Includes events from chapter 8 Ch. 9 Timeline of Events Includes events from chapter 8

The Northwest Company (NWC) was born The Seven Years War was officially over – Britain won the war and New France became a British possession Settlers came over to New France and the fur trade was already under way The Northwest Company (NWC) was born 1663 1670 1755 1763 1783 7 Years War Began New France became a Royal Colony Rupert’s land was claimed (the area of land surrounding the Hudson’s Bay) & the Hudson’s Bay Company was born At this same time, the French Fur Trade posts were taken over by the Scottish and American entrepreneurs These Scottish & American entrepreneurs came together to form the NWC

The Fur Trading Business between the… HBC, First Nations & Coureurs de Bois

Hudson’s Bay Company Majority of trading Posts were set up along the Hudson’s Bay – at the mouth’s of major Rivers. Why?? Posts were called Factories & were run by a leader known as a “Factor”- which is where the term “Factory” came from. First Nations were eager to trade with the HBC because they had the only trading posts for thousands of square km’s

The First Nations (FN) The FN controlled the number and quality of furs that they brought to trade – so if the HBC’s price was not good enough for the FN, they would only trade their inferior furs rather than their fine good quality furs. Beaver was one of the most valuable furs – A Made Beaver (MB) was the most valuable – this was an adult beaver fur that was of such good quality that they compared it to other furs to determine their worth

Pricing of the Goods $$$ The directors of the HBC lived in London – therefore, they did not have much knowledge about the conditions in Rupert’s Land Communication between the directors and the Factors was difficult– because of this, the Directors gave authority to the Factors who ran the HBC Factories, so the Factors could make decisions about the fur trade Prices (for goods in the fur trade) were initially set by the Directors in London – however, since they were never around for the actual trading deals – the Factors often modified those prices based on their knowledge of the goods actual worth in Canada.

Coureurs de Bois (CdB) These were the European independent traders of the fur business. They were sneaky traders who paid fees and bribes to bend the rules about trading behind the large companies backs The CdB travelled the waterways through the interior by canoe The CdB went right to the source and traded with the First Nations groups

Summary of the Trading Business: HBC trades with the FN CdB trades with the FN FN – trades with both HBC and CdB

The Northwest Company

1783 – Northwest Company formed After the fall of New France in 1763 – Scottish and American capitalists moved to the area and joined to take over the trading posts that the French had already established. They used the French employees to run these posts and keep contact with the Natives. 1783 – Northwest Company formed

Read the section The North West Company (pg. 264-265) & answer the following questions: How did the NWC trading methods differ from the HBC’s? HBC waited for FN to come to them with furs NWC build posts in the interior and dealt with FN directly – the NWC intercepted the furs before they got to the HBC What was the result of NWC’s trading methods? Created great tension between the HBC and the NWC The HBC was forced to build posts in the interior NWC failed – the competition with the HBC was too great to keep the NWC together Because the HBC took a hit from the competition as well, the two companies decided to merge together in 1812