What was Fur Trade?
Fur trade in Canada, also called the beaver trade, was a business enterprise between the French, Dutch, British, Indigenous and the Europeans that reached its peak 250 years ago. It started at the time when the first French and English settlements were established in what is now Canada. The fur trade was driven by a fashion trend in Europe that started in the 17th century. Rich Europeans wanted to wear beaver felt hats and fur coats, because they were very fashionable at the time. The French, Dutch and British settlers, as well as the Indigenous wanted to provide them to the Europeans because it translated into great profits.
At first, it was the French (New France) who excelled at trapping animals, getting their pelt (skins) and raking in the profits from the trade. They quickly formed alliances with the Indigenous people: the Huron-Wendat, the Algonquin and the Innu and gave them European goods like beads, mirrors and clothing in exchange for beaver pelts. They made coats and hats out of the beaver pelts, sent them off to Europe and made great money. They used the profits to send more people to Canada and establish settlements and missionaries. They wanted to convert the Indigenous people to Christianity.
Rivalry between the French and the Haudenosaunee (=Iroquois)
Since the beaver trade was very lucrative, the two early players, the French and the Indigenous competed fiercely against each other. The main competitors of the French were the Haudenosaunee (=The Iroquois), the enemies of the tribes the French befriended. The Dutch, and later the British, who were also interested in the beaver trade, provided guns to the Iroquois to fight the French. The Iroquois were powerful. They originally consisted of five nations: the Seneca, the Cayuga, the Oneida, the Onondaga and the Mohawk and lived in relative proximity to one another. Later, however, the tribes began fighting each other and finally they completely dispersed.
Types of French Traders
There were two types of French traders: the licensed ones called voyageurs, and the unlicensed ones called coureurs de bois. Both groups were instrumental in establishing friendly and fruitful relationships with the Indigenous. Many of them married Indigenous women and had children with them. The descendants of the French and the Indigenous are called the Métis.
The French / Iroquois Wars (The Beaver Wars)
The French and the Iroquois had many conflicts over the beaver trade. The French wanted dominance in the trade. The Iroquois wanted to increase their territory and access new hunting and trapping grounds as their previous area got depleted of animals. Therefore, they pushed other tribes east. They also began to attack the lands of New France. The wars started with a battle between the French and the Iroquois near Lake Champlain (located between what is now New York and Vermont) in 1609.
The conflict continued until 1701 when it finally ended with the Great Peace of Montreal. As a result of the treaty, the Iroquois gained the right to trade freely and exchange goods with the French at a reduced price. The French were able to keep the French settlement in Detroit. The Iroquois also promised to remain neutral in case of war with Britain, who also competed with France at beaver trade.
The French / British Rivalry in the Fur Trade
With time, the British became more populous, and therefore, more powerful. They established Hudson Bay Company (HBC), a private business corporation that was almost independent of the British government. Britain also claimed Rupert’s Land (the area north of New France) and gave it to HBC. HBC gained enormous land, and a lot of political and economic power. The French Canadian Company du Nord was founded in 1682 to challenge the HBC, but it didn’t survive. Later, in 1779 the French created The North West Company and it experienced much greater success.
The British were eager to gain more land, because that meant easier access to animal furs. The French, on the other hand, didn’t want the land, but they didn’t want the British to have it, either. The French wanted to discover the overland passage to the Western sea (The Pacific). Throughout the first part of the 18th century up until the Seven Year’s War (1756–63) (with the most famous battle being The Battle of Plains of Abraham, Quebec in 1759) , they took the lead in the trade because they had many advantages over the British. They controlled the main waterways and had access to birch bark needed to make the canoes. The Indigenous people also preferred their exchange goods and the two groups enjoyed better relationship overall. Therefore, the French earned bigger profits. They used the money from the trade to fund the exploration along the Missouri and the Saskatchewan rivers.
The British didn’t want to get inland, like the voyageurs and the coureurs-de-bois, to obtain the furs. They waited for the Indigenous people to deliver the furs to them. Sometimes they also bought them illegally from the French merchants. The French made sure that they got only the less quality ones, leaving the best ones (mink, marten, fisher) for themselves.
Rise of the North West Company (1779–1810)
When the British were trying to conquer New France, there were two systems of fur trade in Canada:
The St.Lawrence–Great Lakes System operating from Montreal (stretching from Montreal to the Mississippi River in the south and to The Prairies and the southern part of The Canadian Shield in the north-west)
and,
The Rupert’s Land System, which covered the area leading to the Hudson Bay and James Bay.
The French operated by means of small partnerships between themselves and the Indigenous, which meant that the local merchants were sent out to do business with the Indigenous in their own territory. The British, on the other hand, simply waited in their factories on the coast for the Indigenous to deliver them the furs.
After the Anglo-American conquest, the British tried to replace the French and they founded The Cumberland House stretching from the Bay to the Saskatchewan River in 1774. They also started cooperating with the Indigenous the same way the French did. The French worked out of the Montreal and still made bigger profits. North West Company (NWC) gained a lot of prestige and a monopoly around the Lake Athabasca. They provided high quality furs for the wealthiest customers crafted with great skill and artistry. They also accepted intermarriage between the Indigenous women and the French, and their children established themselves as local trappers and buffalo hunters and became NWC suppliers. There were big settlements of the Metis people, especially in the Red River Colony.
Famous North West Company Agents
North West Company owed a lot to its agents. Montreal agents, such as Simon McTavish, called The Marquis, and his nephew and successor William McGillivray, expertly directed business for NWC. Another prominent figure was Alexander MacKenzie who carried the NWC’s flag to the Arctic Ocean. In 1793, he also reached the Pacific Ocean. Other explorers like Simon Fraser and David Thomson reached the areas west of the Rocky Mountains, thus extending the fur trade to that area.
Hudson’s Bay Victory in the Fur Trade
HBC’s ultimate victory can be ascribed to revolutionizing its business practices. In 1810, Earl of Selkirk, established a settlement in HBC territory. He brought in four of his friends who worked on cutting costs and increasing profits. In 1815, HBC challenged the NWC’s monopoly in Athabasca and the two started cooperating in trade. In 1821, Hudson’s Bay Company merged with the North West Company.
George Simpson, (called the Little Emperor) who was the governor of the HBC from 1826 to 1860, made the company very rich. He founded new trading posts in the West, cut expenses and defeated his rivals. By the mid-1800s, however, the HBC started to lose importance. Europeans lost interest in fur. The federal government of Canada bought Rupert’s Land from the HBC in 1870.
