As Intendant of New France, Hocquart was charged with "moulding the Canadian economy into a flourishing extension of the French imperial economy by increasing its capacity to supply the metropolis and other French colonies with materials they required while expanding the Canadian market for French goods." On the one hand, Hocquart was to develop the shipbuilding industry so that ships capable of trading with the West Indies could be built. On the other hand, there was the matter of the fur trade. According to Horton, the fur trade was pictured as a major factor behind the slow development of agriculture and industry, because "its profits, rapid returns and simple barter transactions, were more attractive than the comparatively long-term risks of more sophisticated enterprises." In short, Hocquart was expected to shift the axis of Canada's commercial economy from the fur trade to agriculture and industry. He was to do so, moreover, without increasing state expenditures, since Dupuy had already incurred major expenses.