Historiography has until now overlooked the fact that the French, like their Spanish predecessors, also reached the “islands of America” in search of precious metals. The small West Indies islands (Saint Kitts, Guadeloupe, Martinique, etc.) were devoid of gold and silver but allowed the French to establish colonies with agricultural productions of which some types, such as tobacco and in particular sugar, were used as commodity money. Even before officially settling in the islands (in c. 1625–1635), French traders did business with the indigenous populations who, although well integrated into the larger network of Caribbean exchanges, did not want the coins from the Old World. So strong was the indigenous reluctance to coins that, in a curious and paradoxical way, the first French colonists, who initially came to get rich, during the first generation detached themselves almost entirely from their own traditional money. The exchange practices were thus defined by the colonised rather than by the colonisers. It was only later, through contact with other Europeans, that the French rediscovered the taste for metallic cash. However, coins only slowly took a fuller grip on the Antillean colonies, and the authorities in place did not regulate their circulation until late in the colonial process (1660s).