The Sovereign Council exercised considerable authority over New France's economic affairs. It dictated when certain types of commercial interactions could occur, and public markets in Québec City, Montréal and Trois Rivières were only established under the Sovereign Council's auspices. It was also the primary regulatory body for coinage, regulating colonial weights, measures and scales until paper currency surpassed metal currency in 1685. The Sovereign Council was very involved in early attempts to stimulate economic activity and maximize agricultural productivity. Ordinances mandated that seigneurs clear their seigneurs within an allotted time, and exempted small crops from yearly tithes for the first five years of cultivation. The Council sometimes directly intervened on behalf of the peasantry, the foundation of the colony. In 1680, it decreed that one-twentieth of uncleared land be made available to peasants. In an effort to protect the peasant's most valuable commodity, the cow, a 1686 ordinance enforced Louis XIV's edict that creditors could not seize cattle for debts until the year 1692. Similarly, after complaints were made that merchant monopolies were storing surpluses of wheat and preventing its circulation on the market in 1701, the Sovereign Council ordered a committee to inspect Quebec's granaries. The committee found that merchant monopolies were unfairly keeping surpluses, and the Sovereign Council consequently ordered that the surplus be seized and sold to the poor at a subsidized rate.