Advance of Hudson's Bay Company.—After the Peace of Utrecht the Hudson's Bay Company had returned to an era of prosperity. Urged on by French competition, by 1700 expeditions inland had been made by Kelsey (1691) and Sanford, and Henley House had been built a hundred and fifty miles inland from Fort Albany; and by 1720 other minor inland expeditions had been made by Macklish and Stewart, but in the main the Company had held to the shores of the Bay. Instead of sending employees inland, as did the French, reliance was placed on furs brought by the Indians to the posts, all of which were close to the Bay. The monopoly enjoyed was a cause of jealousy among British merchants, and critics arose, notably Arthur Dobbs, who charged that the Company had failed in its obligation to seek the northwest passage and explore the interior. Coerced by criticism, between 1719 and 1737 the Company made some explorations, but little was accomplished.
Hearne's explorations.—After 1763 criticism of the Company was reinforced by the rise of the Montreal trade, and new explorations northwestward were undertaken. After two unsuccessful attempts in 1769 and 1770 to reach the Coppermine River overland, in December, 1770, Samuel Hearne set out from Fort Prince of Wales to seek "a North-West Passage, copper-mines, or any other thing that may be serviceable to the British nation in general, or the Hudson's Bay Company in particular." Going west, then north, on July 18, 1771, Hearne reached the mouth of the Coppermine River near latitude 68°, where he took formal possession of the Arctic Ocean for the Company. Returning by way of Lake Athabasca, which he discovered and crossed, he reached his fort on June 30, 1772.
Rival posts in the interior.—Hearne's explorations were indicative of a new policy. Coerced by the aggressive Montreal traders, the Company now pushed into the interior in a struggle for the mastery. Side by side the two, companies placed rival forts on all the important streams from the Hudson Bay to the Rockies and from the Red River of the North to Great Slave Lake.
READINGS
Alden, G.H., New Governments west of the Alleghanies before 1780; Alvord, C.W., "Virginia and the West: An Interpretation," in The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, III, 19-38; The Critical Period, 1763-1765; The Mississippi Valley in British Politics; Alvord, C.W., and Carter, C.E., editors, The New Régime, 1765-1767; Bassett, J.S., "The Regulators of North Carolina," in American Hist. Assoc., Annual Report, 1894, pp. 141-212; Bourinot, J.G., Canada under British Rule, 1760-1905 (G.W. Wrong revision), chs. 2-3; Bryce, George, The Remarkable History of the Hudson's Bay Company, chs. 8-13; Carter, C.E., Great Britain and the Illinois Country, 1763-1774; "The Beginnings of British West Florida," in The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, IV, 314-341; Coffin, Victor, The Quebec Act; Hamilton, P.J., Colonial Mobile, chs. 23-31; The Colonisation of the South, chs. 20-21; Henderson, A., "Richard Henderson and the Occupation of Kentucky, 1775," in The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, I, 341-363; Hinsdale, B.A., The Old Northwest, ch. 8; Howard, G.E., Preliminaries of the Revolution, 1763-1775, ch. 13; Roosevelt, Theodore, The Winning of the West, I-II; Siebert, W.H., "The Loyalists in West Florida and the Natchez District," in The Mississippi Vauey Historical Review, II, 465-483; Stevens, W.E., "The Organization of the British Fur Trade, 1760-1800," in The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, III, 172-202; Thwaites, R.G., Daniel Boone; Thwaites, R.G., and Kellogg, L.P., editors, Documentary History of Dunmore's War, 1774, Introduction; Turner, F.J., "Western State-Making in the Revolutionary Era," in American Historical Review, I, 70-87, 251-269; Wallace, S., The United Empire Loyalists; Winsor, Justin, The Westward Movement, 38-100; Wood, W., The Father of British Canada; Davidson, G.C., The North West Company.