1. Includes events from chapter 8
Ch. 9 Timeline of Events
Includes events from chapter 8

2. The Northwest Company (NWC) was born
The Seven Years War was officially over – Britain won the war and New France became a British possession
Settlers came over to New France and the fur trade was already under way
The Northwest Company (NWC) was born
1663
1670
1755
1763
1783
7 Years War Began
New France became
a Royal Colony
Rupert’s land was claimed (the area of land surrounding the Hudson’s Bay) & the Hudson’s Bay Company was born
At this same time, the French Fur Trade posts were taken over by the Scottish and American entrepreneurs
These Scottish & American entrepreneurs came together to form the NWC

3. The Fur Trading Business
between the…
HBC, First Nations &
Coureurs de Bois

4. Hudson’s Bay Company
Majority of trading Posts were set up along the Hudson’s Bay – at the mouth’s of major Rivers. Why??
Posts were called Factories & were run by a leader known as a “Factor”- which is where the term “Factory” came from.
First Nations were eager to trade with the HBC because they had the only trading posts for thousands of square km’s

5. The First Nations (FN)
The FN controlled the number and quality of furs that they brought to trade – so if the HBC’s price was not good enough for the FN, they would only trade their inferior furs rather than their fine good quality furs.
Beaver was one of the most valuable furs – A Made Beaver (MB) was the most valuable – this was an adult beaver fur that was of such good quality that they compared it to other furs to determine their worth

6. Pricing of the Goods $$$
The directors of the HBC lived in London – therefore, they did not have much knowledge about the conditions in Rupert’s Land
Communication between the directors and the Factors was difficult– because of this, the Directors gave authority to the Factors who ran the HBC Factories, so the Factors could make decisions about the fur trade
Prices (for goods in the fur trade) were initially set by the Directors in London – however, since they were never around for the actual trading deals – the Factors often modified those prices based on their knowledge of the goods actual worth in Canada.

7. Coureurs de Bois (CdB)
These were the European independent traders of the fur business.
They were sneaky traders who paid fees and bribes to bend the rules about trading behind the large companies backs
The CdB travelled the waterways through the interior by canoe
The CdB went right to the source and traded with the First Nations groups

8. Summary of the Trading Business: HBC trades with the FN CdB trades with the FN FN – trades with both HBC and CdB

9. The Northwest Company

10. 1783 – Northwest Company formed
After the fall of New France in 1763 – Scottish and American capitalists moved to the area and joined to take over the trading posts that the French had already established. They used the French employees to run these posts and keep contact with the Natives.
1783 – Northwest Company formed

11. Read the section The North West Company (pg. 264-265)
& answer the following questions:
How did the NWC trading methods differ from the HBC’s?
HBC waited for FN to come to them with furs
NWC build posts in the interior and dealt with FN directly – the NWC intercepted the furs before they got to the HBC
What was the result of NWC’s trading methods?
Created great tension between the HBC and the NWC
The HBC was forced to build posts in the interior
NWC failed – the competition with the HBC was too great to keep the NWC together
Because the HBC took a hit from the competition as well, the two companies decided to merge together in 1812