Hoquart's immediate predecessors, Michel Bégon and Claude-Thomas Dupuy, had failed miserably at convincing the habitants to clear new concessions and the seigneurs to settle new tenants. This procedure was essential for the development of agriculture. Hocquart was initially very successful in this venture, as dispatches to the Minister show that from 1731 to 1732, reunion of concessions doubled; in only one year, the number of concessions went from 200 to 400. But numerous concessions meant nothing if they could not be settled by enough families to work the land. Plus, it was "much harder for seigneurs whose fiefs were far from the towns to attract tenants." In 1731, to encourage settlement and to tie all of New France's agricultural regions more closely to the town markets, Hocquart initiated a major road-building program. Completed in 1737, the road between Quebec and Montreal reduced travel time from as much as a month by river barge, to just four-and-a-half days.