It was founded by Charles Aubert de La Chesnaye with the assistance of Pierre-Esprit Radisson and his brother-in-law Médard Chouart des Groseilliers.
[6] Upon their released from English custody, Albanel and Groseilliers went to France, meeting up with Radisson, also an HBC employee at the time, and First Minister of State Jean-Baptiste Colbert to design plans for French fur exploitation in the Hudson Bay region.
Matters worsened in 1678 when Robert de La Salle was granted permission to explore the Mississippi Valley for fur-trading purposes; with this group of Montréal/Québec merchants being forced out of the Great Lakes and what would become Louisiana, they had no choice but to look north to continue making their profits.
Combined with increasing hostility from Frontenac after the Governor-General accused La Chesnaye and others of trading with the English, Jolliet's observation served as the impetus for the creation of the Compagnie du Nord.
The creation of the Compagnie was ultimately realized after July 1682, when Frontenac was recalled to France and replaced by Joseph-Antoine de La Barre, who was much more supportive of the idea of fur trading in the Hudson Bay.
After wintering at the Bay, Jean-Baptiste Chouart was left to oversee the French fort, while Radisson and Groseilliers returned with prisoners and 2,000 pelts, arriving in Québec on October 20, 1683.
[11] Following this ruling on the droit, Radisson became disillusioned with serving the French and returned to the service of the Hudson Bay Company, and in August 1684 established two English trading posts, including York Factory on the Nelson River.
[12] The overall failure of these two expeditions led the Compagnie to realize that it could not effectively compete with the Hudson's Bay Company without a royal charter similar to what the HBC enjoyed.
Comporté requested royal monetary support and the right for retaliatory military action (allowing the Compagnie to undertake more than mere trading expeditions).
Due to the presence of a large number of voyageurs who were strongly familiar with the terrain, the expedition made good progress despite agonizing travel conditions overland, and between June 19 and July 26, 1686, three English forts were surrendered to the French.
Iberville set sail in June 1690 to capture Fort Bourbon, but the poorly-outfitted expedition was met by three heavily armed HBC ships in the Nelson-Hayes region.
[16] Pressed financially and for time against the threat of English encroachment, the Compagnie petitioned the Crown for royal support for an expedition to capture Fort Bourbon and to run the HBC out of the Bay altogether.
However, the Hazardeux arrived in Québec on July 13, and the ship's commander François du Tast refused to set sail on account of the advancing season and the threat of ice.
However, despite now having firm control of Fort Bourbon, the Compagnie was still unable to commit to managing the trade from the region, due to a lack of necessary funding for the exorbitant cost of outfitting expeditions, which could run anywhere from 100,000 to 180,000 livres.
[21] As the Compagnie was clearly in no position to retake the mantle of handling the Hudson Bay trade, the French royal authorities saw it fit to establish an entirely new company for that purpose.