Jobs & Occupations in Colonial New France (1600s–1763)

Working Life in New France

The economy of New France (modern Quebec, Great Lakes, Mississippi Valley) revolved around the fur trade, subsistence agriculture, and military/religious administration. Key occupations included:

Primary Sector

• Habitants (Farmers): Tenant farmers (censitaires) working seigneurial lands—wheat, peas, corn, livestock.
• Coureurs des bois / Voyageurs: Independent or contracted fur traders/trappers traveling deep into the interior by canoe.
• Fishermen: Cod, whale, and seal fisheries on the Atlantic/Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Skilled Trades & Crafts

• Artisans: Blacksmiths, carpenters, masons, coopers, wheelwrights, tailors, shoemakers.
• Shipbuilders: Constructing vessels at Quebec, Louisbourg, and naval yards.
• Millers: Operating water/wind gristmills (seigneurial monopoly).

Commerce & Administration

• Merchants (Négociants): Import/export, supply trade goods, finance voyages.
• Officials: Governor, Intendant, judges, militia officers, engineers.
• Missionaries: Jesuits, Recollects, Sulpicians, Ursulines—evangelization, education, hospitals.

Military & Exploration

• Soldiers: Troupes de la Marine (colonial regulars), militia.
• Explorers: La Salle, Marquette, Jolliet, La Vérendrye—mapping, claiming territory.

Indigenous Economies

First Nations (Huron, Algonquin, Iroquois, Ojibwe, Cree, etc.) were essential partners: trappers, guides, middlemen, farmers, and diplomats—maintaining their own economic systems.

Society was hierarchical but offered more social mobility than France, especially for skilled workers and successful voyageurs.