He was able to negotiate in the royal courts of two countries and lived comfortably in the bush among the Indians. He eventually retired to a London suburb and successfully sued the Hudson's Bay Company for an annuity they had promised him. He once claimed to have seen the remains of Henry Hudson, his predecessor, on the shores of Hudson Bay. Hudson had established the route to Hudson Bay but it was Radisson who realized its commercial potential.
He died in , a roguish, decayed gentleman. Radisson and des Groseilliers Radisson and des Groseilliers read more Hudson's Bay Company Beginnings In the late 's, Britain became a dominant force in the North American fur trade with the establishment of the Hudson's Bay Company, which would become one of the largest fur trading companies in the world. As portrayed in Canada: A People's History. Hudson's Bay trading posts. Last Topic: New Lands for Trade. Henry Hudson's Legacy.
The Fashion of Fur. In response, the Bay Company built a pair of inland posts in , but the effort was expensive, and a series of difficulties delayed further expansion for another decade, when the governors resolved to make a renewed push into the interior. They sent contingents up the north and south branches of the Saskatchewan and into the Athabasca region to build posts in direct competition with the Nor'Westers.
By the two companies had expanded their operations far up the north fork of the Saskatchewan toward the east front of the Rocky Mountains. Here they were occasionally visited by tribes from the Columbia Plateau west of the Continental Divide who reported abundant supplies of beaver in their homelands and encouraged traders from both companies to establish posts across the mountains.
The North West Company was the first to respond to this invitation, sending an expedition under David Thompson across the Divide in Three years later, in June , the Bay Company dispatched a party under clerk Joseph Howse to make a brief survey of the situation west of the Rockies. The following summer, Howse led a small brigade across the Divide and south into the Flathead country in present-day western Montana.
He built a small trade house, passed the winter, and returned to the Saskatchewan the following spring with 36 bundles of good furs and a conviction "that it would be folly to repeat the venture," for he had been visited by a group of Piegan Blackfeet who were furious that traders were supplying guns to their Flathead enemies and who warned that if he returned "they would not only plunder and kill him, but that they would make dry meat of his body" Nisbet, Mapmaker, The Bay Company directors did not pursue any further plans for establishments west of the Divide until , when they completed negotiations to merge with their chief rival, the North West Company.
The joint concern assumed the name of the Hudson's Bay Company, with most of the former employees of both companies retaining their positions. The Hudson's Bay Company's enlarged territory was divided into four divisions for administrative purposes: the Northern, Southern, Montreal, and Western, or Columbia, departments. The trade was supervised from London by a governor, deputy governor, and a committee of four men.
In North America, George Simpson reigned as the governor of operations of the transcontinental enterprise, assisted by a council that met annually to review progress and make plans for the coming year.
Looking over accounts soon after the merger, the London committee expressed doubts about the future of the Columbia Department, which included posts established by the North West Company west of the Divide in present-day Western Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia.
Simpson decided to make a personal tour of the district in order to analyze its prospects, and in the fall of he journeyed west to survey the situation with John McLoughlin, the Chief Factor of the Columbia Department.
It is high time the system should be changed and I think there is ample Field for reform and amendment" Simpson, xx. Simpson spent the winter of at Fort George, near the mouth of the Columbia, outlining his suggested reforms and amendments and making a detailed list of recommendations for decreasing waste and increasing efficiency. Another consideration was the state of negotiations regarding the international boundary between the United States and Great Britain.
The two countries had signed a Joint Occupation Agreement in , which was due to be renewed in , and conventional wisdom held that the eventual boundary would be settled at either the 49th parallel or the Columbia River.
No matter which option was eventually decided upon, Great Britain would lose the territory south of the Columbia. With this in mind, the British Foreign Office had recommended that the Hudson's Bay Company relocate its headquarters from Fort George, on the south side of the Columbia, to a site on the north shore. After scouting for possible locations, Simpson and McLoughlin selected a broad meadow about miles upriver known as Belle Vue Point or Jolie Prairie, with a large area suitable for the farm that Simpson envisioned as part of his plan for increased self-sufficiency at all posts.
By June , workers were busily ferrying the contents of Fort George upstream to the newly christened Fort Vancouver. As the shipping and receiving depot, Fort Vancouver was the central business hub for the Columbia Department. Chief Factor McLoughlin occupied the pinnacle of the regional organizational chart, while the middle tier held Chief Traders, who commanded trade houses or trapping expeditions.
Numerous clerks completed the ranks of the "gentlemen" who kept accounts and helped oversee the trade at the various posts. Most of the "managers" were natives of England or Scotland. Many of the fur agents lived with tribal or mixed-blood wives in a form of common-law marriage known as "the custom of the country" in recognition of the distance from clergy or civil officialdom.
Their children often worked in the trade as laborers or sometimes as clerks. The labor force, referred to as "the men" or "the servants," included Orkney Islanders, French Canadian voyageurs, Iroquois Indians who had migrated west, and Hawaiians who had been recruited by ships' captains en route to the Columbia. Local tribesmen served as hunters, interpreters, horse tenders, and guides, and independent trappers were sometimes hired as seasonal labor.
From the new headquarters on the north bank of the Columbia, John McLoughlin worked to make the district profitable. He efficiently coordinated operations and logistics between outlying posts and introduced strict economies. The RCGS acknowledges that its offices are located on the unceded territory of the Algonquin Peoples, who have been guardians of, and in relationship with, these lands for thousands of years.
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