In the next two years Cadet and his associates,Pean, Maurin, Corpron, and
Penisseault, sold to the King, for about twenty-three million francs,
provisions which cost them eleven millions, leaving a net profit of about
twelve millions. It was not legally proved that the Intendant shared
Cadet's gains; but there is no reasonable doubt that he did so.
Bigot's chief profits rose, however, from other sources. It was his
business to see that the King's storehouses for the supply of troops,
militia, and Indians were kept well stocked. To this end he and Breard,
naval comptroller at Quebec, made a partnership with the commercial house
of Gradis and Son at Bordeaux. He next told the Colonial Minister that
there were stores enough already in Canada to last three years, and that it
would be more to the advantage of the King to buy them in the colony than
to take the risk of sending them from France.[548] Gradis and Son then
shipped them to Canada in large quantities, while Breard or his agent
declared at the custom-house that they belonged to the King, and so
escaped the payment of duties. Theywere then, as occasion rose, sold to
the King at a huge profit, always under fictitious names. Often they were
sold to some favored merchant or speculator, who sold them in turn to
Bigot's confederate, the King's storekeeper; and sometimes they passed
through several successive hands, till the price rose to double or triple
the first cost, the Intendant and his partners sharing the gains with
friends and allies.
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