Evolution of the Fur Trade

1
Evolution of the Fur Trade
2
What was the Timeline?

• 1670 The Hudsons Bay
• Company is founded.
• 1778 Capt. James Cook
• recognizes the value of
• Pacific Northwest furs

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• 1784 The Northwest Fur
• Company splits from the
• HBCo.
• 1786 to 1789 John Meares
• (British naval officer and trader)
• conducts fur trade with the
• Orient.
• 1804 to 1806 Lewis Clark
• recognize the beaver as a
• resource.

4

• 1810 John Jacob Astor, founder
• of the Pacific Fur Company,
• sends two expeditions to the
• Pacific Northwest.
• 1813 The Pacific Fur Company
• sells out to the Northwest Fur
• Co.
• 1821 Northwest Fur C. and HBCo.
• Merge (and become one
• company again).

5
Where were the Fur Markets?

• The three main markets for furs were
• The Eastern United States
• Europe
• Northern China

6
How did this effect the Pacific Northwest?

• From 1800 to 1840 became known as the Great
  American Fur Rush
• From 1780 to 1840 Beaver pelts were in great
  demand
• The interior commerce in the Pacific Northwest
  thrived on the fur trade.

7
Who benefited from the Fur Trade?

• Native Americans
• Fur Trappers
• Fur Traders
• Merchant men
• Organizers
• Financiers

8
What Fur Companies were there?

• The Pacific Fur Company
• The Northwest Fur Company
• The Hudsons Bay Company
• The Rocky Mountain Fur Company

9
The Pacific Fur Company

• Founded by a German immigrant (John Jacob Astor)
• Sent two expeditions to the Pacific Northwest to
  open a fur trading business
• The first traveled by ship (Tonquin) under the
  command of Duncan McDonald to the mouth of the
  Columbia River

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• The second traveled overland under the command of
  Wilson Price Hund and Donald MacKenzie
• They departed St. Louis in September 1810, and
  arrive in January 1812
• Both expeditions are a disaster, and Astor
  finally sells out to the Pacific Fur Company
  (late during the war of 1812)

11
The Northwest Fur Company

• A newly formed British Company that controlled
  the fur trade west of the Canadian Rockies
• Was formed by merging several smaller independent
  fur trading groups in 1784
• Mainly consisted of men who had split (left) the
  HBCo.

12
The Rocky Mountain Fur Company

• Formed in 1823 by Maj. Andrew Henry and Gen.
  William Ashley
• Both Henry and Ashley sell out their interests in
  1826 to Jedediah Smith, William Sublette and
  David Jackson
• The members of this new company in 1826 consists
  of mountain men who are hardy and very
  independent

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• Some of the members are
• Jim Bridger
• Benjamin Bonneville
• Jeremiah Johnson
• The Sublette brothers
• The mountain men were responsible for the
  establishment of the Oregon Trail
• They also discovered and named physical features
  (and mountain passes) on the trails

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• These men are credited with finding, exploring
  and mapping the future wagon and trade routes
  west.
• Their contribution, while not the most successful
  financial business, was priceless when you count
  the contributions to the development and opening
  of the western frontier.

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So, How did the Fur Trade work?

• There was an annual rendezvous where the fur
  trapper and the trader met
• This event was usually moved from site to site
  each year
• Most were held in what is today the Green River
  valley of Wyoming.

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• Traders brought trade items like
• Blankets
• Coffee
• Sugar
• Guns
• Gunpowder
• Lead
• Trinkets
• Cloth

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• Trappers would bring their years accumulation of
  beaver and other animal pelts.
• The trapper and the trader would bargain and
  ultimately arrive at an agreed price for the
  furs.
• The price could be money (credit), or goods, or a
  combination of both

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• Many trappers also brought their wives (Native
  American) to the rendezvous
• Some trappers were known to have spent their
  entire years earnings on clothing and trinkets
  for their wife
• The rendezvous was also the mountain mans social
  event of the year

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• There was
• Horse racing
• Dances
• Drinking
• Fighting
• Some trappers survived a year in the wilderness,
  but did not survive the rendezvous

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• The last fur trade rendezvous was held in 1840
• By this time the fur trade had collapsed
• Why do you think it collapsed?
• The fur trappers trade made have been finished,
  but their trails became the roads that thousands
  of emigrants would use to come West.