Since 1664, several companies were successively founded in France for promoting long range trade and new territories colonization. All them shared a quite similar badge, or coat of arms, a simplified version of which has been included in this sheet as a mast flag. Unlike the rest of private owned French ships, the successive West and East Indies companies were explicitly authorized by the Crown to fly a plain white ensign, as if Royal Navy warships they were.
Sources: Anonymous manuscript from 1670, reprinted in Amsterdam 1966 as «Flags of the World 1669-1670» | Gustave Desjardins, «Recherches sur les drapeaux français», Paris 1874
Sizes: ensign W12 x L18 mm, mast flags W8 x L12 mm, jack W6 x L9 mm, pennant W4 x L48 mm.