A challenge that influenced the development of the Sovereign Council was the regulation of alcohol traded with Natives. Bishop François de Laval had called for an outright prohibition on the sale of alcohol to Indigenous Peoples in the early 1660s, and conflict between the Church and Jesuits on one hand and the Governor on the other is argued to have contributed to the establishment of the Council. The Council eventually agreed with the Bishop’s demands, but with a fine as opposed to a harsher punishment for conviction initially, but the issue would remain open.