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The Pacific and Western Fur Trades (1770s – 1840s)

Class 07

Hist. 260

25 October 2016

“Peddlers and Thieves from Montreal”

• Re-emergence of the Montreal trade (early 1770s)  Anglophone merchants who arrive after British conquest (15% French Canadian)

 Undercuts HBC profits significantly

 Cutthroat competition and violence prevents complete takeover

 Cumberland House (1774) – HBC moves inland

• Opening of the Athabasca District  Peter Pond (1778)

• British government fails to protect HBC trade monopoly

 Monopoly unpopular in Britain

 Philosophical objection (free traders)

 Economic complaints (those who stood to profit)

 Competition now British, not French

 British government had no interest in interfering

 Quebec government:

 Keep Anglophone merchants happy

• Rivals merge into Northwest Company by 1783

• Bourgois [merchants, investors, clerks]  Responsible for the business of trade in Montreal (supplies, auctions, goods)

 Key figure – Simon McTavish

• Hivernants [‘Wintering Partners’]  Traders who oversaw and conducted the trade in the west

 Most experienced spent multiple seasons in the west

 Multiple ranks within ‘wintering partners’

• Strengths of the Northwest Company  Philosophy (extremely aggressive – significant autonomy given to hivernants)

 Labour force – experienced, skilled and comfortable within Aboriginal world

 Financial structure – profits distributed on annual basis

• Weaknesses of the Northwest Company  Supply and transportation route – extremely expensive and inefficient

 Two-staged: Montreal to Great Lakes (Grand Portage), Great Lakes to western river system

 Financial structure

 Lacked significant capital reserves to survive economic downturns and disruptions

Structure of the Northwest Company

Northwest Company Exploration

• Northwest Company pushes exploration further inland

 Key issue = solving Northwest Company’s transportation problems

 Connect western Canada to the Pacific Ocean and the China market

 Public relations (present company as better serving British interests)

• Peter Pond and the Athabasca District

 Learns that river systems drained into great body of water

 Convinced that Lake Athabasca connected to Pacific Ocean

 Leaves fur trade in 1788

• Alexander Mackenzie

 Spends a year with Peter Pond in Athabasca District

 Establishes year-round post in Athabasca (For Chipewyan, 1789)

 First exploration: “eternity of ice” and “River Disappointment”

 Interlude (1790-93)

 Second exploration: reaches Pacific Ocean

 Significant portage at Bella Coola River

NWC Exploration • Simon Fraser

 Loyalist; joins NWC in 1801

 Exploration and fur trade west of the Rocky Mountains (1805)

 “New Caledonia”

 Navigates Fraser River (1808)

 I scarcely ever saw anything so dreary, and seldom so dangerous, in any country; and at present, while I am writing this, whatever way I turn, mountains upon mountains, whose summits are covered with eternal snows, close the gloomy scene.

• David Thompson

 Joins Hudson’s Bay Company at age 14

 Defects to Northwest Company (1797)

 Exploration of the Columbia River [1807-10]

 Interference of the Blackfoot

• American exploration and trade  Lewis and Clark Expedition – stakes American claim to Pacific territory

 Fort Astoria (1810) established before Thompson arrives

Hudson’s Bay Company (1780s – 1810)

• Lose significant ground to Northwest Company

 French attacks on HBC posts (1782)

 Smallpox epidemic (1782-83) devastates Hudson Bay

 Northern flow of fur directed to Athabasca District (NWC)

• Hudson’s Bay Company adjustment

 William Tomison appointed as Chief Inland Trader (1786)

 Re-builds York Factory as supply post

 Goal = attract trade to inland posts

 Establish new inland forts to act as anchors of the trade

 Edmonton House (1795)

 Rocky Mountain House (1799)

• Gradual move to the Athabasca District  First HBC traders arrive at Lake Athabasca (1791)

 No significant effort to challenge NWC in Athabasca District in 1790s

• Overall HBC strategy = cautious and realistic

Fur Trade Wars (1798-1804)

• XY Company [1798-1804]

 Born out of closure of British fur trade in Great Lakes (Jay’s Treaty)

 Experienced traders with well-established connections

 Primarily focused their challenge on the Northwest Company

• HBC temporarily supports old NWC

 We know from experience what our former opponents can or in short will do, but as to the New Company they may ruin the trade altogether. We therefore think it advisable for our servants to incline towards our old competitors rather than give any countenance to the new… HBC directive to officers (1799)

 Temporary deals with NWC to limit trapping (fear of over-trapping)

• Alexander Mackenzie defects to XY Company (1799)

 Defections create intense personal animosity between companies

 Reconciliation impossible until death of Simon McTavish (1804)

• Eventual victory of the NWC (by 1804)

 Significant violence (esp. 1802-03)

 Lower Canada extends legal jurisdiction over fur trade territory

 Merger in 1804 creates stronger NWC (absorbs all of XY Company’s assets)

Hudson’s Bay Company Response [1810-15]

• Plans put forward at HBC shareholder meeting (1810)  Abandon direct role in fur trade; supply independent traders

 Focus on developing other industries [Napoleonic Wars]

 Regroup and all-out assault on NWC in Athabasca District

 Colin Robertson

 Establish agricultural settlement to support the fur trade (Selkirk)

• Strategy moving forward – “Retrenchment”  Efficiency and oversight

 Improve flow of communication; reduce wasteful spending

 Posts required to keep extremely detailed records

 Accountants (auditors) placed

 Administrative restructuring

 Superintendents – placed in charge of Northern and Southern Departments

 Chief Factors – placed in charge of districts (seven in total)

 Greater autonomy of trading posts – able to adapt and adjust prices

 Profit-sharing – greater incentive for traders to be aggressive

• Overall approach = aggressive: meet the NWC challenge

HBC Victory (1810-21) • HBC Athabasca Campaigns (1815-18)

 First effort to ‘blast’ into Athabasca fails (provisions)

 Larger campaign (1818) led by Robertson succeeds – HBC breaks through in district

 HBC starts to make significant gains on NWC (1818-21)

• Factors contributing to the gradual NWC Defeat

 Transportation issues never resolved

 Columbia and New Caledonia districts

 Shortage of capital

 Disruptions caused by War of 1812

 Divisions between wintering partners and bourgeois

 Profits and patronage, or complaints about ‘aristocratic twigs’

• Growing pressure for a merger (1820-21)  Canadian government: worried about violence and disorder

 British government: worried imperial interests not being served

 HBC/NWC leadership: increasingly view conflict as self-destructive

Merger and Monopoly [1821]

• Northwest Company absorbed into Hudson’s Bay Company (1821)

 Company shares divided roughly equally between old HBC/NWC investors and officers

 HBC administrative structure remained largely in place

• George Simpson

 Dominant figure in charge of HBC after 1821 [background and qualifications]

 #1 priority after merger = increase efficiency, reduce costs

• Reforms:

 Closes 280 0f 325 trading posts; cuts staff by 60%

 Dramatic cuts in wages and benefits

 Clashes with French-Canadian workers brought in from NWC

 Vow to retain “only efficient and valuable servants”

 Weak position of labour after the merger allows him to succeed

 Attacks security of officers [dismisses them at will]

 Requires posts to become more self-sufficient

 Tour of Columbia and New Caledonia Districts

The Horse Revolution • Arrive on the Canadian Prairies by the 1730s-40s

 Diffuse from New Mexico

 Spread north through trade, raiding, and breeding

• Impact on First Nations societies (esp. Blackfoot)

 Dramatic increase in mobility (travois)

 Cultural exchange (trade, ceremonial)

 Changes nature of the bison hunt

 Horses become the primary symbol of wealth

• Cree-Blackfoot Alliance

 Emerges in 1730s due to exchange of crucial technologies

 Blackfoot:

 Need firearms from Cree and Assiniboine (enemies to west and south)

 Plains Cree and Assiniboine:

 Need horses from Blackfoot

 Foundation of alliance remains in place for several decades

Smallpox Epidemic

• Great Plains avoided disease epidemics prior to 1780s  Low population density

 Horses dramatically increase frequency of contact between bands

• Outbreak of early 1780s  Reaches Athabasca District by 1783

• Sources:  Fur trade post journals

 Small pox is rageing all around us with great violence, sparing very few that take it – Hudson House journal, 4 December 1782

 Oral histories: Young Man’s account

 When at length the smallpox left us, and we moved about to find our people, it was no longer with the song and the dance; but with tears, shrieks, and howlings of despair for those who would never return to us. War was no longer thought of, and we had enough to do to hunt and make provision for our families, for in our sickness, we had consumed all our dried provisions; but the Bison and Red Deer were also gone, we did not see one half of what was before, whether they had gone we could not tell, we believed the Good Spirit had forsaken us, and allowed the bad spirit to become our Master. What little we could spare we offered to the Bad Spirit to let us along and go to our enemies. To the Good Spirit we offered feathers, branches of trees and sweet smelling grass. Our hearts were low and dejected, and we shall never be again the same people. To hunt for our families was our sole occupation and kill Beavers, Wolves and Foxes to trade our necessaries.

First Nations and the Trade (1770s-1821)

• Shifting nature of the fur trade

 Much more decentralized after 1770s (shift away from ‘trading brigades’)

• Middleman role (Cree and Assiniboine) disappears

 HBC / NWC posts move deep inland; impossible to monopolize access

• New economic opportunities

 Guides (with expansion into new areas)

 Particular significance of women’s role as guides

 Transportation (canoe-builders)

 “Great Lakes” and “Northern” canoes (as well as smaller boats for rapid transportation)

 Provisioning

 Strategies to ensure HBC/NWC dependence on First Nations

• Strengthening position of the Blackfoot

 Able to get direct access to firearms

 Strong effort to prevent rivals from reaching trading posts

 Leads to the breakdown of alliance with Cree / Assiniboine

Position of First Nations (1780s – 1821)

• First Nations and the ‘Fur Trade Wars’

 Positives: competition and increased opportunities

 Arrival of Iroquois workers in the West (early 1800s)

 Approximately1,100 Iroquois workers in the west (esp. Athabasca)

 Results in significant Iroquois settler population in the west after the merger

 Negative: violence, over-trapping

 Severe depletion of fur-bearing animals in certain areas

• Position deteriorates after merger  Simpson tried to capitalize on lack of competition

 “convinced the Indians must be ruled with a rod of iron, to bring and keep them in a proper state of subordination, and the most certain way to effect this is by letting them feel their dependence on us.”

 Policies

 Sharp reduction in prices given for fur

 Willing to close posts rather than accept inflation

 Severe limitations on gift-giving

 Conservation

Metis Ethnogenesis • Original Metis communities emerge in Great Lakes (late 17th Century)

 Foundation = couriers des bois in 1650s-60s

 Metis populations emerge throughout the region

 Mixed economy of farming and fur trading

• Outmigration from the Great Lakes area

 Growing settlement in the American Northwest (esp. 1790s)

 Metis move into Canadian west and set up independent communities

 Largest and most successful Metis settlement = Red River

 200 Metis settled at Red River by 1814

• Metis population grows with prevalence of fur trade marriages

 NWC: widespread acceptance of trader marriage from outset

 HBC: gradual acceptance of marriage (competition of 1780s)

 Awareness of labor contributions of First Nations women

• Metis communities grow in size through 19th century  Children of fur trade marriages often face limited options

 Many opt to join emerging Metis communities

Selkirk Colony (Red River Colony) • Earl of Selkirk (1799)

 Concerned about plight of impoverished tenant farmers

 Views emigration as the best solution

 Tour of British North America (1802-03)

• Buys up significant shares in Hudson’s Bay Company (1810)

 Idea of land grant aligns with HBC priorities

 Cutting supply costs (by growing food in region)

 Providing labour source (colonists)

 Cut off NWC supply routes

 Terms given to Selkirk

 Provide 200 workers per year for the Hudson’s Bay Company

 Provide free land to retired Hudson’s Bay Company officers

 HBC retained a trade monopoly within the boundaries of the land grant

• Response to planned colony

 NWC: resist (viewed as significant threat)

 Rumours and letter-writing to spread panic

 Metis: ambivalent and cautious (did not view initial colony as threat)

Early Problems and Conflicts • Colony suffers from significant early problems

 Late arrival of initial colonists (September 1811)

 Dissent within colonists stalls progress in 1812

 Colony remains on uncertain footing in first several years

• Pemmican Proclamation [January 1814]  Issued by Selkirk Colony governor (Miles Macdonell)

 Proclaimed it illegal to export provisions out of boundary of Selkirk Land Grant

 Justification: needed to reserve food for the colonists

 Viewed the NWC as vulnerable

 we have sufficient force to crush all the Northwesters in this river should they be so hard as to resist openly my authority; we are so well armed and I have a parcel of fine active stout fellows that will execute any order they receive

• Northwest Company: views the Proclamation as a direct attack on supply routes  Northwest Company brigades arrested; goods seized (partial compensation)

• Metis: reject authority of Selkirk Colony governor  HBC Charter and political authority

Attacks on the Colony

• Northwest Company commits to dispersal of the Selkirk Colony (1814)

 Superior NWC position after the end of the War of 1812

• Alignment of NWC and Metis interests

 NWC: bribe the colonists to leave; arrest Macdonell

 Metis forces: harass the remaining colonists into submission

 Convinced to return to the colony by Colin Robertson

• Heightening tension [1815-17]

 Increased violence between HBC and NWC (Athabasca Campaign)

 Sporadic raids between two sides within the Selkirk Land Grant

 “A storm is gathering ready to burst on the heads of the rascals who deserve it; little do they know their situation; last year was but a joke. The new nation under their leaders are coming forward to clear their native soil of intruders and assassins.” - letter seized by HBC

• Battle of Seven Oaks (1816)

 Metis force engages Selkirk colonists; colonists routed badly, colony disperses

 Significant event in the growth of Metis national consciousness

Survival of Selkirk Colony

• Colony restored with Selkirk’s direct intervention (1817)

 Arrives with mercenary soldiers (Swiss regiment from Napoleonic War)

 Captures Fort William (main NWC base)

 Relentless effort to prosecute NWC officers for complicity in Seven Oaks

• Rapid growth of the settlement (400 to 6,000 between 1821 and 1840s)

 50% Metis (French, Catholic)

 Economy revolves around bison hunt

 Replace Cree/Assiniboine as main provisioners of fur trade from 1840s onward

 Limited potential for advancement within the HBC

 30% Anglophone mixed ancestry

 Children of Anglophone fur traders and First Nations wives

 Less cohesive collective identity

 10% Scottish

 Original remnants of the Selkirk settler population

 10% First Nations

Pacific Coast Fur Trade • Russian exploration of the Alaska / Northern BC Coast

 Bering’s massive expedition (1741)

 Sparks early Russian trade in sea otter pelts [traded in China]

 Colonization of Alaska (1780s onward)

• Russian American Company (1799)

 State-chartered company granted monopoly (down to 55º)

 Sustained conflict with Tlingit peoples (Alaska, northern BC)

 Attack on Sitka (1802)

• Spanish claim on Pacific Coast

 First made in 1513; reinforced with Magellan Expedition (1519-21)

 Concern over Russian fur trade pushes Spain to assert its claim

 Overall goal = preserve control up to California

• Spanish expedition (Juan Perez,1774)

 Trade with Haida and Nu-chan-ulth First Nations

 No Spanish settlement presence north of California

Pacific Exploration [1760s-70s] • Significant competition between Britain and France

• Motives

 Commercial

 Prestige

 Scientific (linked to military and commercial)

• Captain James Cook  The utmost patience and forbearance with respect to the Natives of the several lands

where the ship may touch...They are the natural, and in the strictest sense of the word, the legal possessors of the several regions they inhabit. No European Nation has a right to occupy any part of their country, or settle among them without their voluntary consent - Instructions given to Cook

• Arrival in ‘Nootka Sound’ (1778)

 Extensive dealings with Nu-chan-ulth peoples

• Cook killed in Hawaii on return voyage

 Crew sells sea otter pelts for massive profit

 Publication of Cook’s journals sparks fur rush

Pacific Fur Trade (1780s-1820s) • Russia continues to dominate northern trade

 Does not expand presence south of 55 latitude

• Spanish shut out of Pacific Coast  War scare with Great Britain

 Spanish conflict with John Meares (1789)

 Nootka Crisis and Nootka Conventions (1789-95)

• American Domination (1795-1820)  British Pacific trade disrupted by Napoleonic Wars

 British trade limited by East India Company monopoly

 Americans search for new markets (post-1783)

• Nature of the trade – far less systematic than land trade  Most captains came for one voyage (huge commitment)

 Lacked regular, reliable commercial information

 No long-term stake in regional diplomacy

 Significant debate over level of violence

• Impact on First Nations communities  Limited overall impact (transient Euro-American presence)

 Increased wealth of particular chiefs