The North West Company (NWC) was the main rival in the fur trade. The competition led to the small Pemmican War in 1816. The Battle of Seven Oaks on 19 June 1816 was the climax of the long dispute. In 1821, the North West Company of Montreal and Hudson's Bay Company were forcibly merged by intervention of the British government to put an end to often-violent competition. 175 posts, 68 of them the HBC's, were reduced to 52 for efficiency and because many were redundant as a result of the rivalry and were inherently unprofitable. Their combined territory was extended by a licence to the North-Western Territory, which reached to the Arctic Ocean in the north and, with the creation of the Columbia Department in the Pacific Northwest, to the Pacific Ocean in the west.
North West Company: violent competition and merger
Hudson's Bay Company
Hudson's Bay Company | North West Company: violent competition and merger
British government British government. Thomas Douglas The British government.
where is the headwaters of the willamette river
user
Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest region of North America
assistant
who were the first people to inhabit the area along the above-mentioned river?
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Native American community
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what was the major trade done on this river?
user
Fur trade
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who traded this, to whom?
user
French-Canadians working for the Hudson's Bay Company
assistant
who owns this company?
user
American business man, Jerry Zucker
assistant
are there any modern stores associated with this company?
user
Yes, department stores
assistant
any stores in particular?
user
Sorry. I cannot find the answer based on the context.
assistant
did they merger with any other major company?
user
Yes, with North West Company
assistant
where is this company located?
user
Montreal
assistant
who were the founders?
user
John Gregory, Alexander Mackenzie, and Roderick Mackenzie
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when was it founded?
user
1787
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who forced them into the merger with the other company mentioned earlier?
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The North West Company (NWC) was the main rival in the fur trade. The competition led to the small Pemmican War in 1816. The Battle of Seven Oaks on 19 June 1816 was the climax of the long dispute. In 1821, the North West Company of Montreal and Hudson's Bay Company were forcibly merged by intervention of the British government to put an end to often-violent competition. 175 posts, 68 of them the HBC's, were reduced to 52 for efficiency and because many were redundant as a result of the rivalry and were inherently unprofitable. Their combined territory was extended by a licence to the North-Western Territory, which reached to the Arctic Ocean in the north and, with the creation of the Columbia Department in the Pacific Northwest, to the Pacific Ocean in the west.
Hudson's Bay Company | North West Company: violent competition and merger
They also operated a store in what were then known as the Sandwich Islands (Hawai'i), engaging in merchant shipping to the islands between 1828 and 1859.
Hudson's Bay Company | North West Company: violent competition and merger
By this the North West Company name disappeared after more than 40 years of operations. At the time of the merger, the amalgamated company consisted of 97 trading posts that had belonged to the North West Company and 76 that belonged to the Hudson's Bay Company. When the competition between both companies came to an end, new board of directors wanted two field governors to oversee the newly defined territory, and George Simpson was appointed to the Northern Department. George Simpson (1787–1860), the Hudson's Bay Company Governor-in-Chief of Rupert's Land, who became the Canadian head of the northern division of the greatly enlarged business, made his headquarters in the Montreal suburb of Lachine.
North West Company | Forced merger
The NWC's regional headquarters at Fort George (Fort Astoria) was relocated to Fort Vancouver on the north bank of the Columbia River; it became the HBC base of operations on the Pacific Slope. Before the merger, the employees of the HBC, unlike those of the North West Company, did not participate in its profits. After the merger, with all operations under the management of Sir George Simpson (1826–60), the company had a corps of commissioned officers: 25 chief factors and 28 chief traders, who shared in the company's profits during the monopoly years. Its trade covered , and it had 1,500 contract employees.
Hudson's Bay Company | North West Company: violent competition and merger
Hostilities between the North West and Hudson’s Bay companies came to a swift end when the two merged the following year in 1821. The merger was the result of declining profits on both sides and pressure from the British government to settle their differences. In fact, with the merger, many of the combatants of the Pemmican War worked side-by-side, seemingly forgetting their past aggressions.
Pemmican War | Merger of the two companies
In the 1821 merger with the North West Company, the Hudson's Bay Company gained control of North West Company trading posts west of the Rocky Mountains. They established headquarters at Fort George (formerly Astoria). George Simpson, Governor of Hudson's Bay Company, visited the Columbia District in 1824–25, journeying from York Factory. He investigated a quicker route than previously used, following the Saskatchewan River and crossing the mountains at Athabasca Pass. This route was thereafter followed by the York Factory Express brigades.
John McLoughlin | Hudson's Bay Company
The form of nepotism within the company too had changed, from the strict values of Simon McTavish to something that was harming the business in both its costs and morale of others. By 1820, the company was issuing coinage, each copper token representing the value of one beaver pelt. But the continued operations of the North West Company were in great doubt, and shareholders had no choice but to agree to a merger with their hated rival after Henry Bathurst, the Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, ordered the companies to cease hostilities. In July 1821, under more pressure from the British government, which passed new regulations governing the fur trade in British North America, a merger agreement was signed with the Hudson's Bay Company.
North West Company | Forced merger
Competition caused spurs of violence in the region over the control of economic resources, escalating with the arrival of Hudson's Bay Company. The late beginnings of Hudson's Bay Company in the North-Western Territory was due to a shortage of available voyageurs and the domination of the North West Company. It was not until 1791 a post was established and was operational year-round in 1799. The North West Company continued to rise to power up until the point of their merger with the Hudson's Bay Company in 1821.
Île-à-la-Crosse | Early trading
All these events intensified competition between the companies. When Thomas Douglas convinced his fellow shareholders in the Hudson's Bay Company to grant him the Selkirk Concession, it marked another in a series of events that would lead to the demise of the North West Company. The Pemmican Proclamation, the ensuing Battle of Seven Oaks in 1816, and its violence, resulted in Lord Selkirk arresting William McGillivray and several North West Company proprietors. He ordered the seizure of their outpost property in Fort William and charged them in the deaths of 21 people at Seven Oaks. Although this matter was resolved by the authorities in Montreal, over the next few years some of the wealthiest and most capable partners began to leave the North West Company, fearful of its future viability.
North West Company | Forced merger
The Battle of Seven Oaks in 1816 threatened a further escalation of violence between North West Company and Hudson's Bay Company servants. Meanwhile, in the aftermath of the battle, the NWC lost several of its investors who were wary of the company's continued existence. In a move brokered to end hostilities between the companies, shareholders in the NWC agreed to merge with the Hudson's Bay Company, signing an agreement in 1821 that saw its name dissolved and its employees & properties absorbed under the HBC name. The agreement named several persons as chief factors and chief traders at this time; with Fort Augustus consequently being absorbed by Fort Edmonton, John Rowand was made a chief trader at Edmonton.
John Rowand | Joining the Hudson's Bay Company
The North West Company was a fur trading business headquartered in Montreal from 1779 to 1821. It competed with increasing success against the Hudson's Bay Company in what is present-day Western Canada and Northwestern Ontario. With great wealth at stake, tensions between the companies increased to the point where several minor armed skirmishes broke out, and the two companies were forced by the British government to merge.
North West Company | Introduction
Another factor was the findings of the Palliser Expedition of 1857 to 1860, led by Captain John Palliser. He surveyed the area of the prairies and wilderness from Lake Superior to the southern passes of the Rocky Mountains. Although he recommended against settlement of the region, the report sparked a debate. It ended the myth publicized by Hudson's Bay Company: that the Canadian West was unfit for agricultural settlement. In 1863, the International Financial Society bought controlling interest in the HBC, signalling a shift in the company's outlook: most of the new shareholders were less interested in the fur trade than in real estate speculation and economic development in the West.
Hudson's Bay Company | End of monopoly
By 1810, another crisis hit the fur industry, brought on by the over-harvesting of animals, the beaver in particular. The destruction of the North West Company post at Sault Ste. Marie by the Americans during the War of 1812 was a serious blow during an already difficult time. In addition, the company was hurt by the refusal after the war of the United States to let Canadian traders freely cross its northern border. This reduced much of the border trade, which had previously been profitable for them, and artificially divided traders' relations with those several Native American tribes whose territories spanned the border.
North West Company | Forced merger
McLoughlin was instrumental in the negotiations leading to the North West Company's 1821 merger with the Hudson's Bay Company. He was promoted to head the Lac la Pluie district temporarily shortly after the merger.
John McLoughlin | North West Company
From 1760 to 1821, the Hudson's Bay Company and North West Company competed for furs. Both companies used The Forks to store and ship supplies and furs. By 1821, competing fur companies were amalgamated into the Hudson's Bay Company.
The Forks, Winnipeg | 1738–1880
In the 18th and 19th Centuries, Hudson's Bay Company operated with a very rigid hierarchy when it came to its employees. This hierarchy essentially broke down into two levels; the officers and the servants.Comprising the officers were the factors, masters and chief traders, clerks and surgeons. The servants were the tradesmen, boatmen, and labourers. The officers essentially ran the fur trading posts.They had many duties which included supervising the workers in their trade posts, valuing the furs, and keeping trade and post records.In 1821, when Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company merged, the hierarchy became even stricter and the lines between officers and servants became virtually impossible to cross.
Hudson's Bay Company | Corporate hierarchy
From 1779 to 1821 two British fur trading companies, the Montreal-based North West Company (NWC) and the London-based Hudson's Bay Company, competed for control of the fur trade of what later became Western Canada. The struggle, which eventually reached the point of armed battles such as the 1816 Battle of Seven Oaks, was mostly over control of Rupert's Land, east of the Continental Divide. Around the turn of the 19th century the NWC expanded its operations westward, across the Rocky Mountains into the mostly unexplored Pacific Northwest. By the 1810s the NWC had established new fur trading operations west of the Rockies, in New Caledonia and the Columbia District.
Maritime fur trade | Hudson's Bay Company
In 1928, the Hudson's Bay Company purchased a majority of the company's shares but these were re-acquired by Jobs fifteen years later. In 1945, Northatlantic Fisheries purchased sixty percent of Jobs' shares. Other Jobs plants were sold in the next two decades. The remaining Jobs plant in St. John's closed operations in 1967.
Job Brothers &amp; Co., Limited | Later years
The western fur trade collapsed during the British conquest of Canada but it was soon restored by English-speakers. These so-called "Pedlars" joined together to form the North West Company. The Hudson's Bay Company responded by building posts inland, starting with Cumberland House, Saskatchewan in 1774. Competition between the HBC and NWC led to a great expansion to trade and exploration until the merger of the two companies in 1821. Pedlars reached Lake Winnipeg by 1767 and Fort des Épinettes west of Lake Manitoba in 1768. By the 1770s they were on the lower Saskatchewan River. The NWC reached the Swan River in 1787 and in the 1790s many posts were built on the upper Assiniboine.
Assiniboine River fur trade | English Period
The conflict reached its peak in 1801 and witnessed both companies expending more resources on out-competing each other than were expended on the exploration of new fur grounds. Between 1803–1804, Hudson's Bay morale had plummeted in the face of fierce Northwest competition and forced the two companies into negotiations but neither side could come to terms. Negotiations broke down again in 1805 and despite employing more aggressive agents and the provision of incentive programs, the Hudson's Bay Company was ready to abandon the fur trade in 1809. The Nor'Westers ability to make region-wide plans based on first-hand knowledge in addition to their ability to react quickly to changing circumstances provided the North West Company with a decisive advantage prior to 1810.
Red River Colony | War between the companies
After 1810, the combination of new management within the Hudson's Bay Company and the approval of a company-sponsored colony at Red River put the North West Company on the defensive. The establishment of a Hudson's Bay colony in the Red River region denied the Nor'Westers access to vital supplies and restricted the company's ability to expand westwards. Additionally, the establishment of an agricultural colony made the Hudson's Bay company nondependent on the profitable fur trade, a factor that the Nor'Westers simply could not compete with. Moreover, by establishing an agricultural colony, the Hudson's Bay Company gained a decisive advantage over the North West Company by virtue of a viable fallback economy as well as a readily available food source during economic slumps.
Red River Colony | War between the companies
The diversification of the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) became necessary with the decline of fur trade in the latter half of the 19th century, and the Deed of Surrender in which ownership of the North-Western Territory and Rupert's Land was transferred from HBC to the newly established country of Canada in 1870. The first Hudson's Bay Company store opened in 1881 in Winnipeg, Manitoba with an inventory consisting of dry goods, groceries, and hardware. HBC reorganized into fur trade, lands sales, and retail divisions in 1910; with the guidance of a director from the British department store Harrods, they began construction of full-line department stores in 1913.
Hudson's Bay (department store) | Early history
In 1821, the Northwest Company and the Hudson's Bay Company merged under the name of the latter. By 1825, Sir George Simpson advanced from the junior governor in charge of the company's Northern Department to be the head of this new company. Simpson traveled throughout the Northwest. For forty years he led the company. For most of that time, he made at least one major journey by canoe every year.
History of the Northwest Territories | Merger of the trading companies
The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) merged with the North West Company in 1821 and assumed its various fur trading stations. The HBC held a license among British subjects to trade with the populous aboriginal peoples of the region, and its network of trading posts and routes extended southward from New Caledonia, another HBC fur-trade district, into the Columbia basin (most of New Caledonia lay south of 54–40). The HBC's headquarters for the entire region became established at Fort Vancouver (modern Vancouver, Washington) in 1824. During that year George Simpson while discussing the company's "uncertain tenure of the Columbia" with Governor Colville, discussed the possibility of closing operations along the river.
Oregon boundary dispute | Hudson's Bay Company
In 1821, the NWC was merged into its powerful competitor, the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC). Douglas's contract was placed onto the HBC's payroll. He quickly moved up the strict system in which things or people are in separate levels of importance of the company. In 1825, he was put in charge of the founding of the Fort Vermilion trading post in what is now northern Alberta. He was next assigned at Fort St. James on Stuart Lake, headquarters of the Company's New Caledonia District, roughly located within modern British Columbia. In 1827, he established Fort Connolly on Bear Lake. The station was named after his manager, William Connolly, who was impressed by Douglas' skills and viewed him favourably.
James Douglas (governor) | Hudson's Bay Company
For 100 years the London-based Hudson’s Bay Company dominated the North American fur trade operating almost exclusively from their depots along the shores of Hudson Bay (though their charter, granted by Charles II in 1670 gave them exclusive rights to trade along the banks of any connected waterway), but competition from various Montréal merchants and later the North West Company in the 1770s changed this. The North West Company and others generally traded beyond the actual reach of the HBC, but generally still within their territory, easing the burden for natives of those regions to travel the long distance to Hudson Bay to trade.
Pemmican War | Background
In February 2020, shareholders of the company voted in favour of a plan to become a private company at a special meeting of shareholders. Under the plan of arrangement, the company will be owned by a group of continuing shareholders led by HBC Governor and Executive Chairman Richard Baker. Effective March 3, 2020, the company was delisted from the Toronto Stock Exchange, with Richard A. Baker replacing Foulkes as CEO.
Hudson's Bay Company | Moving forward
In 1987, the northern trading posts of the Hudson's Bay Company were sold to an employee consortium that revived the name The North West Company in 1990. The new company is a grocery and merchandise store chain based in Winnipeg, with stores in Northern Canada, Alaska, US Pacific territories and the Caribbean. Its headquarters are across the street from the Forts Rouge, Garry, and Gibraltar National Historic Site of Canada, the site of an old North West Company fort.
North West Company | Revival
In 1824, the Hudson's Bay Company appointed McLoughlin, already a Chief Factor, as Superintendent of the Columbia Department (roughly parallel to what Americans know as the Oregon Country), and Peter Skene Ogden was appointed to assist him. At the time, the region was under joint occupation of both the United States and Britain pursuant to the Treaty of 1818. Upon his arrival, McLoughlin determined that the headquarters of the company at Fort Astoria (now Astoria, Oregon), at the mouth of the Columbia River, was unfit. The York Factory Express trade route had evolved from an earlier express brigade used by the North West Company between Fort George, founded in 1811 by John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company) at the mouth of the Columbia River, to Fort William on Lake Superior.
John McLoughlin | Hudson's Bay Company
The North West Company was merged with the Hudson's Bay Company in 1821. Operations west of the Rocky Mountains were reorganized and the fur districts of New Caledonia and Columbia were merged in 1827 under the name Columbia Department. The name New Caledonia continued to be used for the old northern district, and in time came to be used for areas such as the Fraser Canyon and the Lower Mainland. In 1824 the Hudson's Bay Company built Fort Vancouver on the lower Columbia River to serve as the headquarters of the entire Columbia Department, which was previously the role of Fort Astoria (renamed Fort George).
Columbia District | Hudson's Bay Company
The Royal Charter made the “Governor and Company ..., and their Successors, the true and absolute Lords and Proprietors, of the same Territory, Limits and Places aforesaid, and of all other the Premisses ["sic"]", and granted them the authority “to erect and build such Castles, Fortifications, Forts, Garrisons, Colonies or Plantations, Towns or Villages, in any Parts or Places within the Limits and Bounds granted before in these Presents, unto the said Governor and Company, as they in their Discretion shall think fit and requisite". Following merger with the North West Company in 1821, the Hudson’s Bay Company's monopoly privileges and licence were extended to trade over the North-Western Territory.
Rupert's Land | Hudson's Bay Company's claim of ownership
The company's namesake business division is Hudson's Bay, commonly referred to as The Bay ( in French). After incorporation by English royal charter in 1670, the company functioned as the "de facto" government in parts of North America for nearly 200 years until the HBC sold the land it owned (the entire Hudson Bay drainage basin, known as Rupert's Land) to Canada in 1869 as part of the Deed of Surrender, authorized by the Rupert's Land Act 1868. During its peak, the company controlled the fur trade throughout much of the English- and later British-controlled North America. By the mid-19th century, the company evolved into a mercantile business selling a wide variety of products from furs to fine homeware in a small number of sales shops (as opposed to trading posts) across Canada.
Hudson's Bay Company | Introduction
Thomas McKay joined the North West Company after the failure of the Pacific Fur Company in 1813. Between 1815 and 1819 Thomas was in the Red River Colony and fought on the side of the North West Company and the Métis people against the Hudson's Bay Company. McKay fought at the 1816 Battle of Seven Oaks. By 1819 he was back on the Columbia. Within two years the entire North West Company was merged into the Hudson's Bay Company.
Thomas McKay (fur trader) | North West Company
The Canadian and U.S. holdings were transferred to NRDC Equity Partners' holding company, Hudson's Bay Trading Company, as of late 2008.
Hudson's Bay Company | 21st century
In the 17th century, the French had a de facto monopoly on the Canadian fur trade with their colony of New France. Two French traders, Pierre-Esprit Radisson and Médard des Groseilliers (Médard de Chouart, Sieur des Groseilliers), Radisson's brother-in-law, learned from the Cree that the best fur country lay north and west of Lake Superior, and that there was a "frozen sea" still further north. Assuming this was Hudson Bay, they sought French backing for a plan to set up a trading post on the Bay, to reduce the cost of moving furs overland. According to Peter C. Newman, "concerned that exploration of the Hudson Bay route might shift the focus of the fur trade away from the St.
Hudson's Bay Company | 17th century
After the French landed in Quebec in 1608, spread out and built a fur trade empire in the St. Lawrence basin. The French competed with the Dutch (from 1614) and English (1664) in New York and the English in Hudson Bay (1670). Unlike the French who travelled into the northern interior and traded with First Nations in their camps and villages, the English made bases at trading posts on Hudson Bay, inviting the indigenous people to trade. After 1731, pushed trade west beyond Lake Winnipeg. After the British conquest of New France in 1763 (and the defeat of France in Europe), the management of the fur trading posts was taken over by English-speakers.
North West Company | Before the Company
The North West Company was merged with the Hudson's Bay Company by the British government in 1821. The majority of the NWC employees, including Ross, continued laboring at their respective locations for the HBC. Ross served another four years as factor at Fort Nez Percés after the merger. While working for the HBC, Ross explored various territories of the Pacific Northwest. In 1824, while searching the mountain wilderness of what is present day Idaho, known to them as Columbia District, for beaver, Ross came up the Wood River and discovered Galena Summit on September 18. Leading a large brigade of Hudson's Bay Company trappers, he wondered if he could get through unknown mountains and rocky defiles that obstructed his passage back to his base of operations at present Challis.
Alexander Ross (fur trader) | Hudson's Bay Company
In theory, much of modern Canada now belonged to the Hudson's Bay Company as Rupert's Land was a vast region, but in practice, the company only had a few forts on the sea coasts of northern Ontario and northern Québec, to which were later added forts on the sea coast of northern Manitoba. It was not until the late 18th century that the Hudson's Bay Company showed any interest in moving inland and making good its claims to control Rubert's Land. Both Radisson and Groseilliers operated within the HBC with the support of Prince Rupert and the Company's director Sir John Robinson.
Pierre-Esprit Radisson | Foundation of the Hudson's Bay Company
Alexander Henry the younger was an XY winterer. They built a number of posts close to NWC and HBC posts. The murder of an HBC man by an XY man at Fort de l'Isle led to the Canada Jurisdiction Act which extended Quebec law to western Canada. In 1804 it merged with the NWC, having 25% interest in the combined company. The South West Company: was an 1811 attempted partnership between two North West Company firms (McTavish, McGillivrays & Co and Forsyth, Richardson & Co) and John Jacob Astor to import goods through New York and deal with the Great Lakes trade.
North West Company | Organizational history
Although the HBC maintained a monopoly on the fur trade during the early to mid-19th century, there was competition from James Sinclair and Andrew McDermot (Dermott), independent traders in the Red River Colony. They shipped furs by the Red River Trails to Norman Kittson a buyer in the United States. In addition, Americans controlled the Maritime fur trade on the Northwest Coast until the 1830s. Throughout the 1820s and 1830s, the HBC controlled nearly all trading operations in the Pacific Northwest, based at the company headquarters at Fort Vancouver on the Columbia River.Although claims to the region were by agreement in abeyance, commercial operating rights were nominally shared by the United States and Britain through the Anglo-American Convention of 1818, but company policy, enforced via Chief Factor John McLoughlin of the company's Columbia District, was to discourage U.S.
Hudson's Bay Company | Competition
After the North West Company was merged with the Hudson's Bay Company in 1821 Thomas McKay became an HBC employee, despite having fought the company in the Red River Colony war. In 1824 Chief Factor John McLoughlin was appointed superintendent of the Columbia Department. He and his family moved that year to Fort George (Astoria) and then, once it was built, Fort Vancouver, the new headquarters of the HBC Columbia Department. In 1811 McLoughlin had married Marguerite Wadin, widow of Alexander MacKay and mother of Thomas McKay. Thus in 1824 Thomas's mother and stepfather moved across the continent to the very place Thomas was living.
Thomas McKay (fur trader) | Hudson's Bay Company
In 1846, the United States acquired full authority south of the 49th parallel; the most settled areas of the Oregon Country were south of the Columbia River in what is now Oregon.McLoughlin, who had once turned away would-be settlers as company director, then welcomed them from his general store at Oregon City. He was later proclaimed the "Father of Oregon". The company retains no presence today in the portion of the Pacific Northwest governed by the United States.
Hudson's Bay Company | Competition
Astor, concerned the British navy would seize their forts and supplies in the War of 1812, sold to the North West Company in 1812 their forts, supplies and furs on the Columbia and Snake River. The North West Company started establishing more forts and trading posts of its own. By 1821, when armed hostilities broke out with its Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) rivals, the North West Company was pressured by the British government to merge with the HBC. The HBC had nearly a complete monopoly on trading (and most governing issues) in the Columbia District, or Oregon Country as it was referred to by the Americans, and also in Rupert's Land.
Oregon Trail | The North West Company and Hudson's Bay Company
There are historical references to a North West Company as early as 1770, including the Montreal-based traders Benjamin Frobisher, Isaac Todd, Alexander Henry the elder and others, but the standard histories trace the Company to a 16-share organization formed in 1779, which included Todd, Simon McTavish and James McGill. Seeking to break the Hudson's Bay Company monopoly over the North American fur trade, in 1780, the organization was joined by Peter Pond and Alexander Ellice, with his brothers, Robert and James, (and, later, his sons, including Edward Ellice). In the winter of 1783-84, the North West Company was officially created on a long-term basis, with its corporate offices on Vaudreuil Street in Montreal.
North West Company | Beginnings
The other department stores that followed were in Edmonton, Vancouver, Victoria, Saskatoon, and Winnipeg. The First World War interrupted a major remodelling and restoration of retail trade shops planned in 1912. Following the war, the company revitalized its fur-trade and real-estate activities, and diversified its operations by venturing into the oil business. Today, the department store business is the only remaining part of the company's operations, in the form of department stores under the Hudson's Bay brand.
Hudson's Bay Company | Department stores and diversification
Lawrence River, the French governor", Marquis d'Argenson (in office 1658–61), "refused to grant the coureurs de bois permission to scout the distant territory". Despite this refusal, in 1659 Radisson and Groseilliers set out for the upper Great Lakes basin. A year later they returned with premium furs, evidence of the potential of the Hudson Bay region. Subsequently, they were arrested for trading without a licence and fined, and their furs were confiscated by the government. Determined to establish trade in the Hudson Bay, Radisson and Groseilliers approached a group of English colonial businessmen in Boston, Massachusetts to help finance their explorations.
Hudson's Bay Company | 17th century
The store closed in 1960 when all HBC operations were centralized to the downtown location. Thereafter, the building was used only as a warehouse for HBC retail operations. The Bay retail stores were rebranded as Northern Stores Inc in 1987 and the warehouse was sold to Les Rocher who has owned it ever since. The Hudson's Bay Company warehouse was designated a City of Yellowknife Heritage Site in 1993.
Hudson's Bay Warehouse | Introduction
He joined the North West Company in the winter of 1820, reaching Montreal in January 1821. Before leaving for his three-year apprenticeship in May, he studied French for several months with two other trappers under the anglophile curate of St Michel d'Yamaska, Pierre Gibert. The same year, the NWC merged with its long-time rival the Hudson's Bay Company. McLean's apprenticeship transferred to the new company, but his memoirs show that he never abandoned his preference for the old one: "From 1674 to 1813 the Hudson's Bay Company slumbered at its posts along the shores of Hudson's Bay, never attempting to penetrate beyond the banks of the Saskatchewan, until the North-Westers led and cleared the way"...
John McLean (explorer) | With the North West Company
In 1787 the North West Company merged with a rival organization, Gregory, McLeod and Co., which brought several more able partners in, including John Gregory, Alexander Mackenzie, and his cousin Roderick Mackenzie. The 1787 company consisted of 20 shares, some held by the agents at Montreal (see below), and others by wintering partners, who spent the trading season in the fur country and oversaw the trade with the aboriginal peoples there. The wintering partners and the Montreal agents met each July at the company's depot at Grand Portage on Lake Superior, later moved to Fort William. Also under the auspices of the company, Alexander Mackenzie conducted two important expeditions of exploration.
North West Company | Official founding
The HBC is the only European trading company to have survived and outlived all its rivals.
Hudson's Bay Company | Rivals
Astor, pressured by potential confiscation by the British navy of their forts and supplies in the War of 1812, sold to the North West Company in 1812 their forts, supplies and furs on the Columbia and Snake River. The North West Company started establishing more forts and trading posts of their own. By 1821, when armed hostilities broke out with their Hudson's Bay Company rivals, the North West Company was pressured by the British government to merge with the Hudson's Bay Company. The Hudson's Bay Company had nearly a complete monopoly on trading (and most governing issues) in the Columbia District, or Oregon Country as it was referred to by the Americans, and also in Rupert's Land (western Canada).
History of the Oregon Trail | The North West Company and Hudson's Bay Company
"the chief advantages the Hudson's Bay Company now possess, they owe to the adventurous North-West traders; by these traders the whole interior of the savage wilds was first explored; by them the water communications were first discovered and opened up to commercial enterprise; by them the first trading posts were established in the interior; by them the natives were first reconciled with the whites; and by them the trade was first reduced to the regular system which the Hudson's Bay Company still follows. When all this had been done by the North-West Company, and they had begun to reap the rewards of their toils, and hardships, and dangers, and expenditure,then did the Honourable Hudson's Bay Company, led on by a British peer, step forward and claim, as British subjects, an equal right to share the trade."
John McLean (explorer) | With the North West Company
In 1820, when William McGillivray realised that the collapse of the North West Company (NWC) was imminent unless an agreement could be made with their rivals, the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), Simon took a leading role. Together with his friend Edward Ellice, they devised a plan to merge the two giant fur companies. During the discussions that followed, Colin Robertson remarked: "I like Simon much better than his friend the Member of Parliament (Ellice); there is a sort of highland pride and frankness about the little fellow that I don't dislike". The merger was completed by 1821, and having broken the news to the partners in Canada, Robertson again commented, "Simon McGillivray has carried everything without even the semblance of opposition.
Simon McGillivray | Merging the NWC with the HBC
In 1800 this property was taken over by the XY Company, followed by the North West Company in 1804, and then the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1821, when these two companies merged. The HBC operated a small trading post, which closed in 1837.
Chats Falls | History
Financial constraints forced an 1883 merger under the former name, changed to The Winnipeg and Hudson Bay Railway Company in 1887, and the Winnipeg and Great Northern Railway Company (WGNR) in 1894. An 1884 charter enhancement provided a federal land grant of 12,800 acres per mile (deemed worth 50 cents per acre) above the 54th parallel, but 6,400 acres per mile ($1 per acre) for below. Charter owner Hugh McKay Sutherland, unable to attract financing for the risky venture, accepted a bloated contract bid from the Mann and Holt partnership in 1886. The contractors, who provided all financing, were secured by the issue of company stock and bonds.
Hudson Bay Railway (1910) | Early endeavours
In the early 19th century fur-trading was the main industry of Western Canada. Two companies had an intense competition over the trade. The first, the Hudson's Bay Company, was a London, England-based organization. The second, the North West Company, was based in Montreal. Hudson's Bay Company was distinctly English in its culture and flavour while the North West Company was a mix of French, Scottish and First Nations cultures. The voyageurs of the North West Company were a highly mobile group of fur traders. They established temporary encampments in the forks region that later became Winnipeg. In 1809 the North West Company built Fort Gibraltar.
Fort Gibraltar | History
The Hudson's Bay Company was given monopoly over the area of land that would become known as Rupert's Land. From 1670 to 1675, Groseilliers and Radisson were employed by the Hudson's Bay Company, voyaging into Hudson Bay to establish trading posts, forts and exploring the area. Their activities were watched with interest by the French whose economy suffered from the arrival of English fur traders.
Médard des Groseilliers | Formation of the Hudson's Bay Company
Most histories of M&A begin in the late 19th century United States. However, mergers coincide historically with the existence of companies. In 1708, for example, the East India Company merged with an erstwhile competitor to restore its monopoly over the Indian trade. In 1784, the Italian Monte dei Paschi and Monte Pio banks were united as the Monti Reuniti. In 1821, the Hudson's Bay Company merged with the rival North West Company.
Mergers and acquisitions | History
The French controlled much of what is now Canada in the early 1700s. As a result, their traders had a large fur trading network. After the conquest of New France by the British in 1763, French traders founded the North West Company and continued expanding their fur trade into the Canadian interior. The competition with the Hudson's Bay Company led to a massive environmental impact with numerous fur trade posts being built, the interior of Canada being explored, and the beaver population being exhausted. The fur trade created conflict which increased tensions between the British, French and the Aboriginals.
The North West Company | Brief history
Normally, the trip to York Factory was made by the Cree and Ojibwe men while their womenfolk stayed behind in their villages. Until 1774, the Hudson's Bay Company was content to operate its posts on the shores of Hudson's Bay, and only competition from the rival North West Company based in Montreal forced the Hudson's Bay Company to assert its claim to Rupert's Land. By contrast, the absence of waterways flowing into Hudson's Bay (the major river in the subarctic, the Mackenzie, flows into the Arctic Ocean) forced the Northern Athabaskan peoples to travel by foot with the women as baggage carriers.
North American fur trade | Delivery of goods by native tribes
In 1668, "Nonsuch" reached the bay and traded for beaver pelts, leading to the creation of the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) which still bears the historic name. The HBC negotiated a trading monopoly from the English crown for the Hudson Bay watershed, called Rupert's Land. France contested this grant by sending several military expeditions to the region, but abandoned its claim in the Treaty of Utrecht (April 1713). During this period, the Hudson's Bay Company built several factories (forts and trading posts) along the coast at the mouth of the major rivers (such as Fort Severn, Ontario; York Factory, Churchill, Manitoba and the Prince of Wales Fort).
Hudson Bay | History
As the Compagnie was clearly in no position to retake the mantle of handling the Hudson Bay trade, the French royal authorities saw it fit to establish an entirely new company for that purpose. As part of this establishment, the Company of the Farm accepted an offer to have the surplus of beaver bought out by a group of Canadian merchants separate from the Compagnie, while the Compagnie du Nord's charter was formally revoked on January 10, 1700. With both of the main players in the Canadian fur trade now no longer possessing trading rights, the Crown established the Compagnie de la Colonie on October 10, 1700, taking over the trading rights from both the Farm and the Compagnie.
Compagnie du Nord | Dissolution and legacy
The trading posts were soon reduced in number to avoid redundancy.
North West Company | Forced merger
The North West Company is a multinational Canadian grocery and retail company which operates stores in Canada's western provinces and northern territories, as well as the US states of Alaska, Hawaii, and several other countries and US territories in Oceania and the Caribbean. The company traces its history back to the North West Company, a fur trading business headquartered in the city of Montreal in British North America from 1779 to 1821. It was merged into the Hudson's Bay Company in 1821. The enterprise continued as the Fur Trade Department, and then the Northern Stores Division of Hudson's Bay Company.
The North West Company | Introduction
The Pemmican War that was initiated by Macdonell's proclamation was only the tail end of a much larger conflict between the Hudson's Bay Company and its fur trade rivals, both English and French, in Montreal. The conflict dates back to King Charles II's generous grant of Rupert's Land to members of the English nobility in 1670. Cause for conflict arose from the inability of either the Montreal traders or the Hudson's Bay Company to gain a monopoly over the North American fur trade. Between 1800 and 1821, the conflict between Hudson's Bay and Montreal, at that point represented by the predominantly Scottish North West Company, intensified.
Red River Colony | War between the companies
The Hudson's Bay Company had a technical monopoly of the beaver trade within the drainage basin of Hudson Bay while the Compagnie d'Occident was given a monopoly of the beaver trade farther south. The English organized their trade on strictly hierarchical lines while the French used licenses to lease the use of their posts. This meant that the French incentivized the extension of trade, and French traders did indeed infiltrate much of the Great Lakes region. The French established posts on Lake Winnipeg, Lac des Praires and Lake Nipigon which represented a serious threat to flow of furs to the York Factory.
North American fur trade | Indigenous Peoples' response to French–English competition
They exchanged their goods at Grand Portage on Lake Superior and returned before the rivers froze five months later. To save the cost of hauling food from Montreal Métis around Winnipeg began the large-scale production of pemmican. The Hudson Bay trade was diverted southwest to the edge of the prairie where pemmican was picked up to feed the voyageurs on their journey northwest to the Athabasca country. Competition from the Nor'Westers forced the Hudson's Bay Company to build posts in the interior. The two companies competed for a while and, in 1821, merged. Management was taken over by the capital-rich HBC, but trading methods were those of the Montreal-based Nor'Westers.
Voyageurs | British era
After the merger of the North West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company much trade shifted to York Factory (the Hudson Bay route) and later some went south to Minnesota. After 1810 the western posts were linked to the British bases on the Oregon coast. By mid-century the HBC ruled an inland empire that stretched from Hudson Bay to the Pacific. The Carlton Trail became a land route across the prairies. HBC land claims were transferred to Canada by the Rupert's Land Act 1868. From 1874 the North-West Mounted Police began to extend formal government into the area. The fur trade routes grew obsolete from the 1880s with the coming of railways and steamships.
Voyageurs | Fading and end of the voyageur era
In a relatively large mercantile company, there could be a hierarchy, including several grades of factor. In the Hudson's Bay Company as it was restructured after merging with the North West Company in 1821, commissioned officers included the ranks of chief trader and chief factor. In the deed poll under which the HBC was governed, there were 25 chief factors and 28 chief traders. Chief factors usually held high administrative positions. The Dutch East India Company and British East India Company based factors all over Asia. In 18th- and early 19th-century China and Japan, trade was limited to small ghettoes: the Dutch Factory on Dejima, an island off Nagasaki, and the Thirteen Factories and Shamian Island areas of Canton.
Factor (agent) | Mercantile factors
"Eaglet" was caught in a storm, was damaged and forced to return to England. "Nonsuch" made it to Hudson Bay and continued south, into James Bay. "Nonsuch" reached the mouth of the Rupert River which was named after their benefactor. They landed near what is now the town of Waskaganish, Quebec, where they built a fort and wintered there. The expedition returned to England in 1669 with a rich cargo of furs. The haul of furs impressed King Charles and led Prince Rupert and his fellow investors to create the "Company of Adventurers of England Trading into Hudsons Bay", also known as the Hudson's Bay Company, on 2 May 1670.
Médard des Groseilliers | Formation of the Hudson's Bay Company
Attempting to gain control over the movement of Pemmican in the region, Miles Macdonell, governor of the new Red River Colony, declared war with the established NWC men. McGillivray had no illusions about Lord Selkirk's actions nor about the conduct of Miles Macdonell, remarking that Selkirk, "has thought proper lately to become the avowed rival of the North-West Company in the trade which they themselves have carried on for upwards of thirty years with credit to themselves. In a fair commercial competition, we have no objection to enter the lists with his Lordship, but we cannot remain passive spectators to the violence used to plunder or destroy our property".
William McGillivray | Hudson's Bay Company
York Factory served as the Hudson's Bay Company's headquarters. The HBC depended on the furs coming to York Factory. The North West Company competed with the HBC by traveling throughout the territory obtaining furs as they did so. Some of these trader explorers kept journals and had them published. Public interest developed as a result. As the Europeans increased their presence, they involved the First Nations as guides and suppliers of furs. The Chipewyan acted as middlemen. They brought to York Factory the furs of the western tribes. The Cree, Chipewyan, Beaver and Yellowknives obtained firearms. With this new advantage, they dominated their Athapaskan neighbors, i.e.
History of the Northwest Territories | Rivers North, 1700s
Price fluctuation was deferred to the officers in charge of the trade posts, and the head office recorded any difference between the company's standard and that set by the individual officers. Overplus, or any excess revenue gained by officers was strictly documented to insure that it wasn't being pocketed and taken from the company. This strict yet flexible hierarchy exemplifies how Hudson's Bay Company was able to be so successful while still having its central management and trade posts located so far apart.
Hudson's Bay Company | Corporate hierarchy
This "modernization program" resulted the "original six" department stores in Calgary and Edmonton in Alberta; Vancouver and Victoria in British Columbia; Winnipeg in Manitoba; and Saskatoon in Saskatchewan. Hudson's Bay Company entered the provinces of Ontario and Quebec with its acquisition of the Montreal-based Morgan's department store chain in 1960; that year, only the Morgan's stores in Ontario were converted to Hudson's Bay Company stores.
Hudson's Bay (department store) | Early history
Through the 1830s, competition began to resurface. At the same time, the availability of furs in the Midwest declined. During this period, the Hudson's Bay Company began an effort to destroy the American fur companies from its Columbia District headquarters at Fort Vancouver. By depleting furs in the Snake River country and underselling the American Fur Company at the annual Rocky Mountain Rendezvous, the HBC effectively ruined American fur trading efforts in the Rocky Mountains. By the 1840s, silk was replacing fur for hats as the clothing fashion in Europe. The company was unable to cope with all these factors.
American Fur Company | Decline
The two companies built trading posts far west of Lake Superior and Hudson Bay, but the Nor'Westers were more aggressive as they travelled north to the Arctic Ocean via the Mackenzie River and west to the Pacific. The fierce competition ended in 1821 with the amalgamation of the companies into a Hudson's Bay Company monopoly. The Company finally surrendered its northwestern empire when it sold its land to Canada in 1869 following the decrease in profits and demand for furs.
The Fur Trade in Canada | Fur trade history
John Siveright was a fur trader and later became Chief Factor of the Hudson's Bay Company. Born 2 December 1779 in Drumdelgy, Cairnie, Scotland he was the son of John Siveright and Jannet Glass. Siveright began in the fur trade with the New North West Company (sometimes known as the XY Company) on a seven-year contract in 1799. The New North West Company merged into the North West Company in 1804 he continued his service. By 1815, when he was at Fort La Reine (Portage la Prairie, Man.), he was cited by the Hudson’s Bay Company as part of a conspiracy by the NWC to destroy the Red River Colony.
John Siveright | Introduction
In 1821, the escalating conflicts between the competing North West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company resulted in a forced merger of the two. The Hudson's Bay Company took over all the North West Company's operations, and administered them as the Columbia District. Fort Nez Percés remained an important HBC fur trade post and base for beaver hunting expeditions, as well as an important stop on the twice annual York Factory Express trade route to London via Hudson Bay. The Fort, along with other HBC forts on the western end of the Oregon Trail route, including Fort Vancouver near its terminus in the Willamette Valley; all gave substantial and often desperately needed aid to the early American Oregon Trail pioneers.
Fort Nez Percés | Hudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company and its rivals, the North West Company were forced to merge in 1821 by the British government. With the end of the fur trade inspired conflicts on the plains, the Red River settlement was able to grow. The agricultural products, primarily wheat, began to rise in yearly yields. Flour production rose from over annually from 1823 to 1829 to over in the early 1830s. The supply of flour reached over by the mid-1830s, rapidly deflating the price the HBC paid the farmers for the product. Numbering over 1,000 by 1827, the farmers began to complain about the deflating rates they received and lack of markets for their goods.
Red River Colony | Rising colony
In 1960, the company acquired Morgan's allowing it to expand into Montreal, Toronto, Hamilton, and Ottawa. In 1965, HBC rebranded its department stores as The Bay. The Morgan's logo was changed to match the new visual identity. By 1972 the last of the former Morgan's stores had been rebranded to Bay stores. In 1970, on the company's 300th anniversary, as a result of punishing new British tax laws, the company relocated to Canada, and was rechartered as a Canadian business corporation under Canadian law, Head Office functions were transferred from London to Winnipeg. By 1974, as the company expanded into eastern Canada, head office functions were moved to Toronto.
Hudson's Bay Company | Retail expansion
In particular during the latter 18th century numerous French and English traders in the Minnesota region purchased Sioux wives in order to establish kinship relationships with the Sioux so as to secure their supply of furs from the tribes. The British Hudson's Bay Company was formed in 1670 to capitalize on the Native American fur trade near Hudson Bay. The company came to dominate the North American trade in the 18th century. The North West Company of Montreal was formed in 1779 to compete with Hudson's Bay Company establishing their western headquarters and key exchange point at Grand Portage in what is now Minnesota.
Territorial era of Minnesota | Background
H. Stringer.
Hudson's Bay Company | Response by Hudson's Bay
Jay Gould's Great North Western Company merged with Dominion in 1881, clearly making the company its next target. Montreal yielded a 97-year lease of its lines to Great North Western in August 1881. After 1881, the company lost its dominant position, and was eventually integrated into Western Union.
Montreal Telegraph Company | Introduction
The Hudson’s Bay Company relied on the food to provide a source of energy for their fur-traders who had relocated to areas that had a scarce food supply but plenty of fur. By the mid-1790s the first systems of small wintering posts had become massive food depots, with Montreal companies organizing depots in the Red River Valley. The Hudson’s Bay Company grew concerned during the turn of the century because their rival, the North West Company, was providing trappers in the north with enough Pemmican to allow them to specialize their hunting patterns to cater to the English trading posts rather than the HBC.
Pemmican Proclamation | Background
It was hypothesized that Henry Hudson's fateful over-wintering in 1610-1611 was in Waskaganish territory. In 1610 Hudson had reached what is now the Hudson Strait but by November his new ship, "Discovery", had become icebound in James Bay and they were forced to move ashore. On 29 September 1668, "Nonsuch", under the command of Zachariah Gillam and guided by Médard des Groseilliers, anchored at the mouth of the Rupert River. In 1668, Rupert House or Charles Fort at Waskaganish on the south bank of Rupert River, was established as the first trading post, two years before the Hudson's Bay Company was formed.
Waskaganish | Post-contact
With the signing of the Treaty of Paris (1763) Labrador was passed from the French to the British. With the arrival of the British came the Hudson's Bay Company in 1836 who would enjoy a trade monopoly over central Labrador's furs for more than 100 years. The newest of the Hudson's Bay trading posts was constructed in 1923 and still remains as museum run and maintained by the Labrador Heritage Society.
North West River | Hudson's Bay Company
The rivalry between the NWC of Montreal and the English-controlled HBC gradually degenerated into a bitter and violent struggle, first under McTavish and then McGillivray. From 1810, the scarcity of beaver began to be a problem and only served to heighten tensions between the two companies. The NWC was stronger on the ground, but it was not as financially strong as the HBC. During the War of 1812, the Americans destroyed the NWC's trading post at Sault Ste. Marie, giving them a net loss of over £8,000 for that year. Also in 1812, Lord Selkirk (a shareholder in the HBC) established the Red River Colony which directly served the interests of the HBC and affected the NWC's free transport of goods between Fort William and the fur-bearing Lake Athabasca region.
William McGillivray | Hudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company was founded in 1670. This company diverted furs away from Quebec and threatened further expansion into French territory. In 1682, the "Compagnie du Nord" was founded to compete with the English on the Bay. In 1686, the aggressive Governor General Denonville decided to drive out the English even though the two countries were at peace. Under the command of Pierre de Troyes, Chevalier de Troyes, d'Iberville his brothers Paul and Jacques led the Canadian woodsmen on a 1686 expedition to Hudson Bay. He played a heroic part in the capture of the fort at Moose Factory.
Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville | Hudson Bay expeditions
With high demand from Europe for fur-based textiles in the early 19th Century, the Hudson's Bay Company was forced to expand its fur trade operations across North America to the Pacific Northwest. Prior to the establishment of Fort Vancouver, the Hudson's Bay Company's largest westward fort was Fort William in present-day Ontario, which the company gained through its merger with the North West Company. From its establishment, Fort Vancouver was the regional headquarters of the Hudson's Bay Company's fur trade operations in the Columbia District. The territory it oversaw stretched from the Rocky Mountains in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and from Sitka in the north to San Francisco in the south.
Fort Vancouver | Fur trade operations
Between 1866 and 1878 he was in charge of the company's operations at Fort Yale (Yale), in the Kootenay district, and in the Cassiar and the Stikine mining districts, and he directed its coastal trade at Fort Simpson. The HBC promoted him to factor in 1872.
Joseph William McKay | Hudson's Bay Company
The Society floated £2 million in public shares on non-ceded land held ostensibly by the Hudson's Bay Company as an asset and leveraged this asset for collateral for these funds. These funds allowed the Society the financial means to weather the financial collapse of 1866 which destroyed many competitors and invest in railways in North America.
Hudson's Bay Company | End of monopoly
They built Norway House at Mossy Point on the west side of the Nelson's outflow from Lake Winnipeg in 1817, replacing the former Jack River post at that location. In the last days of the rivalry between the Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company, prior to their union in 1821, Colin Robertson, of the Hudson's Bay Company from their office in Montreal, organized a brigade of mostly French-Canadians led by John Clarke, bound for the Athabasca country to compete with the North West Company by developing the trade of supplying the colonists in addition to the company's usual business of trading furs.
Norway House | History
However, beginning in 1801 the North West Company began re-establishing its headquarters north of the border at the newly constructed Fort William in what is now Ontario. After 1804 Grand Portage had been reduced to a minor trading center and most traders eventually abandoned the area. In 1842, the Hudson Bay Company, which had by then absorbed the North West Company, shipped out a final band of Ojibwe who were employed by the company. Before 1816 the majority of the fur trading posts in the Minnesota area were owned by the North West Company, but by 1821 the American Fur Company, founded in 1808 by John Jacob Astor in New York, had taken over most of these.
Territorial era of Minnesota | Commercial enterprises
Hudson's Bay Trading Company, L.P. was an American portfolio company for NRDC Equity Partners, a private equity company. Hudson's Bay Trading Company was founded in 2008. NRDC Equity Partners was founded by Robert Baker and Richard Baker of National Realty and Development Corp., and William Mack and Lee Neibart of AREA Property Partners. Richard Baker served as President CEO of NRDC Equity Partners. On January 23, 2012, The Financial Post reported that Baker had dissolved Hudson’s Bay Trading Co., and Toronto-based Hudson's Bay Company will now operate both The Bay and Lord & Taylor. This new entity will be run by The Bay CEO Bonnie Brooks.
Hudson's Bay Trading Company | Introduction
The American Pacific Fur Company financed the next commercial push into the region, working primarily with Chinookan peoples at Fort Astoria at the mouth of the Columbia River. The War of 1812 ended the American venture and its operations were sold to its competitor, the North West Company, which was itself amalgamated into the Hudson's Bay Company in 1821. From Fort Vancouver, located near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia Rivers, the operations of the Hudson's Bay Company grew and quickly became the primary commercial force in the Oregon Country. Despite the activities of American mountain men and upwards of 12 attempted companies, the commercial hegemony of the British company remained in force until after the formation of the Provisional Government.
Champoeg Meetings | Background
In 1972, the company acquired the four-store Shop-Rite chain of catalogue stores. The chain was quickly expanded to 65 stores in Ontario, but closed in 1982 due to declining sales. In these stores, little merchandise was displayed; customers made their selections from catalogues, and staff would retrieve the merchandise from storerooms. The HBC also acquired Freimans department stores in Ottawa and converted them to The Bay.
Hudson's Bay Company | Retail expansion
Fornel's trading post was known as (French for "Eskimo Bay Fort"). It was succeeded in 1757 by . The Hudson's Bay Company established , whose surrounding settlement became known as and then .
North West River | Names
In 1799 the Hudson's Bay Company decided to push west up the Churchill from Frog Portage. In that year they built rival posts on Lac Île-à-la-Crosse and Green Lake. They also built a post above the great bend at Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan, that only lasted two years. There was a great deal of conflict between the two companies until the merger in 1821.
Beaver River (Canada) | Exploration and fur trade
The Hudson's Bay Company began a trading post in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada in 1938 at the height of the first gold rush in the region. Fire destroyed the original building in January 1945, and the HBC rebuilt and reopened this expanded trading post store and warehouse in November 1945. It served the Old Town waterfront of Yellowknife for several years. The post was primarily designed for prospector's bush orders during the gold boom years. With the opening of a modern downtown department store in 1947, the Old Town post catered almost exclusively to bush orders, fur trappers, commercial fishers, and prospector supplies.
Hudson's Bay Warehouse | Introduction
These so-called "pedlars" began to merge because competition cost them money and because of the high costs of outfitting canoes to the far west.
North West Company | Before the Company