Note 184 — Chapter XXXVI

There was a brewery in Montreal near the fort before the arrival of Talon and there were private breweries for homemade beer elsewhere, but it is to Talon's initiative that breweries on a commercial basis and on a larger scale were started as a means of making use of the superfluous wheat after harvest and to counteract the disorders caused by the traffic of eau de vie, by making a less harmful drink manufactured for more general consumption. In 1668 the Sovereign Council gave the monopoly of selling beer for ten years to those who should establish breweries, though it left the liberty of families making their own for private consumption. [Cf. Faillon, Histoire de la Colonie Française, Vol. III.]