It must not be inferred, however, that the factors ever adhered strictly in practice to the standard prescribed and regulated from time to time by the Company. The standard was often privately doubled, where it could be done prudently, so that where the Company directed one skin to be taken for such or such an article, two were taken. The additional profit went into the hands of the chief factor, and a smaller share to the two traders, without the cognizance of the Company, and was called the overplus trade.
Stationary character of the Company's trade.
Occasionally, far seeing, active spirits amongst its servants strove to break through the policy of conservatism which distinguished its members; but where they succeeded it was only for a short period; and the commerce of the corporation soon reverted to its ancient boundaries. But this apparent attitude is capable of explanation. The Company were cognizant, almost from the first, that the trade they pursued was capable of great extension. One finds in the minute-books, during more than forty years from the time of Radisson and Groseilliers, partner after partner arising in his place to enquire why the commerce, vastly profitable though it was, remained stationary instead of increasing.
"Why are new tribes not brought down? Why do not our factors seek new sources of commerce?" A motion directing the chief factor to pursue a more active policy was often put and carried. But still the trade returns, year after year, remained as before. Scarce a season passed without exhortations to its servants to increase the trade. "Use more diligence," "prosecute discoveries," "draw down distant tribes," form the burden of many letters.
"We perceive," writes the Company's secretary in 1685 to Sargeant, "that our servants are unwilling to travel up into the country by reason of danger and want of encouragement. The danger, we judge, is not more now than formerly; and for their encouragement we shall plentifully reward them, when we find they deserve it by bringing down Indians to our factories, of which you may assure them. We judge Robert Sandford a fit person to travel, having the linguæ and understanding the trade of the country; and upon a promise of Mr. Young (one of our Adventurers) that he should travel, for which reason we have advanced his wages to £30 per annum, and Mr. Arrington, called in the Bay, Red-Cap, whom we have again entertained in our service; as also John Vincent, both which we do also judge fit persons for you to send up into the country to bring down trade." To this the Governor replied that Sandford was by no means disposed to accept the terms their Honours proposed, but rather chose to go home. "Neither he nor any of your servants will travel up the country, although your Honours have earnestly desired it, and I pressed it upon those proposals you have hinted."
Character of the Company's Factors.
I have already shown why the Company's wishes in this respect were not fruitful; that the character of the men in the Company's employ was not yet adapted to the work in hand. Its servants were not easily induced to imperil their lives; they gained little in valour or hardihood from their surroundings. They were shut up in the forts, as sailors are shut up in a ship, scarcely ever venturing out in winter, and hardly ever holding converse with a savage in his wild state. In vain, for the most part, were such men stirred to enterprise; and so this choice and habit of seclusion grew into a rule with the Company's employees; and the discipline common to the ship, or to contracted bodies, became more and more stringent. The Company's policy was nearly always dictated by the advice of their factors, but it can be shown that these were not always wise, dreading equally the prospect of leading an expedition into the interior, and the prestige which might ensue if it were entrusted to a subordinate.
A discipline ludicrous when contrasted with the popular impression regarding the fur-trader's career, was maintained in the early days. It was the discipline of the quarter-deck, and surprised many of the youth who had entered the Company's employ expecting a life of pleasure and indulgence. Many of the governors were resembled, Bridgar and Bailey being surly, violent men, and were, indeed, often chosen for these qualities by the Company at home.
It is singular but true, that in the days of our ancestors a choleric temper was considered an unfailing index of the masterful man. In both branches of the King's service, on sea and on land, there seemed to have been no surer sign of a man's ability to govern and lead, than spleen and tyranny; and many an officer owed his promotion and won the regard of the Admiralty and the War Office by his perpetual exhibition of the traits and vices of the martinet. One of the Company's governors, Duffell, was wont to order ten lashes to his men on the smallest provocation. Another named Stanton, the governor at Moose Factory, declared he would whip any man, even to the traders, without trial if he chose; and this declaration he more than once put into practice. The whipping of two men, Edward Bate and Adam Farquhar, at Moose Factory, almost occasioned a mutiny there. The death of one Robert Pilgrim, from a blow administered by the chief factor, created a scandal some years later in the century. It was the practice of the early governors to strike the Indians when they lost their own tempers or for petty offences.
Life at the Company's factories.