USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Some people did not come from noble families but had become very successful in New France. A person who owned a seigneury was called a seigneur. The seigneur divided his seigneury into smaller strips of land and rented them out to farmers. These farmers were known as habitants.

Detailed explanation-2: -In 17th-and 18th-century New France, habitants were independent landowners who established a homestead. Their status came with certain privileges and obligations. For example, during the colony’s early years, only habitants had the right to small-scale fur trading.

Detailed explanation-3: -The Compagnie des Cent-Associés, which was granted ownership and legal and seigneurial rights over New France, from the Arctic to Florida, also obtained the right to allocate the land to its best advantage.

Detailed explanation-4: -Habitants were free individuals; seigneurs simply owned a “bundle of specific and limited rights over productive activity within that territory". The seigneur – habitant relationship was one where both parties were owners of the land who split the attributes of ownership between them.