FUR TRADE, The. The history of the fur trade is so closely interwoven with the early history of America that it is.extremely difficult to narrate one without reference to the other. Among all the industries that helped to make this country one of the great commercial nations of the world none exerted such an important influence upon the early prosperity of the col onies as that represented by those who took the pelts of animals and prepared them for manu facture into various articles for the use of man kind. The rich peltries of North America at tracted hardy French and British adventurers to the shores of the New World, and to obtain furs they journeyed into the most dis tant and inaccessible parts of the land; and that they might have havens of safety in which to store their pelts, and, incidentally, rest secure from the attack of a savage foe, they estab lished small settlements, so many of which have since grown into prosperous communities. It was the fur trader, therefore, who was the real pioneer in North America. Always of civilization, his labors in leading the way for the settlement of the country provided a means of advancement that would have been much delayed if it had not been for these preparatory efforts. The Canadian provinces, for example, owed practically all their primary prosperity to their fur trade, for in Canada, as throughout the English colonies farther south the native Indians were so ignorant of the value of the pelts which they gathered that they were willing to dispose of them upon terms that per mitted an enormous profit to the successful trader.
Era of Great Fur The con ditions under which the fur trade with the na tives was conducted soon became such a serious scandal that the licensing system was introduced, but this too soon became subject to abuse.
It was during these early days that the feuds between the British merchants of York and the Canadian (French) traders became a serious factor in the industry. There can be little doubt that the former set out deliberately to encroach upon the fur interests of Canada, and the infringement of territorial rights had become serious when the Hudson's Bay Com pany was formed in 1670. This British com pany, which was chartered by Charles II, had the exclusive privilege of planting trading sta tions on the shores of Hudson Bay and all its tributaries, and when, about a century later, France lost possession of her Canadian colonies, the Britons assumed almost exclusive control over the great fur trade of America. Prior to
the beginning of the 19th century this trade was chiefly monopolized by the powerful trading companies.
First in the field, of course, was the Dutch West India Company, with its prosperous trad ing-posts at New Amsterdam (now New York), Beaverwyck (now Albany), and at several points on the Delaware. Next came the exten sive Hudson's Bay Company, which practically monopolized the trade in furs for 200 years, or until the Northwest Company entered the field and established a somewhat successful rivalry, although its efforts were confined almost en tirely to the Pacific coast. This was an organ ization of French-Canadian merchants, and was formed in 1784 under the name °Compagnie du Nord-Ouest? It was in 1808 that John Jacob Astor formed the American Fur Company, establishing a line of trading-posts that extended across the con tinent, with a depot for furs at the mouth of the Columbia River, from which point he in tended to ship direct to China and India. The name of the concern was afterward changed to the Pacific Fur Company and Mr. Astor saw his enterprise on the high road to success, when, in 1813, he was treacherously sold out to the Northwest Company by his resident partner, the latter claiming that, as the United States was then at war with Great Britain, the British sol diers would have taken the establishment by force if he had not made other disposition of it. After this incident, Mr. Astor confined his op erations to the district east of the Rocky Moun tains, where he, with his partner and successor, Ramsay Crooks, transacted a profitable business in furs for many years. The Russian-American Fur Company, which had its main trading-post at Sitka, Alaska, with many subordinate posts on the Yukon, carried on an immense traffic in such lines until 1867, when all its rights and properties were transferred to the United States with thepurchase of Alaska.