scholarly journals From Rupert’s Land to Canada West: Hudson’s Bay Company Families and Representations of Indigeneity in Small-Town Ontario, 1840–1980

2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-97
Author(s):  
Krista Barclay
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Small Town ◽  
Fur Trade ◽  
Indigenous Women ◽  
Historical Narratives ◽  
Hudson's Bay Company ◽  
Trading Posts ◽  
Rupert's Land ◽  
Hudson’S Bay Company ◽  
Canada West

By the mid-nineteenth century, Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) officers were retiring in greater numbers with their Indigenous families outside Rupert’s Land. Much work has been done to uncover the experiences of fur trade families who remained at HBC trading posts or settled in what became the American and Canadian Wests, but there has been little research on those families who left for Britain or colonial Canada. In Canada West, the racial and gendered terrains of their new home communities were complex ones for Indigenous women and their children to navigate. They played roles in both the reification and subversion of racial and gendered imperial hierarchies, and thus came to occupy unexpected and even contradictory positions in family and local historical narratives.

Discouraging the Use of a Common Resource: The Crees of Saskatchewan

1981 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 163-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann Harper-Fender
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Fur Trade ◽  
Economic Life ◽  
Economic Study ◽  
Hudson's Bay Company ◽  
Economic Adjustment ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
Common Resource ◽  
Fur Traders ◽  
Hudson’S Bay Company

The Crees of Saskatchewan adjusted their economic life in reaction to their long and interdependent relationship with European fur traders. For the period from the late eighteenth through the mid-nineteenth century, this paper examines one aspect of the Crees' economic adjustment to the fur trade, the limiting of access to the land and its resources to conserve the fragile supply of furbearmg animals. Hudson's Bay Company documents and studies by anthropologists provide the basis for this economic study.

Trapped?

2021 ◽  
Vol 90 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Ashley Riley Sousa
Keyword(s):  
North American ◽  
Fur Trade ◽  
San Jose ◽  
Hudson's Bay Company ◽  
Trade Network ◽  
Central California ◽  
The North ◽  
White Settlers ◽  
Hudson’S Bay Company

This article re-evaluates the nature of Indigenous labor at Central California’s New Helvetia colony. The fur trade in Central California was not simply a vehicle for settler exploitation of Indigenous labor but a dynamic trade network shaped by Plains Miwok– and Valley Nisenan–speaking trappers and traders, Mission San José, the Hudson’s Bay Company, and white settlers. Analysis of the financial aspects of trade for the Indigenous trappers and ethnohistorical examination of their motives for engaging in the trade suggest that the fur trade was not a source of degradation and dependency, but a vehicle by which they creatively and purposefully engaged colonial forces and markets. This article orients the histories of Plains Miwok– and Valley Nisenan–speaking communities into the larger story of the North American fur trade and suggests New Helvetia and its fur trade can be better understood as what historian Lisbeth Haas calls “Indigenous colonial” creations.

A Critique of Milgrom and Roberts' Treatment of Incentives vs. Bureaucratic Controls in the British North American Fur Trade

2002 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary P. Spraakman
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
North American ◽  
Fur Trade ◽  
Profit Sharing ◽  
Hudson's Bay Company ◽  
Senior Managers ◽  
North West ◽  
Organization And Management ◽  
British North American ◽  
Hudson’S Bay Company

In their 1992 textbook, Economics, Organization and Management, Milgrom and Roberts used 19th century fur trading companies as examples of effective (the incentive-based North West Company) and ineffective (the bureaucratic-based Hudson's Bay Company) organizations. Findings from detailed examinations of both companies' archives suggest that Milgrom and Roberts were not completely accurate in their depictions of the two companies' incentives and bureaucratic controls. In response to complexities of intercontinental trade, both companies used bureaucratic controls for coordination as well as profit sharing to motivate senior managers. More generally, the findings raise questions about Milgrom and Roberts' relatively negative conclusions concerning the effectiveness of bureaucratic controls.

Chronological list of expeditions and historical events in northern Canada. V. 1790–1821

Polar Record ◽  
1971 ◽  
Vol 15 (99) ◽  
pp. 893-920
Author(s):  
Alan Cooke ◽  
Clive Holland
Keyword(s):  
Hudson Bay ◽  
Hudson's Bay Company ◽  
Historical Events ◽  
New Techniques ◽  
Northern Canada ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
Rupert's Land ◽  
New Policies ◽  
Hudson’S Bay Company

During the period covered by this instalment of our list, the accomplishments of the North West Company, both in geographical exploration and in the realization of profits were great. It consolidated its position in the fur-rich Athabasca district and, with a few posts along Mackenzie River, began to draw in the furs of that immense territory. Its traders invaded not only the western part of Rupert's Land but even Hudson Bay itself. The Hudson's Bay Company rose only slowly to the challenge of its formidable rival, but, gradually, it began to adopt new policies and new techniques and to meet the North West Company on its own grounds and on its own terms. Finally, after a bitter struggle that was almost the destruction of both companies, the Hudson's Bay Company, in 1821, effectively absorbed the North West Company in a coalition that gave the older company greater strength than ever and a wider monopoly than Prince Rupert had thought of.

Before the Medicine Line

2017 ◽  
Vol 86 (3) ◽  
pp. 381-406
Author(s):  
Ryan Hall
Keyword(s):  
Fur Trade ◽  
Missouri River ◽  
Canadian History ◽  
Hudson's Bay Company ◽  
Indian People ◽  
Hudson’S Bay Company

This article argues that Blackfoot people played a central role in the emergence of the northwest plains as a vibrant borderland between British and U.S. fur trade empires. When the British Hudson’s Bay Company monopolized the northern fur trade in 1821, Blackfoot traders abandoned their previous opposition to American expansion and deliberately encouraged U.S. trading companies to expand onto the Upper Missouri River. In so doing, the Blackfeet forced fur trading companies to compete for their favor and gained crucial economic and political advantages over their neighbors. This episode reveals the centrality of indigenous agency to early western geography, sheds new light on the ways Indian people understood and created borderlands relationships, and underscores the importance of linking early U.S. and Canadian history.

‘The faithfulness of our dealings’: the correspondence between George Simpson and Ferdinand von Wrangell, 1838–48

Polar Record ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 38 (207) ◽  
pp. 329-340
Author(s):  
Ian R. Stone
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Cultural Environment ◽  
Mutual Trust ◽  
Hudson's Bay Company ◽  
Personal Relations ◽  
Economics And Politics ◽  
Hudson’S Bay Company ◽  
Business Methods

AbstractBy an agreement in 1839, the Hudson's Bay Company and the Russian American Company established a framework for co-operation in their activities in Alaska and adjacent areas of Canada that lasted until the 1860s. The signatories to the agreement were George Simpson and Ferdinand von Wrangell. These men were prominent in the management of the co-operation and this was facilitated by their mutual trust and friendship. An examination of their correspondence affords insights into business methods in a cross-cultural environment in the mid-nineteenth century, and into the extent to which their personal relations influenced major decisions in economics and politics with regard to the areas of activity of both companies.

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