During the Seven Years' War, with the growing likelihood that Canada would fall into the hands of the English, an anonymous report suggested that the whole of Canada's population (estimated at 60,000 people) be relocated to Louisiana. It was a solution that offered a number of advantages: the increase in population would turn Louisiana into a colony capable of holding its own against the English, it would also allow the cultivation of produce not available in the home country, and it would create new trade relations. The author of the document was well aware that such a displacement of the population would be a difficult venture, declaring that "this transmigration must not be achieved through violence, it can only succeed by means of persuasion."