Our mandate is the preservation of Hudson’s Bay Company’s history, through education, access to information, and the ongoing care and maintenance of the company’s historical Corporate Collection.
With a heritage rooted in colonialism, we acknowledge that history and have a responsibility to reconcile with Indigenous Peoples and communities. Our work endeavours to acknowledge, include, and honour Indigenous contributions, voices, and perspectives.
Beaver pelts were in the greatest demand, but other animals such as mink
mink
Mink are dark-colored, semiaquatic, carnivorous mammals of the genera Neogale and Mustela and part of the family Mustelidae, which also includes weasels, otters, and ferrets. There are two extant species referred to as "mink": the American mink and the European mink.
The sable (Martes zibellina) is a species of marten, a small omnivorous mammal primarily inhabiting the forest environments of Russia, from the Ural Mountains throughout Siberia, and northern Mongolia. Its habitat also borders eastern Kazakhstan, China, North Korea and Hokkaido, Japan.
A marten is a weasel-like mammal in the genus Martes within the subfamily Guloninae, in the family Mustelidae. They have bushy tails and large paws with partially retractile claws. The fur varies from yellowish to dark brown, depending on the species; it is valued by animal trappers for the fur trade.
were also trapped. In the 1830s, when beaver lost its value as a staple fur, HBC maintained a profitable trade emphasizing fancy fur. Although the fur trade continues today, HBC is no longer in the fur business.
For its first century of operation, a similar exchange happened at HBC forts and posts on an annual basis. Furs were traded for manufactured goods such as knives, kettles, beads, needles, and blankets. By the late 18th century, competition forced HBC to expand into the interior of the continent.
The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), chartered 2 May 1670, is the oldest incorporated joint-stock merchandising company in the English-speaking world. HBC was a fur trading business for most of its history, a past that is entwined with the colonization of British North America and the development of Canada.
In 1987, HBC sold off its Northern Store Division, which was the home of the fur trade business. By so doing, HBC ceased purchasing raw fur. In 2020, the Company made the decision to stop selling real fur products, and was officially fur-free by March 2021. One of my ancestors used to work for HBC.
The first pelts in demand were beaver and sea otter, as well as occasionally deer, bear, ermine and skunk. Fur robes were blankets of sewn-together, native-tanned, beaver pelts.
The fur trade was both very good and very bad for American Indians who participated in the trade. The fur trade gave Indians steady and reliable access to manufactured goods, but the trade also forced them into dependency on European Americans and created an epidemic of alcoholism.
As the trappers would sell and exchange these blankets, the thin black lines running along the side became a shorthand so that during the sale they could size the blankets without having to unfurl them. Three and half lines meant twin sized, four lines indicated double, six lines was a queen, and so on.
Over trapping of fur-bearing animals hurt the fur trade in the Western United States and Western Canada. In addition, the value of beaver fur dropped sharply in the 1830's, when European hat manufacturers began to use silk instead of felt. By 1870, most fur-trading activity had ended.
In the United States, California became the first US state to ban the sale of fur in 2019 (the ban came into effect in January 2023) following similar bans in cities including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Berkeley and West Hollywood.
Beaver fur had special qualities that made it well suited to hat making and thus it was in high demand. Broad-brimmed beaver felt hats became fashionable in Europe in the 16th century.
Back in the day, the middle 1800s, a beaver pelt was worth two bucks to the trapper from the buyers at the Hudson Bay Company. The price at one of the “rendezvous” was somewhat less. That was double the wages of a normal day's work at that time. Beaver hides were bought by the pound in New York and London.
Roughly 100 million of these animals are killed every year for their fur, to be used in coats, shoes, and accessories; about half are killed for fur trim alone. Confining these naturally active and curious animals in such conditions has severe physical and mental health effects.
However, these profits began to diminish in 1821 when HBC and the NWC merged, operating as a new entity under the retained HBC name. HBC's new-found monopoly on the fur trade meant lower fur prices.
The fur trade was a vast commercial enterprise across the wild, forested expanse of what is now Canada. It was at its peak for nearly 250 years, from the early 17th to the mid-19th centuries. It was sustained primarily by the trapping of beavers to satisfy the European demand for felt hats.
Crucial Role. The bay played a crucial role in the early development of Canada after it was realized that it provided a direct route to the fur resources of the North-West. In 1668 Médard des Groseilliers, in the service of the English, sailed into the bay and built a small post at the mouth of the Rivière de Rupert.
HBC needed something that was recognized by the Indigenous population as a basic value, and by 1748, beaver pelts were the recognized “Standard of Trade.” Trade goods, as well as all other furs, were evaluated against one beaver pelt in prime condition, referred to as a Made Beaver (MB).
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