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Seigneurs were the landholders within New French colonies, working under a semi-feudal system that was established at the onset of the 17th century. Those were granted significant pieces of land under them, referred to as seigneuries, which were supposed to subdivide the land into relatively smaller units to accommodate its tenants, densities, or habitants. It further created a social hierarchy and economic inequalities, for the seigneurs had to provide manor houses, mills, and the collection of rents and dues. It is through this system that rural life in New France was structured and it is estimated that approximately 80% of its population lived under these regulations. It remained the same until 1854 when it was abolished.

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Merchants and traders formed a commercial hierarchy in colonial Canada, particularly in the St Lawrence Valley, where French merchants held sway in the seventeenth century, giving ground to local-based merchants by the mid-eighteenth century. By 1745, 38 percent of Quebec City's merchants were representatives of French firms, while 46 percent were born in the colony. The greatest traders, who could import and export, held the most status; quite often, through their business ventures, they made enormous profits, especially in wartime. The next tier comprised retailers, traveling merchants, and outfitters, who provided for trading with Indigenous peoples and controlled most of the fur trade. Next below them would be the little merchants and the craftsmen, who connected the countryside to the market. On the very bottom rung were independent merchants. Although wealthy, most of the merchants lived relatively modestly when compared with the nobility, commonly marrying within their rank and investing little in land. Their houses ranged from humble to opulent to reflect their social standing, with many of the women, like Marie-Anne Barbel, taking over businesses as needed. By way of contrast, in Lower Louisiana and the Illinois Country, merchants made their money on land and farming, and so their status depended on the number of slaves a particular individual owned.

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Many of the shopkeepers and tradespeople in early Canada resided in towns like Montreal and Quebec City, catering to the needs of the people, although many in the countryside tended toward self-sufficiency. Thus, the earliest artisans were engagés contracted to clear land, but with population increase, many settled in cities where they opened shops. Artisans practiced different trades, with the domination and contribution of masons, carpenters, and metal workers to public and private construction works. Specialized trades such as wigmakers and goldsmiths were few due to the low demand from an economically strained population. Skills were passed on through family, apprenticeship, and limited formal education, with long working hours under a paternalistic system. Hhibited more freedom, since the establishment of trade guilds was not encouraged to attract skilled workers to Canada. Many artisans were established as homeowners by the 18th century, although wealth differed greatly; blacksmiths and ironworkers likely were better off than those of clothing trades who often augmented their living with sideline work. Seasonal changes in demand hit hard in the construction sector; it was requisite that many artisans diversify their skills in order to keep earning throughout the year.

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The term habitant is used in Canada to refer to the inhabitants and farmers of New France, mainly former soldiers and engagés who formed about 80% of the early immigration. Their farming methods were seasonal in that, during the winter they cared for animals, and in spring they grew crops including wheat and oats, together with a variety of vegetables that the Indians had introduced. Habitants had to clear land, pay seigneurial dues, and perform labor services; the family was the basic unit of economic and social life. Families usually married late, with an average of nine children, and were unstable, since high mortality meant that widows and widowers remarried quickly. Social life centered on the home, even though the clergy did not look upon these occasions. To the authorities, habitants were uncooperative people, always quarreling and resisting the administration, a complicated personality that rural life and the obligation imposed on them had shaped.

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Engagés were single, relatively young immigrants from western France who bound themselves for three years of labor in exchange for passage to Canada, with lodging, food, clothing, and pay, and employers also paid for their return trip until 1665. They made up about 20% of the 25,000 Frenchmen in Canada before 1760, though nearly all were skilled workers or domestiques, and many returned to France. Employers, mainly habitants, had to treat their engagés humanely, attend to their needs, and—if they were children—provide them with religious education. The nature of the work depended on the location: farmsteads might mean rural engagés were involved in heavy farm labor, while the cities and towns might instead mean urban engagés were involved in the light tasks of the household. Some showed cases of neglect and maltreatment, within the master-servant relationship on which legal records are based, but there were also some items of positive connections, referring to those contract renewals and all sorts of social interactions that passed through them, beyond the legal records themselves.