scholarly journals Bay Days: The Managerial Revolutions and the Hudson’s Bay Company Department Stores, 1912‑1939

2006 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 173-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Monod
Keyword(s):  
Business History ◽  
Scientific Management ◽  
American Business ◽  
Department Stores ◽  
Hudson's Bay Company ◽  
Large Measure ◽  
History Of ◽  
Business Structures ◽  
Marketing Methods ◽  
Hudson’S Bay Company

Abstract North American business history has long been dominated by a belief in the centrality of entrepreneurial innovation to corporate success. This paper looks at the history of the Hudson's Bay Company Stores Department and attempts to explain from within the traditional business-history framework the company's prolonged inability to create a profitable chain of department stores in Western Canada. During the interwar years the HBC was highly competitive in its marketing methods and up-to-date in its business structure. Indeed, the company's failure seems to have stemmed in large measure from these very factors, from its excessive reliance upon scientific management formulas and organizational theories. It was only during the Depression that the Bay was able to recoup its losses by moving away from the professional orthodoxies of the twenties, returning to older business structures, and deciding on a more consumer-oriented approach.

Industrial Experiments in the Wilderness: A Sidelight in the Business History of the Hudson's Bay Company

1958 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 423-433
Author(s):  
Alvin C. Gluek
Keyword(s):  
Fur Trade ◽  
Business History ◽  
Trial And Error ◽  
American Continent ◽  
Hudson's Bay Company ◽  
North American Continent ◽  
The North ◽  
Industrial Experiments ◽  
History Of ◽  
Hudson’S Bay Company

Development of the North American continent was a halting process, characterized by use and misuse of latent opportunities. The Hudson's Bay Company, giant in fur trade and northern exploration, proved by trial and error experiments that abundant natural assets were not in themselves the magic key to wealth.

INTERNAL AUDIT AT THE HISTORICAL HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY: A CHALLENGE TO ACCEPTED HISTORY

2001 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary Spraakman
Keyword(s):  
Board Of Directors ◽  
Internal Audit ◽  
Senior Manager ◽  
Retail Operations ◽  
Hudson's Bay Company ◽  
Internal Auditor ◽  
Additional Information ◽  
History Of ◽  
Stage Development ◽  
Hudson’S Bay Company

The accepted history of managerial internal audit is that its origins are in financial and compliance auditing. Managerial was added after firms started to expand geographically or into other businesses. That expansion increased complexity and created problems for managers which the internal auditor assisted in solving with managerial audits. Contrary to that two stage development, something comparable to managerial internal audit was being practiced by the Hudson's Bay Company in the form of inspections as early as 1871. Rather than in financial and compliance auditing, these inspections had their geneses in the desire of the senior manager and the committee (board of directors) for additional information on the fur trade and retail operations. This paper will describe the inspection function at the historical Hudson's Bay Company, the circumstances leading to the development of this function, and how it complemented other controls.

On the Hundredth Anniversary of the Commercial & Financial Chronicle

1939 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 66-72
Keyword(s):  
Special Interest ◽  
Business History ◽  
American Business ◽  
Hundredth Anniversary ◽  
History Of

During the present year has occurred an anniversary of special interest in the history of American business and to the student of business history.

The History of the Hudson's Bay Company

Polar Record ◽  
1935 ◽  
Vol 2 (9) ◽  
pp. 54-60
Keyword(s):  
Fur Trade ◽  
Hudson Bay ◽  
Hudson's Bay Company ◽  
History Of ◽  
Charles Ii ◽  
Privy Councillor ◽  
Hudson’S Bay Company

Early in the reign of Charles II two Frenchmen—Radisson and Groseilliers—were unsuccessful in eliciting interest in their own country in a scheme for establishing a fur trade with Hudson Bay, whither they had penetrated a few years previously. They consequently made their way to Boston, where they met Sir George Carteret, Privy Councillor to Charles II, Vice-Chamberlain of the Household, Treasurer of the Navy, then on a commission to Massachusetts. Sir George took them with him to England and introduced them to the King and Prince Rupert, who were much interested in their scheme. Action was delayed temporarily owing to the war with Holland and because the command of the sea was held by the Dutch, but meanwhile Radisson and Groseilliers were housed in Windsor at the expense of the King.

Shoes, Canoes, and Lives in Unexpected Archives: Searching in Fur Trade Ledgers beyond the Hudson’s Bay Company Archives

2016 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stacy Nation-Knapper
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
North American ◽  
Fur Trade ◽  
Economic Data ◽  
Hudson's Bay Company ◽  
Cultural Information ◽  
The North ◽  
History Of ◽  
Hudson’S Bay Company

This article illuminates the existence and utility of fur trade ledgers and account books held in repositories beyond those held in the Hudson’s Bay Company Archives. While the vast holdings of the HBCA are a phenomenal resource for researchers of the North American fur trade, many smaller repositories across the continent hold fur trade sources that can complement research conducted in other institutions. Such sources can, when examined with an eye to the cultural information they contain, reveal far more about the cultural history of North America than simply the economic data for which they were created.

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