[CHAPTER XI]
Fur Trade the Leading Business in the Northwest.—Rise of the Astor Family.—The U. S. Government fails as a Rival of the Northwest Company of Montreal, in the Fur Trade.—John Jacob Astor sees the Possibilities of the American Fur Trade.—He ships Furs from Montreal to London.—Irving's Opinion of Astor.—Astor plans to establish a Line of Trading-posts up the Missouri and down the Columbia.—The Scheme a Failure, but indirectly Valuable.—Astor's Enterprise helpful toward the Americanization of Louisiana.—He establishes the Pacific Fur Company, 1810.—This Company and the Northwest Company both seeking to occupy the Mouth of the Columbia; the Former arrives First.—In the War of 1812 the British take Possession of the Place.—Benefits to America from Astor's Example.—Like him, some Other Promoters failed to achieve the Particular Ends in View.
ASTOR: THE PROMOTER OF ASTORIA
The brave explorations of Lewis and Clark and Pike opened up the vast Territory of Louisiana for occupation and commerce. The one great business in the Northwest had been the fur trade, and for a long period it was yet to be the absorbing theme of promoters and capitalists, the source of great rivalries, great disappointments, and great fortunes.
No story of American promotion is more unique than that of the rise of the Astor family from obscurity to a position of power and usefulness, and this story has its early setting in the fur-trading camps of the Far Northwest, where Astoria arose beside the Pacific Sea. The tale is most typically American: Its hero, John Jacob Astor, was of foreign parentage; he came to America poor; he seized upon an opening which others had passed over; he had the support of a self-confidence that was not blind; he fought undauntedly all obstacles and scorned all rivalry; and at last he secured America's first princely fortune.