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Canada and the Hudson Bay Company

            The Hudson's Bay Company was one of the most influential and largest companies in the world. It contributed greatly to the physical, economic, and political development of Canada. The company expanded from the Artic shores to the docks of San Francisco and westward all the way to Hawaii. Much of modern day Canada is a result of the Hudson's Bay Company. The company traders kept the American colonist from pushing north. In addition, the company's sale of company territory to Canada let the country fill their northern and western boundaries. As a result of this sale three of the Hudson's Bay Company's former trading posts became provincial capitals Fort Garry in Winnipeg, Fort Edmonton, and Fort Victoria. It was the desire of the beaver pelts that drew the traders from the Hudson Bay and the St. Lawrence towards the Rocky Mountains and to the shores of the Pacific. The hunt of the beaver turned into the pursuit of a nation. "As the modern explorer Eric W. Morse noted in his classic study of the fur trade canoe routes: "the beaver, by its defencelessness, no less than by its value, was responsible for unrolling the map of Canada. The company's workers also introduced to Canadian settlers the art of sheep farming and the value of dandelions, which were previously imports to the country. The settlers learned from the company's traders that sheep could be very valuable as food and the dandelions were very valuable when made into wine. .
             Since they were living and working in the Hudson Bay area the tradesmen had to endure the weather conditions that went with the territory. The tradesmen had to endure winters that were so cold that by the end of October the snow was twelve feet deep and the men had to use axes to hack ice off the inside walls of the Factor's house. Astronomer William Wales in late January carried "a half-pint of brandy into the open air, and in less than two minutes it was as thick as treacle; in about five it had a very strong ice on the top; and in an hour's time he believed that it would have been nearly solid.


Essays Related to Canada and the Hudson Bay Company

1. The Canadian Fur Trade Rivalry - 1790-1821

... , the British government passed the Act of Regulating the Fur Trade and Establishing a Criminal and Civil Jurisdiction Within Certain Parts of North America, which recognized the validity of the Charter and gave the new company a commercial monopoly of trade of all the land not specifically covered by the Charter. A large part of the North West Company's success against the long-standing Hudson's Bay Company was their ability to adapt to the environment and the people who lived in the Plains of Canada. Additionally, the ... NWC was not restricted to trade with a specific country and were...

  • Word Count: 4195
  • Approx Pages: 17
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

2. Exploration and Colonization

... in St-Malo, France. He made three voyages of exploration to North America (1534--42), surveying the coast of Canada and the St Lawrence R, and providing the basis for later French claims in the area. Sieur de la Salle was a French explorer to the New World. He arrived in Canada in the mid-1600s and earned a reputation as a successful fur trader. Like many explorers of his day, La Salle hoped to ... -day New York that were later named for him-the Hudson river, Hudson bay, and Hudson strait. 1611- The Dutch claimed the region along these waterways. They established a fur trade with the Iro...

  • Word Count: 1691
  • Approx Pages: 7
  • Grade Level: High School

3. The use of sweatshops by Fashion Industry

... for all factoriesproducing her line of clothes. Hudson Bay In 1996, the Canadian Friends of Burma released a report titled "Dirty Clothes: Dirty System," which condemned major Canadian retailers, including the Hudson's Bay Company, for sourcing from Burma. Since the report was published, the Hudson Bay has announced that it would stop sourcing from Burma. Recently released Industry Canada statistics show that between 1996 and 1998, the total value of apparel imported from Burma increased ... from about $5,700,000 to $9,400,000. In Canada, Wal-Mart Canada continues to sell apparel made i...

  • Word Count: 2117
  • Approx Pages: 8
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

4. History of the Canadian Metis

... . Many Metis families settled near the Great Lakes and western Canadian lakes since water was important for the fur trade. Throughout the years, the Metis have contributed greatly to North America's economic growth acting as fur trade entrepreneurs, hunters, trappers, guides, interpreters, cattlemen and artists. When the Europeans arrived in Canada, they took advantage of the Metis skills of the outdoors. The Hudson Bay Company hired them as guides and interpreters but paid them very ... little in exchange. Since the Natives had survived in Canada's harsh environment for thousands of yea...

  • Word Count: 1519
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Has Bibliography

5. The British Empire

... were also settlements in the Bermudas, Honduras, Antigua, Barbados, and Nova Scotia. More conquests followed. Jamaica was conquered in 1655, and the Hudson's Bay Company established itself, in what became northwest Canada, from the 1670's and on. Many territories became British through the extension of companies" activities. For example, Penang, Singapore, Malacca, and Labuan, became British colonies with the help of the Straits Settlement and the East India Company. The first permanent British settlement on the African continent was ... established on James Island, in the Gambia River,...

  • Word Count: 1396
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Grade Level: High School

6. red river and northwest rebell

... opinion to change from then on. The Metis were increasingly threatend by the Hudson's Bay Company monopoly of the fur trade. That, coupled with the fact that the number of buffalo were steadily declining, lead the Metis to eventually rebel. By the mid 19th century, cultural conflicts between the Metis and the Euro-Canadians were increasing. Presbyterian Scot's Settlers language and culture were in the minority as compared to the Metis population of French-speaking Roman ... Catholics. This contributed to a serious clash of interests in the region of Central Canada. The number of buffalo...

  • Word Count: 398
  • Approx Pages: 2

7. Modern Canada

... ." Because enforcing mercantilist policies often meant denying the expressed interests of the colonists, the defense of imperial interests required an authoritative governor. Even the outbreak of rebellion in Upper and Lower Canada in 1837 did not change British policy. The grievances by both Upper and Lower Canada could be summed up as a reaction to the entrenched privileges of the few and the increasing discontent of the many. The British response to this was to dispatch ... comprised of four provinces: Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario and Quebec. Provision were made for the subsequ...

  • Word Count: 3069
  • Approx Pages: 12
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

8. Mercenaries and Private Military Companies

... other forms of similar violence by non state actors: the corsairs and the colonial merchant companies, such as the East India Company or the Hudson Bay Company. At the threshold of the XXI century we are witnessing a similar phenomenon. Although mercenaries have not completely disappeared "private military and security companies" (PMSC), in the course of the past 20 years, have increasingly taken over the traditional activities carried out by mercenaries before1. Contrary to ... , Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Seychelles, Suriname, Togo, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uruguay and Uzbekistan24. As it ca...

  • Word Count: 9871
  • Approx Pages: 39
  • Grade Level: Graduate

9. Canadian Confederation

... key roles in the formation of Canada. To fully understand the entrance of the confederation, these issues must be looked at in detail prior to 1867 and after. Many years after the Treaty of Paris, in 1791, London administered the Constitutional Act that divided Quebec into Upper and Lower Canada, " with the dividing line running from a little west of Montreal Island to Ottawa and up to Hudson's Bay Company territory- . Within the Act London appointed ... a lieutenant governor, executive council, legislative council, and a house of assembly, in every province. Upper Canada consisted of m...

  • Word Count: 2079
  • Approx Pages: 8
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

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