Astor's It was somewhat prior to 1809 that John Jacob Astor conceived his great project to make the American fur trade independent of the Hudson's Bay Com pany. As his scheme was partly based upon the fact that such an enterprise would have a strong tendency to spread the civilization of the East into the far western country, he asked the aid of Congress in carrying it into execution. Mr. Astor's idea was to establish a connected chain of trading-posts from the Great Lakes to the Pacific Ocean, with a central depot for packing and shipment at the mouth of the Co lumbia River; to acquire one of the Sandwich Islands as a provision station and to establish a line of vessels to sail from the west coast of North America to the most important ports in India and China. Washington Irving, in his presents a graphic description of this gigantic enterprise which met with such a strange disaster when Astoria, the town founded at the mouth of the Columbia River in 1811, was so unnecessarily abandoned during the War of 1812. The remainder of Mr. Astor's career, however, was quite as remarkable. Year after year his fur business was extended until its operations surpassed those of any house that had hitherto been established. In addition to its immense American business a gigantic ex port trade was carried on with many countries, and, when the founder of the company died, he left a fortune that was estimated at $20,000,000. William Backhouse Astor, his son, was inter ested with him in the fur trade, and when, in 1827, the house of John Jacob Astor & Son was merged in the American Fur Company, he became its president.
Later first great estab lishment founded in Saint Louis—one of the principal depots of the fur trade from the mid dle of the 18th century until 1859— was that of Laclede, Maxon & Company, in 1763. In the early days of this house the brothers Auguste and Pierre Chouteau were connected with it, and the establishment, which was extremely suc cessful, employed a large number of trappers and voyageurs. In 1808, the Chouteau brothers and a number of their associates in the older firm withdrew to form the Missouri Fur Com This prospered until about 1813, when, because of the war with Great Britain, it was dissolved. During the next few years several of its members transacted business independ ently, but, in 1827, the Rocky Mountain Fur Company of Saint Louis was formed to send trappers to the Pacific coast. At this time the perils of the work were so great that fully 40 out of every 100 persons employed in it perished, and yet the life of adventure offered so many fascinations that there was no lade of hardy men eager to take the places of the slain. After several years of varying success the company was dissolved. In 1834, however, Pierre Chou teau, Jr., who had been educated in the fur trade by his father, organized the house of Pierre Chouteau, Jr. & Company, a firm name which was a household word among hunters and trappers during the next 25 years. In 1859, the business was sold to Martin Bates and Francis Bates of Saint Louis and New York.
The table that follows is designed to present a list of the principal fur-bearers of the world, their habitat and their average yield during the 30 years previous to the opening of the Euro pean War which has wrought far-reaching dis turbance in this trade, but will benefit the ani mals, especially in Russia. The authority is the fur statistician, Emil Brass, of Leipzig.
The year 1859 saw the American fur trade more widely diffused than ever before. The passage of the industry into the hands of in dividuals had commenced to be apparent as early as 1821, and while, by the middle of the century, the aggregate amount collected each year was much greater than it had been 40 years previously, the opportunities for making great fortunes in the trade had gone. A writer in
Silliman's Journal (1834) gives an interesting description of the situation of the fur trade at that time. He says: "The Northwest Company did not long enjoy the sway they had acquired over the trading regions of the Columbia. A competition, ruin ous in its expenses, which had long existed be tween them and the Hudson's Bay Company, ended in their downfall and the ruin of most of the partners. The relict of the company became merged in the rival association, and the whole business was conducted under the name of the Hudson's Bay Company. This coalition took place in 1821. Almost all the American furs which do not belong to the Hudson's Bay Com pany find their way to New York and are either distributed thence for home consumption or sent to foreign markets. The Hudson's Bay Com pany ship their furs from their factories of York Fort and from Moose River, on Hudson Bay; their collection from Grand River, etc.. they ship from Canada; and the collection from Canada goes to London. None of their furs come to the United States, except through the Indian market. The export trade of furs from the United States is chiefly to London. A quantity of beaver, otter, etc., is brought an nually from Santa Fe. Dressed furs for edg ings, linings, caps, muffs, etc., such as squirrel, genet, fitchskins, and blue rabbit, are received from the north of Europe; also cony and hare's fur; but the largest importations are from Londonhere is concentrated nearly the whole N of the North American fur trade." As early as 1834 those who were interested in this industry began to fear that the American fur trade had commenced to decline and, even at that time, it was quite freely predicted that its downfall would be rapid. By this period there were practically no new lands to be ex plored. The hunters and trappers in the employ of the great fur-trading companies had gone everywhere and had slaughtered so indiscrimi nately that it seemed almost impossible that the fur-bearing animals should not be exterminated. It is true that now the buffalo and large deer, the bears and the puma and the otter, beaver and pekan are gone or become rare so far as their interest to the trade is concerned, but the smaller, and on the whole, more important fur bearers, are about as numerous as ever, sev eral kinds maintaining their numbers in the very midst of civilization, as does the muskrat, mink and skunk. As a matter of fact the yield of American pelts in early times was far less a year than recently. Take the muskrat, for example. The average number of skins sold on the London market between 1800 and 1850 was about 411,000; from 1850 to 1900 it was more than 2,500,000. In recent years the London sales were: 1911, 5,197,530; 1912, 5,014,921; 1913, 6,876,417; 1914, 10,488,647. In addition to this an enormous number of skins was used from year to year in the United States and Canada. The average sales of skunks increased in the same way. In 1858 London disposed of 18,255 skins; in 1878, 285,103; in 1898, 482,130; in 1908, in 1909, 1,115,910; in 1910, 1,282,000; in 1911, 2,009,465; in 1912, 1,821,485; in 1913, 1,659,773. The persistence of these two, and other animals, against such a warfare is largely due to the laws that now protect them except during the breeding-season. Nevertheless the finest fur-bearers, such as the sable, marten, sea otter and silver fox have rapidly decreased in the present century.
Consult files of the Fur Trade Review, Fur News Magazine and the publications of the United States Department of Commerce and Labor, especially the consular and trade reports; also of the Canadian Commission of Conserva tion.