Brandy jug

Stoneware jugs are containers commonly used to store liquids like alcohol, which are exchanged at trading posts. Unlike the Indigenous peoples of South America, those of the North were not familiar with alcoholic fermentation processes until the arrival of Europeans.

The alcohol trade does not receive consensus among religious, political and commercial authorities. In Canada, the clergy is fiercely opposed to the sale of alcohol to Indigenous people. It is formally forbidden by the colonial authorities from the 1640s to the 1680s. The Hudson’s Bay Company, created in 1670, first traded French brandy but quickly turned to a local production of English brandy, which was only coloured gin.

On the other hand, wine, spirits, and beer are generally enjoyed within the colony.