ABSTRACT
SUMMARY: When Champlain died in 1635, the trading post he had founded in 1608 was the embryo of a permanent settlement. Vicissitudes in assigning privileges ensured that its development had been slow and halting. The artefacts found in Québec and on the farm at Cap Tourmente show that these settlements were provided mainly with goods from the hinterlands of the French ports in which the merchant companies were based. The houses on the St Lawrence were small and built in timber and cob. The expatriate craftsmen and labourers consumed a standard seaman’s diet supplemented by plums supplied from France.
