Jacques Legardeur De Saint-Pierre: Officer, Gentleman, Entrepeneur

Conclusion

244 Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre It is clear that the Saint-Pierres participated in the common practice of the well-to-do in New France of converting a portion of their wealth to silverware which retained its full bullion value despite currency devaluations and rising inflation.25 What is not entirely clear is the profit that the Saint-Pierres' 6,200 gallons of brandy would bring in-after expensesafter being traded for furs. The question is intriguing, but finding the answer would go beyond the scope of the present study. The appraised and declared value of Saint-Pierre's known estate did not exceed 80,000 livres at his death, just prior to the appalling inflation that was to destroy the buying power of the livre during the last years of New France. In 1755, however, this amount was enough for his widow to maintain her lifestyle, as Governor-General Vaudreuil implied in the last paragraph of his eulogy of the officer. But Saint-Pierre's estate was not comparable to the fortunes amassed by greater entrepreneurs than he. His business enterprises enabled him and his wife to live comfortably and to provide for her after his death. The Saint-Pierres, while close to the powerful and wealthy in their society and able to put on a display of at least some ostentation, nonetheless seemed to avoid drawing attention to themselves.26 CONCLUSION The ever-difficult economic situation in the colony explains much of the intense motivation and rivalry of Saint-Pierre and many other officers of the Troupes de fa Marine to secure commands in the west. By 1755 officers without such commands were increasingly at pains to provide enough for their families literally to survive. The upper-country post commanders who did not have trading privileges at their post generally received an annual gratification (supplementary pay) of 3,000 livres to help defray their expenses as commandant. What remained from the gratification was scarcely enough, with a captain's annual base pay of about 1,000 livres, to support a wife and family in the lower colony. No wonder, then, that many officers sought assignments with trading possibilities which might provide a greater income, either legitimate or otherwise. Saint-Pierre's request to be relieved from his Michilimackinac command, where he did not have the post's trade, is a case in point. The history of New France is punctuated with the names of officers and officers' widows less fortunate than the Saint-Pierres who did not have enough money to support themselves and their families. The colony's top administrators generally gave assignments to the more lucrative commands Epilogue 245 based on favoritism; such assignments went to a select number of military families, not unlike the practices of the Bourbon administration in the metropolis. Saint-Pierre was a member of such a family, and his considerable talents permitted him to take advantage of the opportunities open to him. Those not so well connected lived in poverty. Almost a century ago, Canadian historian A.-G. Morice reviewed Saint-Pierre's service in the Western Sea posts and found him "more inclined to peculation [embezzlement] than exploration .... As an officer he was brave and gentlemanly; but as an explorer and trader, he had the fault of being grasping and of refusing the assistance offered him by the sons of La Verendrye who morally had the right to his position, and yet asked only to serve under him.'>27 One of Saint-Pierre's contemporaries, Louis-Leonard Aumasson de Courville, the author of the anonymous and frequently bitter Memoires du Sieur de c. .. contenant l'histoire du Canada durant la guerre, et 50US Ie gouvernement anglais, described Saint-Pierre more kindly:28 A captain, commendable for his valor and a certain intrepidness doc. 78 which made him feared and loved by the Indian nations; but selfinterest had more to do with his selection to explore for the Western Sea (replacing the late Verandrye) than the true merit of this officer. They could not have done better than entrusting that post to SaintPierre who combined a perfect knowledge of dealing with the Indians with great integrity. [page 10] M. Legardeur de Saint-Pierre, a trusted captain among the Indians, whom they viewed as an extraordinary man for his presence of mind with which he often extricated himself from a difficult situation with those among them who had made an attempt on his life and whom he had obliged to humble...