Company of One Hundred Associates
In 1628, Quebec became controlled by the Company of One Hundred Associates, a merchant-run joint-stock enterprise founded by Cardinal Richelieu. The Company received a monopoly over fur trade, and title to all the lands in New France, in trade for 4,000 settlers to the new colony, as well as supplies and priests. Like all other colonies, French influence in the New World led to problems with the natives: war for control of the fur trade and novel diseases killed off large portions of First Nations tribes.