HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY, or "the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson's Bay," a corporation formed for the purpose of importing into Great Britain the furs and skins which it obtains, chiefly by barter, from the Indians of British North America.
In 167o Charles II. granted a charter to Prince Rupert and 17 other noblemen and gentlemen, incorporating them as the "Gov ernor and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hud son's Bay," and securing to them a monopoly of the trade of all lands watered by streams flowing into Hudson bay. Besides the complete lordship and entire legislative, judicial, and executive power, the corporation received also the right to "the whole and entire trade and traffic to and from all havens, bays, creeks, rivers, lakes, and seas into which they shall find entrance or passage by water or land out of the territories, limits, or places aforesaid." The first settlements in the country thus granted, which was to be known as Rupert's Land, were made on James bay and at Churchill and Hayes rivers ; but it was long before there was any advance into the interior, for in 1749, when an unsuccessful attempt was made in parliament to deprive the company of its charter on the plea of "non-user," it had only some four or five forts on the coast, with about 120 regular employees. Although the commercial success of the enterprise was from the first im mense, great losses were inflicted on the company by the French. After the cession of Canada to Great Britain in 1763, numbers of fur-traders spread over that country and began even to encroach on the Hudson's Bay Company's territories. These individual speculators finally combined into the North-West Fur Company of Montreal.
In the competition which arose between the companies the Indians were demoralized, body and soul, by the abundance of ardent spirits with which the rival traders sought to attract them to themselves ; the supply of furs threatened soon to be exhausted by the indiscriminate slaughter, even during the breeding season, of both male and female animals ; and the worst passions of both whites and Indians were inflamed to their fiercest (see RED RIVER SETTLEMENT). At last, in 1821, the companies amalgamated, obtaining a licence to hold for 21 years the monopoly of trade in the vast regions lying to the west and north-west of the older company's grant. In 1838 the Hudson's Bay Company acquired the sole rights for itself, and obtained a new licence, also for 21 years. On the expiry of this it was not renewed, and since 1859 the district has been open to all.
The licences to trade did not of course affect the original pos sessions of the company. Under the terms of the deed of surrender, dated Nov. 19, 1869, the Hudson's Bay Company surrendered all its rights of government, subject to certain terms and condi tions, including the payment to the company by the Canadian Government of a sum of £300,000 sterling on the transfer of Rupert's Land to the Dominion of Canada, the retention by the company of its posts and stations, with a right of selection of a block of land adjoining each post in conformity with a schedule annexed to the deed of surrender ; and the right to claim in any township or district within the fertile belt in which land is set out for settlement, grants of land not exceeding one-twentieth part of the land so set out. The boundaries of the fertile belt were fixed as follows: "On the south by the United States' boundary; on the west by the Rocky Mountains; on the north by the northern branch of the Saskatchewan ; on the east by Lake Winnipeg, the Lake of the Woods, and the waters connecting them." In 1872 it was agreed that the one-twentieth of the lands in the fertile belt reserved to the company under the terms of the deed of surrender should be taken by "allotting in every fifth township two whole sections of 64o acres each, and in all other townships one section and three-quarters of a section each." From this time little was done to develop the Company until just before the outbreak of the World War. During the period 1914-18 one part of the company with 30o steamers was engaged in food and munition transport for the French and Belgian Gov ernments. From the end of the war the company began to develop rapidly ; the annual reports show a steady increase in business done, and the company is opening new offices in territories hither to untouched. Large stores are now complete in Winnipeg, Saska toon, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, and Victoria, and agree ments have been made with the United States for the importation of furs to special centres. An experiment in reindeer farming in Baffin's Land failed; but efforts are being made elsewhere, with promises of success. For the past few years (to 1927) the com pany has ceased trading in Kamchatka and Siberia owing to the rapidly changing authority there.
See G. Bryce, Remarkable History of the Hudson's Bay Company 0900) ; and A. C. Laut, Conquest of the great Northwest; being the story of the adventurers of England known as Hudson's Bay Co. (1909) ; Canadian Progress (an annual publication) , and the annual reports of the Hudson's Bay Company. (X.; A. N. J. W.)