1. North West company

2. The North West Company
After The Seven Years War, Scottish and American investors rushed to take over the old fur trade networks once controlled by the French
Hired French employees to work for them and maintain their contacts
These small companies merged to create the NWC

3. Trading Practices Different than HBC
Went deeper into the interior, building their own trading posts on rivers and lakes through the West and North
Dealt directly with a wide variety of First Nations
See map on page: 265

4. Partners of the NWC who found new trade relationships, explore new lands and and built trading posts were called Nor’westers
Crucial to the company were Canadien and Metis paddlers called voyageurs
Voyageurs transported goods to distant posts and furs back to Montreal HQ (HBC did not have this challenge)

5. Voyageurs from Montreal travelled up the Ottawa River, across the Mattawa River. Lake Nipissing and the French river and across the northern part of the Georgian Bay and aong the shore of Lake Superior to Grand Portage (now called Thunder Bay)
From there, trade good were taken in smaller canoes to Lake Winnipeg, Saskatchewan and other rivers

7. Voyageur life
Famous for strength and endurance (replaced the Coureurs de Bois)
paddled 50 stokes a minute for 14 hours at a time with brief 10 minute breaks
Travelled thousands of km
Set up camps at night surviving on pemmican (pounded bison meat, fat and berries) and sleeping under their tents
Famous for their songs which they would chant as they paddled

8. Heated Competition Soon HBC and NWC became serious rivals
There was a lots of money to be made to be made in the fur trade companies sold fur worth $25 million today
From the two companies tried to buy furs from the supplier before the other
Expenses were cut and and profits were lowered to entice First Nations to trade
Men in one company would ambush the others creating violent tensions

9. Eventually, NWC was intercepting furs before they could get to the HBC posts on Hudson’s Bay
HBC realized they needed to be in the interior as well and began to build inland posts
Although both companies took financial hits, the NWC was unable to compete with the Hudson’s Bay Company and in 1821 they merged to form one big company.