the XVII-XVIII centuries. According to many researchers, it was the financial and economic activities of the order in the missionary territories that served as one of the main reasons (and reasons) for its prohibition in the second half of the XVIII century. During the previous century, especially the first half of it, most of the difficulties and problems faced by Jesuit missionaries in Canada were caused by insufficient, or even completely absent, material base of their activities. The participation of Jesuit missionaries in North America in the fur trade has been the subject of intense debate since their appearance in New France and up to the present day. It seems that the representatives of the order were indeed involved in the fur trade, which was caused by the need for material support for their main, missionary, activities. Throughout the period under review, furs continued to be, first of all, the main monetary equivalent in the colony, along with gifts of various kinds, and in this form were used by Jesuit missionaries, as well as by other persons and organizations on its territory and even more so beyond its borders, in the native environment.
Keywords:Jesuits, missionary activity, New France, fur trade, Indians, smuggling, trading companies.
Academician I.G. Petrovskii Bryansk State University (Russia)
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