HIST 2500 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Red River Colony, Muscovy Company, North West Company
November 1, 2018
Fur Trade Frontier
Main Actors in Northwest Fur Trade
• Hudson’s Bay Company
• Montreal-based fur trade companies- the largest is the Northwest company
Their competition had consequences for their partners. They are the corporate
actors.
• Indigenous trappers – harvesting the animals
• Indigenous traders (middlemen) – negotiating and transferring the furs
from the rappers and trading with the Europeans
• Indigenous women- processors pf the products into a tradeable
commodity, diplomats and laborers
These large companies were not interested in settler colonialism, they made
certain type of territorial claims in the north west for monopoly of the trade of
furs therefore, these lands remained sovereign indigenous territory and governed
by indigenous nations.
Key Points
• Henry Hudson
• Hudson’s Bay Company
• Rupert’s Land
• Northwest Company
• Métis
• Red River Colony
• Lord Selkirk
The Fate of Henry Hudson – discovered the northwest- first European to
encounter the territory
• 1607: English Muscovy Company voyage- to find the passage to Asia by way
of the north pole. Beginning of his career as a navigator. Hopes to find this
passage to use as a trade route.
• 1609: Dutch East India Company voyage- he did not find the passage but
did char the Hudson river in New York.
The passage as somewhere In the high arctic, describing the Barren Strait.
• Strait of Anian- passage between north American and Asia
The Fate of Henry Hudson
- 1610 – sailed aboard the discovery, and from the outset it was played by
conflict between the captain and his crew and among the crew- lots of
conflict. Hudson calmed the situation down to go to the passage. He made
a navigational misjudgment, he went to Enguava Bay. They went south
sailing in unchartered waters. Forced the threw westward to what is now
called Hudson Bay. Noe he thought they were in the Pacific Ocean, thinking
now they just have to go south to china. Eventually, they found out they
were actually in James Bay. They remained here over the winter as they got
trapped in ice- starvation and scurvy- therefore tension raised against
Hudson. They probably encountered some indigenous peoples. Some crew
members survived and therefore continued. They successfully mutinied
against Hudson- putting him on a shallop and sent him back to Hudson Bay.
So how do we know what happened? The mutineers documented this in his
journal. Cricket documented this. Hudson failed to find the passage to
China, BUT started England’s joining to the Americas.
Fur trade in the northwest – Hudson bay. Initiated by entrepeanourists from New
France. The royal government in france set restriction on the trade and forced
them to look for English support.
Advent of the Northwest Fur Trade
• Pierre Radisson
• Médard Chouart, sieur des Groseilliers
Sought capital financing from England to help promote their fur trade business.
Rather than trading them and bringing them to Montreal to go to Europe. They
would use Hudson bay as a direct ocean passage into this region- called the
Hudson’s Bay Company.
• Hudson’s Bay Company- win a monopoly charter from the BRT crown to
have total control of the furs in the northwest.
• 2 May 1670- when they got the charter. Sole trade in commerce for all the
territories that drain into Hudson’s Bay.
• “sole Trade and Commerce”
• “true and absolute Lordes and Proprietors”- in land they called Rupert’s
land.
The French did not recognize this. So continued to push into this territory and
infringe on the charter of the Hudson’s Bay company
The establishment of this company established 2 trade routes-
Older one out of Montreal and the direct trade route in Hudson’s bay
From the 1670s up until 1713 the FRN fur traders and the Hudson’s Bay company
ADD INFO HERE ********
French traded directly with the indigenous peoples- transporting them back to
Montreal and then to Europe
The advantage of the Hudson’s bay company is not having o go through the
expense of travelling through inland territories and just sit in their forts and wait
for indigenous pe0poles to come trade with them
The advantage of the French is trading with more indigenous peoples as they go
to them directly and get more business
Their business is ambiguous – they weren’t setting up government or law. The
territories in the west remained indigenous land and there were a number of key
first nation involved:
Contact and Exchange in Northwest Fur Trade
• Cree
• Assiniboine
• Annishnabe [Ojibwa / Saulteaux]
3 primary. Had the advantage of having traditional territories adjacent to the se
Hudson Bay company. They tended to have the immediate economic action and
gave them a geographic advantage – can be used as the mediators or middle man
between trappers and the Europeans
• Dene [Chipewyan]
• Niitsitapi confederacy
• Siksika [Blackfoot]
• Kainai [Blood]
• Piikani [Peigan]
Further north and west- trade them with the middlemen which would them be
traded to the Hudson bay company.
Document Summary
Main actors in northwest fur trade: hudson"s bay company, montreal-based fur trade companies- the largest is the northwest company. These large companies were not interested in settler colonialism, they made certain type of territorial claims in the north west for monopoly of the trade of furs therefore, these lands remained sovereign indigenous territory and governed by indigenous nations. Key points: henry hudson, hudson"s bay company, rupert"s land, northwest company, m tis, red river colony, lord selkirk. The fate of henry hudson discovered the northwest- first european to encounter the territory: 1607: english muscovy company voyage- to find the passage to asia by way of the north pole. Hopes to find this passage to use as a trade route: 1609: dutch east india company voyage- he did not find the passage but did char the hudson river in new york. The passage as somewhere in the high arctic, describing the barren strait: strait of anian- passage between north american and asia.
