March 15 Notes - The Fur Trade: HBC, NWC, First Nations

Hudson Bay Company

•         Founded in 1670

•         Radisson and Groseillier’s explored region beyond New France

•         Returned with furs – pitched to King Charles II to back up their business

•         Claimed the area around Hudson Bay – named Rupert’s Land

•         “Stay by the Bay”

•         Did not want to risk sending traders inland

•         Encouraged Aboriginal traders/trappers to come

•         Standard of Trade was strict/little room for bargaining

•         Hierarchy

•         Bosses in London, England

•         Shipped furs directly to and from England

•         Carried out swiftly because Hudson Bay is ice-free only from July to mid-September

•         York Boat

•         Developed by 1750

•         Double-ended wooden boat

•         13 metres long, either rowed or
sailed

•         3000-6000 kilograms cargo

•         Heavy, so difficult to portage

•         Portage

•         Unloaded and carried to another body of water

•         If rapids or waterfalls made a river impassable

Northwest Company

•         Founded in 1783 – rivals of HBC

•         “Montrealers”

–        Group of English merchants from Montreal

–        Seized French fur trade

–        Expanded trading networks and merged to create NWC

•         Geographic reasons

–        Built posts inland -Montreal too far for Natives to travel

–        Established major trade depot at Fort William

•         Similar to HBC – had to trade swiftly short ice-free season

•         Less rigid and bossy than the HBC

•         Hivernants (wintering partners)

–        Did the actual fur trading

•         Voyageurs

–        Muscle power to paddle canoes and carry cargo

–        Mapped new areas and established new trading posts

–        More relaxed in trading standards – willing to bargain and even sold alcohol (HBC refused)

•         Canots du nord

–        7 meters long and a meter
wide

–        1500 kilogram cargo

–        Paddled by six

•         Canots de maitre

–        11 meters long and 1.5 meters
wide

–        4000 kilograms

–        Crewed by 12

First Nations

•         Four nations – the Ojibwa, the Assiniboin, the Cree, and the Chipewyan

•         Middlemen – acts as a dealer between two parties who want to exchange goods

•         Fur Trade Disrupted their way of life

•         Rivalry/competition forced full-time trappers to abandon yearly cycle of fishing, hunting, and preserving food

•         Clash of different cultures (i.e. Religion, work ethic)

•         Europeans exposed them to diseases – smallpox & measles

•         Outbreak 1780-82 killed off much of the Chipewyans & Cree populations