FURR, in commerce, signifies the skin of several wild beasts, dressed in alum with the hair on, and used as part of dress, by magistrates and others. The kinds mostly made use of are, those of the ermine, sable, castor, hare, rabbit, &c. It was not till the later ages that the furs of beasts became an article ofluxury. The more refined nations of ancient times never used them ; those alone who were stigmatized as barbarians were clothed in the skins of animals. During Captain Cook's last voyage to the Pacific Ocean, besides various advantages derived from it, as enlarging the boundaries of science, a new source of wealth was laid open, in the exchange of European commodities for furs of the most valuable and impor tant kind on the north west of America. Previously to this, a similar trade had been carried on, though on a much nar rower scale, in Canada. It was begun by the French almost two centuries back, and in time Montreal was the grand mart of this species of commerce. The num ber of Indians who resorted thither in creased, as the name of the Europeans was more known. Whenever the natives re turned with a new supply of furs, they usually brought with them a new and more distant tribe ; thus a kind of market or fair was opened, to which the several Indian nations of the new continent re sorted. Our own countrymen were not
long easy without sharing in this trade, and the colony at New-York soon found means to divert the stream of this great circulation. The Hudson's bay trade, car ried on by a company designated as the Hudson's Bay Company, was at one time almost the only trade in this article from Great Britain ; there have, however, been other persons of late years engaged in it. About twenty years ago a commercial establishment of this kind was formed, under the title of the North-West Com pany. It was an association of about twenty persons, agreeing among them selves to carry on the fur trade. Their capital was divided into twenty shares ; of these a certain proportion was held by the people who managed the business in Canada, who were styled agents, and paid as such, independently of the profits of the trade. The articles manufactured here that are used in this traffic are, coarse woollen cloths of different kinds, blan kets, arms, and ammunition, Manchester goods, all kinds of the coarser hardware, cotton, hats, and stockings.