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
To put an end to often-violent competition, which was leading to war between the two The North West Company was the main rival in the fur trade. The competition led to the small "Pemmican War" and "The Battle of Seven Oaks”. The North West Company (NWC) was the main rival in the fur trade. The competition led to the small Pemmican War in 1816. To end the violent competition between the two companies.
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?
user
Native American community
assistant
what was the major trade done on this river?
user
Fur trade
assistant
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
assistant
when was it founded?
user
1787
assistant
who forced them into the merger with the other company mentioned earlier?
user
British government
assistant
what was the reason behind the merger?
user
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
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
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 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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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 companies that merged were mass producers of homogeneous goods that could exploit the efficiencies of large volume production. In addition, many of these mergers were capital-intensive. Due to high fixed costs, when demand fell, these newly merged companies had an incentive to maintain output and reduce prices. However more often than not mergers were "quick mergers". These "quick mergers" involved mergers of companies with unrelated technology and different management. As a result, the efficiency gains associated with mergers were not present. The new and bigger company would actually face higher costs than competitors because of these technological and managerial differences.
Mergers and acquisitions | The Great Merger Movement: 1895–1905
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
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
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
Not only did the merger improve the financial position of the constituent firms, it also blocked entry into the Canadian market by U.S. firms. Eventually, the Canada Packers operations were consolidated, with the meat packing and abattoir functions relocating to Toronto's union stockyards in the west end of the city. The former William Davies Company facilities by the Don River were first converted into a cold storage facility and soap works, and were eventually sold. Canada Packers later merged in 1991 with Maple Leaf Mills, a producer of flour-based foods, forming Maple Leaf Foods.
William Davies Company | Establishment of Canada Packers
The trading posts were soon reduced in number to avoid redundancy.
North West Company | Forced merger
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 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
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
As the railhead began to approach North Bay, a new railway rush broke out to connect the CP line to Toronto. The Northern was an obvious choice as a starting point as by this time they had constructed an extension to Bracebridge, Ontario and had most of the good routes west of Lake Simcoe locked up. The merger with the H&NW provided the capital and cashflow needed to build the remaining section, the Northern and Pacific Junction Railway, which reached North Bay in 1886. The next year, the rapidly expanding Grand Trunk purchased a controlling interest in the N&NW, and a completed the takeover on 24 January 1888.
Hamilton and North-Western Railway | Merger with Northern
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
The company had purchased them from Hudson; an investigating committee was set up and as improper dealings were revealed, Hudson resigned as chairman in May 1849. The committee reported on a number of irregularities in the account, such as inflating traffic figures and charging capital items to the revenue account, thus paying dividends out of capital. No dividend was paid for the first half year of 1849, and Hudson was to pay £212,000 settling claims over share transactions. The company was unable to complete the purchase of the GNER when this became due in July 1850, and agreement was reached to pay in three instalments over six years.
York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway | Amalgamations
In response the YN&BR and Y&NMR co-operated to lower prices to keep the traffic flowing via York. At the end of 1848 the dividend paid by the Y&NMR dropped from ten per cent to six per cent and at a subsequent half-yearly YN&BR shareholders meeting the very high cost of certain Great North shares bought during the merger was questioned. After Hudson admitted the company had purchased them from him, an investigating committee was set up and Hudson resigned as chairman in May 1849. The committee reported on a number of irregularities in the account such as inflating traffic figures and finding capital items that had been charged to the revenue account, thus paying dividends out of capital.
York and North Midland Railway | George Hudson departs
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
Ogden was charged with murder, and the North West Company moved him further west to attempt to avoid any further confrontations with the HBC. He served at different posts in modern-day Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia for the next several years. As a way of ending the ongoing strife between the two companies, the HBC and the North West Company merged in 1821. Ogden's violent history placed the now larger HBC in a quandary. Some in the company management severely disliked and distrusted Ogden, but newly appointed governor George Simpson pushed for his reinstatement, arguing that he had done no more than many others during the "fur-trade wars".
Peter Skene Ogden | Professional life
Shipping on the Saint Lawrence Seaway was superseded by trucking on highways. Grain shipping on the Great Lakes to the East has declined substantially in favour of transport to Pacific Coast ports. As a result, many grain elevators have been closed and demolished. The Kaministiquia River was abandoned by industry and shipping.
Thunder Bay | Amalgamation
In 1821, after tensions between the NWC and HBC had erupted into violence the NWC was forced to merge into the HBC. As a result, the HBC acquired the Columbia District and its trade with China. At first the system of shipping furs via the American Perkins and Company was continued, but in 1822 the United States Customs Service imposed a heavy "ad valorem" duty on the proceeds. The HBC stopped using American middlemen and instead tried selling furs through the EIC. In 1824 and 1825 the HBC sold 20,000 beaver and 7,000 land-otter skins in China through the EIC, but the arrangement did not prove advantageous for either firm.
Maritime fur trade | Hudson's Bay Company
Within a decade the vaunted Pennsylvania was gone in an ill-starred merger with arch-rival New York Central. Conflicted management teams, failure to produce an integrated computer system, internal strife, deindustrialization, Federal regulation, taxation, declining passenger and express traffic and fierce competition from trucks via the Federally subsidized interstate highway system and shipping on the Saint Lawrence Seaway. Though both the Pennsylvania and the Central struggled through the 1950s on the dividends from their large investments in border state coal haulers—the Chesapeake and Ohio and the Norfolk and Western—the Penn Central merger created a massive system from two weakened giants. Exacerbating the situation, the Interstate Commerce Commission foisted the nearly bankrupt New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad onto the new company.
Allen J. Greenough | New York Central merger
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 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
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
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 1845 Hudson made a generous offer to lease the GNER and buy it within five years, and that year GNER shares increased in value by 44 per cent as the N&DJR took over operations on 1 July 1845. On 27 July 1846 the N&DJR changed its name to the York and Newcastle Railway and on 9 August 1847, less than a year later, merging with the Newcastle and Berwick Railway. The combined company was named the York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway. At the end of 1848 the dividend paid by the YN&BR dropped from nine per cent to six per cent and at the subsequent half-yearly shareholders meeting the very high cost of certain GNER shares bought during the merger was questioned.
York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway | Amalgamations
In the wake of the NWC's forced merger into the HBC, George Simpson reorganized operations in New Caledonia and the Columbia Department. His efforts and keen fiscal sense, combined with a resurgence of American traders on the coast after the Russo-American Treaty of 1824, resulted in the HBC's decision to enter the coast maritime fur trade and drive out the Americans. By the early 1820s American traders were taking 3,000 to 5,000 beaver skins, mostly from New Caledonia, to Canton every year. By the early 1830s the number had reached 10,000 annually, which was as many as the HBC itself was acquiring from New Caledonia and half of the total output of the entire Columbia Department.
Maritime fur trade | Hudson's Bay Company
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
Theories of the origin of the merger exist, with two competing scenarios. One group of scholars argues for an independent North American development, while others argue for contact-induced language change via Scottish immigrants (e.g. Dollinger 2010), in which a role is afforded to Canadian English, where the spread from East to West was completed more quickly than in the US. Others consider the issue unresolved (Boberg 2010: 199?).
Cot–caught merger | Origin
In Canada, the 1990s saw the forced amalgamation of several municipal entities in the provinces of Nova Scotia, Ontario and Quebec into larger new municipalities. Even in cases where a central city merged with it's suburbs, the amalgamated city was legally a new municipality, even if it was given the central city's name. The process created what was labeled a "megacity" by the media, although none of the created municipalities fit in the definition of a megacity in the international sense and some of them have fewer than a million inhabitants. In the early 1970s, the various towns, villages, and townships surrounding Metropolitan Toronto that were undergoing suburbanization were amalgamated into various new municipalities; among them Mississauga and Vaughan.
Merger (politics) | Canada
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 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
On April 12, 1905, it was reported that the City Trust, the North American Trust, and the Trust Company of America were merging in the near future, in what the "Times" called "the most important trust company consolidation of recent years." It was announced the new company would be named the Trust Company of America, with capital of $2 million, a surplus of $9 million, and deposits over $50 million, "putting it among the strongest trust companies in New York." Thorne, then president of the North American Trust Company, was announced as the architect of the merger. To facilitate the merger, Thorne employed a corporation to hold a majority of the stocks, with the "Times" writing that "Wall Street had never seen the idea applied to the control of banking institutions." Thorne and his associates formed the Broadway Securities Company to hold a majority of the stocks from the North American and the Trust Company of America "against the efforts of the minority interests" endeavoring to block the consolidation.
North American Trust Company | 1905: Acquisition by Trust Company of America
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 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
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
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
Nicholas Garry was a British trader who toured the remote trading posts of the Hudson's Bay Company, after its merged with its younger rival, the Northwest Company. After the directors of the two companies agreed to end decades rivalry and violence, with a merger, each firm needed to send a director out to the major trading posts to explain the merger to the trading post's managers. Garry was the man chosen by the HBC in part due to his relative youth and good health, as the travel would be arduous. Garry maintained a diary, during his travels, and that diary is used by historians, today.
Nicholas Garry | Introduction
This formed the basis of the company's Toronto-area network, and was soon joined by new east-west lines to compete with the CP.
Hamilton and North-Western Railway | Merger with Northern
In the late 1960s, the N&W acquired Dereco, a holding company that owned the Delaware & Hudson (D&H) and Erie Lackawanna (EL) railroads. Dereco's troubled railroads were not merged into the N&W EL eventually joined Conrail and D&H was sold to Guilford Transportation Industries, and is now part of Canadian Pacific.
Norfolk and Western Railway | Merger era: 1960–82
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
F. Ahmanson & Co., the holding company for the largest thrift in the nation Home Savings of America, that would have involved $5.8 billion worth of stock. Since the two companies had large overlapping territories, many Great Western offices would have been closed by the victor if the takeover attempt had succeeded. The only way the combat a hostile takeover was to find another company, called a white knight that would allow a merger on much better terms. One such company was WaMu. In March, Great Western Financial announced that it had accepted WaMu's merger proposal for $6.6 billion in WaMu stock.
Washington Mutual | Expansion in California
The act of finishing the Statendam kind of completed the transformation of the company, that began to look very much like her competitor Fijenoord. Nevertheless, Wilton still had an advantage in ship repair, and Fijenoord was still ahead in ship construction, especially for the navy. The idea for a merger to combine these strengths started as far back as 1927. In 1929 talks led to an agreement for a financial merger between the companies. Shares in Wilton and shares in Fijenoord were exchanged for shares in a new united company: Dok- en Werf-Maatschappij Wilton-Fijenoord. The ratio between worth of Wilton and Fijenoord was 15.5 : 3.
Wilton's Dok- en Werf Maatschappij | Merger with Fijenoord
In 1852 the Leeds Northern Railway reached Stockton, made an alliance with the YN&BR's competitors and a price war broke out, the fare for between Leeds and Newcastle dropping to two shillings. T.E. Harrison, who had become General Manager and Engineer of the YN&BR, looked at merger with LNR and Y&NMR as the answer. Negotiations started first with his own board, where he was able to show the increased profit that amalgamation had brought to the YN&BR. With a proposal that the shares of the three companies remain separate, replaced by Berwick Capital Stock, York Capital Stock and Leeds Capital Stock, and dividends paid from pooled revenue, the agreement of the three boards was reached in November 1852.
York and North Midland Railway | North Eastern Railway
In June 1879, to the great consternation of the cities that had put up bonuses, the H&NW accepted a bid from the Northern to merge their operations into the new Northern and Northwestern Railway (N&NW). The H&NW's station on Walnut was abandoned in favour of the Northern's on St. Paul Street to the east, and plans for their own wharf and silo were abandoned. The Northern was at that time a Provincial gauge line, and directly connecting the two in Collingwood was not possible. The Northern lines were switched to Standard gauge in sections during 1881. In 1882 the Canadian Pacific Railway reached North Bay, some distance north of Barrie.
Hamilton and North-Western Railway | Merger with Northern
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
One of the major short run factors that sparked the Great Merger Movement was the desire to keep prices high. However, high prices attracted the entry of new firms into the industry. A major catalyst behind the Great Merger Movement was the Panic of 1893, which led to a major decline in demand for many homogeneous goods. For producers of homogeneous goods, when demand falls, these producers have more of an incentive to maintain output and cut prices, in order to spread out the high fixed costs these producers faced (i.e. lowering cost per unit) and the desire to exploit efficiencies of maximum volume production.
Mergers and acquisitions | Short-run factors
The Treaty of 1818 made the resources of the vast region were to be "free and open" to citizens from either nation. The treaty wasn't made to combine American and British interests against other colonial powers in the region. Rather, the document states that the joint occupancy of the Pacific Northwest was intended to "prevent disputes" between the two nations from arising. In the ensuing years, the North West Company would continue to expand its operations in the Pacific Northwest. Skirmishes with its major competitor, the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), had already flared into the Pemmican War. The end of the conflict in 1821 saw the NWC mandated by the British Government to merge into the HBC.
Fort Vancouver | Background
The five teams that cast a "no" ballot did so for different reasons. The Bruins were not pleased with the prospect of sharing New England with the Whalers, while the Canadiens were even less enamored with having to share the province of Quebec with the Nordiques. The Canadiens, Canucks, and Maple Leafs disliked the idea of having to split "Hockey Night in Canada" revenues six ways rather than three, while the Canucks and Kings feared the loss of dates with NHL teams from the east. Maple Leafs' owner Ballard had a personal grudge as well; he had never forgiven the WHA for plundering his roster in the early 1970s.
NHL–WHA merger | Final agreement
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
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
Discussions to consolidate the North Hudson fire departments began in the early 1980s. The North Hudson Regional Fire and Rescue (NHRFR) was established on January 11, 1999. The former fire departments of North Bergen, Union City, Weehawken, West New York, and Guttenberg were merged to provide a safer, more efficient fire department. A buyout was offered by the State giving any members with at least 20 years of service up to an additional five years towards their 25-year required time for retirement. Through this attrition the department was able to pare down the number of personnel in the newly formed department.
North Hudson Regional Fire and Rescue | History
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
The relationship between the Naskapi and the Hudson’s Bay Company was not an easy one. It was difficult for the Naskapi to integrate commercial trapping, especially of marten in Winter, into their seasonal round of subsistence activities, for the simple reason that the distribution of marten was in large measure different from the distribution of essential sources of food at that season. In consequence, the Naskapi did not prove to be the regular and diligent trappers that the traders must have hoped to find, and the traders seem to have attributed this fact to laziness or intransigence on the part of Naskapi.
Naskapi | Post-European contact
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
Several companies founded in the early 20th century had ceased to exist by the end of the 1990s, due to mergers.
Merger mania | Introduction
In the long run, due to desire to keep costs low, it was advantageous for firms to merge and reduce their transportation costs thus producing and transporting from one location rather than various sites of different companies as in the past. Low transport costs, coupled with economies of scale also increased firm size by two- to fourfold during the second half of the nineteenth century. In addition, technological changes prior to the merger movement within companies increased the efficient size of plants with capital intensive assembly lines allowing for economies of scale. Thus improved technology and transportation were forerunners to the Great Merger Movement.
Mergers and acquisitions | Long-run factors
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 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
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
Lawrence River. Due to Upper Canada's considerable debt and chronic budget shortfalls, it was hoped that its finances could be salvaged by merging it with the then-solvent Lower Canada. Upper Canada, with its British and Protestant majority, was growing more rapidly than Lower Canada, with the French-Canadian and Catholic majority. It was hoped that by merging the two colonies, the French-Canadian cultural presence in North America would gradually disappear through assimilation. As such, the "Act" also contained measures banning the French language from official use in the Legislative Assembly. However, despite the amalgamation, the distinct legal systems of the two colonies were retained with Upper Canada becoming referred to as Canada West (with English common law) and Lower Canada as Canada East (with French civil law).
Act of Union 1840 | History
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
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
Many market commentators felt that the savings brought about by cost cutting and elimination of duplicated departments across the company were far outweighed by large drops in audience and advertising revenue across the newly formed group. Over the following months, amid rumours of a GWR putsch and continuing dissatisfaction from the City, a stream of executives from the former Capital Radio Group side of the business left the company, including David Mansfield himself.
GCap Media | GCap – The merged company
In 1933 White Star and Cunard were both in serious financial difficulties because of the Great Depression, falling passenger numbers and the advanced age of their fleets. Work was halted on Cunard's new giant, Hull 534 (later the "Queen Mary") in 1931 to save money. In 1933 the British government agreed to provide assistance to the two competitors on the condition that they merge their North Atlantic operations. The agreement was completed on 30 December 1933. The merger took place on 10 May 1934, creating Cunard-White Star Limited. White Star contributed ten ships to the new company while Cunard contributed 15 ships.
White Star Line | Cunard merger
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
The Hudson's Bay Company attempted to operate Simpsons as a more-upscale nameplate than its main brand, The Bay, but was unsuccessful. The chain's operations were merged with The Bay in 1989 in the Montreal area and 1991 in the rest of the country, and the Simpsons name was retired after a retail presence of almost 120 years. Reasons for the Hudson's Bay Company's decision were the recession and the fact that it rarely made profits with the Simpsons stores ever since the acquisition in the late 1970s. According to a financial analyst, Simpsons struggled to stand out from The Bay.
Simpsons (department store) | The End
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
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
In 1821 the Northwest Fur Company and their employees merged with the Hudson's Bay Company. Antoine Godin was probably born prior to 1810, as he is mentioned in the 1825 journal of Hudson's Bay officer Peter Skene Ogden in the northern Rocky Mountains. At this time, Thyery Godin had already left his British employer to join American fur trappers at the urging of Johnson Gardner, an associate of William H. Ashley. The Americans promised those who defected from the British higher prices for their furs as well as lower charges for goods and supplies. This campaign resulted in twenty-three Iroquois and Canadian freeman, and their fur caches, joining the Americans.
Antoine Godin | 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
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
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 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
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
The voyageurs had no time to hunt and it was difficult to haul food from Montreal. Rainy Lake produced wild rice and fish. The fort also built kegs and canoes. With the growth of pemmican production around Lake Winnipeg its importance as a food source diminished. It declined further when the two companies merged and trade shifted from Montreal to Hudson Bay. In 1792 two men were killed while out fishing. Around 1795 John McKay (fur trader) of the Hudson's Bay Company had a rival post nearby. With the merger of the two firms in 1821 it was taken over by the Hudson's Bay Company.
Fort Lac la Pluie | Introduction
In 1990 the value was only 3% and from 1998 to 2000 it was around 10–11% of GDP. Companies such as DuPont, U.S. Steel, and General Electric that merged during the Great Merger Movement were able to keep their dominance in their respective sectors through 1929, and in some cases today, due to growing technological advances of their products, patents, and brand recognition by their customers. There were also other companies that held the greatest market share in 1905 but at the same time did not have the competitive advantages of the companies like DuPont and General Electric. These companies such as International Paper and American Chicle saw their market share decrease significantly by 1929 as smaller competitors joined forces with each other and provided much more competition.
Mergers and acquisitions | The Great Merger Movement: 1895–1905
Although Simpsons was slightly higher end than The Bay, the distinction was hardly noticeable to the average shopper. The Hudson's Bay Company came to the conclusion that it would be better to rationalize its operations than to divide its customer base. Nick Gaitan, Vice-president of Sales for the Hudson's Bay Company, had previously remarked that except for downtown locations, that had certain differences, the merchandise was basically the same in the two chains. Finally, the demise of Simpsons came at a time when the Hudson's Bay Company was seriously controlling its operating costs in preparation of an eventual entrance to Canada by American giant Wal-Mart which was already conquering the retail landscape in its country and attracting Canadians living close to the border.
Simpsons (department store) | The End
Renaming Fort Astoria as Fort George, the NWC developed an overland supply route from there to its inland depot at Fort William on Lake Superior. In the ensuing years, the NWC continued to expand its operations in the Pacific Northwest. Skirmishes with its major competitor, the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), had already flared into the Pemmican War. The conflict ended in 1821 when the British Government pressured the NWC to merge with the HBC.
York Factory Express | NWC
During 1821, the British Government ordered the NWC to be merged in their long time rivals, the Hudson's Bay Company. In a short time the HBC controlled the majority of the fur trade across the Pacific Northwest. This was done in a manner that "the Americans were forced to acknowledge that Astor's dream" of a multi-continent economic web "had been realized... by his enterprising and far-sighted competitors." The PFC held additional influence on the region in some particular and subtle ways. The book Astoria was written by Washington Irving in 1836, after interviewing some men connected to the venture and consulting documents held by Astor.
Pacific Fur Company | Legacy
On 29 July 2013, Hudson's Bay Company announced that it would buy Saks, Inc., operator of the U.S. Saks Fifth Avenue brand, for US$2.9 billion, or $16 per share. The merger was completed on 3 November 2013. The company also stated that as a result of the purchase, Canadian consumers would see Saks stores arriving in their country soon. After the purchase was finalized, HBC had a net loss of $124.2 million in the 2013 3Q due to the cost of the purchase and promotions. In late February 2019, HBC announced that it would close 20 of the 133 Saks stores and that all of the remaining locations would be "subject to review".
Hudson's Bay Company | Purchase of Saks, Inc
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
This would be the first European agricultural colony on the northern great plains. The presence of the Selkirk Settlement, which saw much of the open land along the Red and Assiniboine Rivers converted to agricultural uses, added to the growing hostilities between the two main fur trading companies, the Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company. In the 1810s, the two companies fought fiercely for control of the fur trade in the area, and each destroyed some of the other's forts over the course of several violent skirmishes. In 1821, rivalry between the two companies ended with a forced merger, under the Hudson's Bay name.
History of Winnipeg | Early settlement
Fort Astoria was renamed Fort George. When Astor tried to regain the post, the British insisted their takeover was a business deal, not an act of war. Astor lost his investment. Some years after the war, U.S. diplomats interpreted the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the war, as including the return of the fur trade post. Although returned to American ownership, the site of Fort Astoria was not reoccupied for many years. The North West Company built a new Fort George adjacent to the old one. In 1821 the North West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company were merged by an act of Parliament with the name of the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) retained for the combined entity.
Oregon pioneer history | Fur trade
In 1904 the North American Trust Company merged into the Trust Company of America. At the time, Oakleigh Thorne was president of the North American Trust Company. On April 12, 1905, it was reported that the City Trust, the North American Trust, and the Trust Company of America were merging in the near future, in what the "Times" called "the most important trust company consolidation of recent years." It was announced the new company would be named the Trust Company of America, with capital of $2 million, a surplus of $9 million, and deposits over $50 million, "putting it among the strongest trust companies in New York." Thorne, then president of the North American Trust Company, was announced as the architect of the merger.
Trust Company of America | 1904-1905: Merger
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 1998, the Bank of Montreal proposed a merger with the Royal Bank of Canada around the same time that CIBC proposed to combine with the Toronto-Dominion Bank. The banks argued that these mergers would enable them to compete globally with other financial institutions. This would have left Canada with only three major national banks. The mergers were reviewed by the Competition Bureau of Canada, which declared that negative effects (such as higher user fees and local branch closures) from the mergers would far outweigh the benefits of allowing the mergers. Ultimately, it was then Finance Minister Paul Martin who rejected both proposed mergers.
Big Five (banks) | Proposed mergers
Another defence might be that a firm which is being taken over is about to fail or go insolvent, and taking it over leaves a no less competitive state than what would happen anyway. This was the case when the Commission considered the proposed acquisition of Shell's Harburg refinery by Nynas in "Nynas/Shell/Harburg Refinery" and it accepted that the likely result of the merger not going ahead would be the closure of the refinery, thus the acquisition was allowed. Mergers vertically in the market are rarely of concern, although in "AOL/Time Warner" the European Commission required that a joint venture with a competitor Bertelsmann be ceased beforehand.
European Union merger law | Exceptions
The North Eastern Railway (NER) was formed in 1854, following the downfall and disgrace of George Hudson due to his financial dealings. An act of Parliament of 1854 sanctioned the amalgamation of the York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway, Leeds Northern Railway, York and North Midland and other lines into a new company with a railway network of over . The H&S initially opposed the merger, wishing to retain the favourable terms of the lease obtained from the Y&NMR under Hudson; the final act included clauses protecting their interests. The issue of the lease payments originally agreed with the Y&NMR and the M&LR led to a chancery suit being brought by the H&S the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (successor to the Manchester and Leeds company) made an agreement with the H&S to retain their Hull traffic on the H&S Line, and the directors of the NER agreed to undertake the lease alone, resulting in the H&S terminating their suit.
Hull and Selby Railway | North Eastern Railway period (1854–1923)