Antoine-Denis Raudot

Raudot, Antoine-Denis

Antoine-Denis Raudot, intendant of New France, 1705-10 (b 1679; d at Versailles, France 28 July 1737). He had begun a career in the ministry of marine when he and his father Jacques Raudot were jointly appointed intendant. Intelligent and rational in approach, Antoine-Denis devoted his energies to the colony's economy, depressed because of a glut of beaver on the European market. He wanted to improve the economic base by developing agriculture, fishing and lumbering. His most imaginative proposal, outlined in a lengthy 1706 memoir, was to establish a new city on Cape Breton I to act as an entrepôt for the French Empire, which by its location would ease the transportation problems between France and her colonies. Unable to achieve any such solution because of the ongoing War of the Spanish Succession and because of his father's feud with Governor Vaudreuil, he requested a recall and went on to a successful career in France.