History lesson: Samuel de Champlain the Investor

0
771

Samuel de Champlain was a wonderful draughtsman, cartographer, ethnologist, soldier, diplomat, geographer, chronicler, explorer, and French navigator. He was nicknamed the Father of New France and he just may have been related to King Henry IIII. But do you know what Champlain really was? He was an investor. Most of the important things he has done he has done for money or some form of pay. Even in the personal aspect; when he got married in 1603 he received $150,000 and became a member of the elite.

In the same year Champlain agreed to build a trading company that sent goods (most probably, fur) to France.
In the summer of 1609, Champlain built alliances with the Algonquin, Etchemin, Wendat(called Huron by French) and Montagnis tribes. He sided with them in a fight against the Haudenosaunee that year. This fired up a conflict which lasted at least a hundred years more.

So why would he do this if he knew it would cause insecurity between all these tribes? The only excuse would be business and trade-related issues. The Wendat and the other tribes agreed to send his country furs through the trade.

Say what you’d like, but there is no way of denying that Samuel de Champlain was one of the greatest businessmen of his time.