Hired on contract

Voyageurs worked on contract with their employer. Although North West Company administrators were English-speaking Scots, contracts were drawn up in French because the NWC's workforce was made up largely of French Canadians. Since most voyageurs could not write, they often signed their contracts with an "X".

Formalities

The bourgeois and the hired man formalized their agreement before a notary. In parts of the interior where a notary was unavailable, the bourgeois himself drew up the contract.

The standard contract set out the Voyageur's working conditions and contained the following information:

• Departure date
• Period of hire (from two to five years)
• Position in the canoe
• Duties at the trading posts
• Salary, along with other types of payment such as clothing and equipment
• Form of payment

The hired man also had to pledge loyalty and obedience to his bourgeois. Companies certainly did not want to lose employees to their competitors!

Pay scale

Several factors determined a voyageur's salary:

• Experience
• Position in the canoe
• Special skills (e.g. interpreter, blacksmith)
• Most importantly, the route and the length of the journey

Guides led the brigades, and so their pay was two to four times greater than that of other voyageurs. Below them in salary were the avant at the front and the gouvernail, who took up the helm. The least-experienced and lowest-paid was the milieu, who paddled in the middle of the canoe.

The hommes du nord were often the most experienced voyageurs. They plied the longer and more difficult trading routes west of Lake Superior. As for the mangeurs de lard, they settled for the seasonal job of shuttling goods from Montreal to Lake Superior and back. For this reason, there was a substantial difference between their pay. In order to climb up the hierarchy and acquire experience in the fur trade, voyageurs from Montreal went to work at trading posts in the North West. They then became hommes du nord and earned more money.

Strict conditions

The contract of the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) was similar to that of the North West Company (NWC). The equivalent of the NWC's engagé is the HBC's servant. Servants came from the Orkney Islands and other regions of Britain. Like engagés, they worked very hard for little pay. They had to give notice of one or two years to renew their contracts. If no boat was available to take the servant back home, the company extended the contract. If a servant broke contract, he had to give up part of his salary and pay a fine. Above all, he had to promise not to trade for his own profit in any territory his employer controlled.

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