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Abstract
This paper draws its data from the notarial records of Jacques Cousseau who was active in La Rochelle from 1602 to 1653 and whose records are preserved in the Archives départementales de la Charente-Maritime, also in La Rochelle. An initial overview showed the exceptional value of these records for understanding the specific place of the Basques within French fishing and trading in North America. Of the 17th-century La Rochelle notaries, Cousseau had the most extensive Basque clientele. His records fill 21 registers and 11 bundles, covering about half a century of Rochelais maritime activity. In going through these records, we identified and photographed 814 acts that shed light on the transatlantic fisheries. The Jacques Cousseau collection is exceptionally rich and its consultation is fundamental for understanding the Basque fisheries around the Gulf of St. Lawrence and on the Atlantic coasts of Newfoundland and Acadia.
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