"Le Canada est un païs de bois" : forest resources and shipbuilding in New France, 1660-1760

The colonial contribution to the French naval shipbuilding industry in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, explored within the context of the forest from which the resources for the industry were taken, was a remarkably successful venture that came to an end with the onset of war. In the past, the end of the French naval shipbuilding industry in New France has been attributed to the action or inaction of France that resulted in the inefficient use of forest resources. Issues of interest in, organization or support of colonial efforts by France, however, were nevertheless, limited by the immutable realities of the colonial forest environment. This thesis argues that the success of the industry, considered within the appropriate context, is a consequence of colonial persistence in the face of constraints imposed by the colonial forest environment---despite these other significant issues. The official correspondence, written by colonial officials in New France, record colonial efforts to supply France with timber and detail the development of a naval shipbuilding industry in the colony. These documents provide source material for a case study that demonstrates the constraints imposed by the colonial forests on the experience of colonists, timber suppliers and shipbuilders. The colonial forest was not the same as the forests in France. A simple transfer of knowledge and practice from one forest to another was insufficient to deal with the differences in climate, forest age, tree species and the extent to which human activity affected the different forests. These differences challenged the way in which colonists could use forest resources for their own needs, for export to France and for naval construction. To consider this use of resources, without considering the differences between the available materials in the colony and those available in France, is to look at the story removed from the setting in which it took place. The unique forest in the colony was the setting in which colonial shipbuilding took place. Any study of the development of this industry, or any other industry that relied on forest resources, must give consideration to the constraints and realities of that forest.

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