Salt merchant
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Le Saunier | The Salt Merchant
“Salt worker near Batz-sur-Mer,” 1939 (Bibliothèque nationale de France)
Historically, a saunier, or salt worker, harvested salt in salt marshes. In New France, however, a saunier was more likely to be a salt merchant. Saunier was sometimes spelled saulnier. The occupational surnames Saunier and Saulnier still exist in Canada today. A saunier could also be called a paludier.
The “Faux-Sauniers”
Because of the high taxes levied on salt in France, especially the gabelle, salt merchants faced intense competition from faux-sauniers, traders dealing in contraband. In the 18th century, hundreds of convicted salt traffickers, known as "faux-sauniers", were exiled to Canada. Click here to find out more about faux-sauniers.
Salt harvesters in Bretagne ("Les paludiers et sauniers bretons", engraving or drawing (artist unknown), appearing in Les merveilles de l'industrie, 1873 by Louis Figuier, Wikimedia Commons)
Sources:
“Saunier,” Glossary portal of the Centre national de ressources textuelles et lexicales (https://www.cnrtl.fr/definition/saunier).
Rénald Lessard, “Les faux sauniers déportés au Canada : le cas de Jean Chassé,” 1995, Cap-aux-Diamants, (41), 80–80. Digitized by Érudit (https://www.erudit.org/fr/revues/cd/1995-n41-cd1041903/8712ac.pdf).