Hudson's Bay Company Posts.
Hudson's Bay Company.—The return of Gillam to London in 1669 was followed by the formation of a new Company. On May 2, 1670, Charles II issued a royal charter to "The Governor and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson's Bay." The Company was made absolute proprietor with a complete monopoly of all trade of the Hudson Bay basin. The government was centered in a governor, deputy-governor, and committee of seven, who were empowered to make laws and were given judicial and military authority. They lost no time in establishing posts, and by 1685 there were trading houses at Albany River, Hayes Island, Rupert's River, Port Nelson, Moose River, and New Severn.
Trading methods.—Ships were fitted out annually in London with merchandise, and brought back rich cargoes of furs. In contrast with the French traders and with the English of the Atlantic seaboard colonies, the Hudson's Bay Company did not penetrate the interior, but depended upon the natives to bring their peltry to the posts on the Bay. In the spring, therefore, after the break-up of the ice, Crees, Chipewyans, and Eskimos came down the rivers in fleets of canoes laden with furs, traded them for merchandise, and returned for another season's hunt. In London the furs were sold at auction at the Company's headquarters, where the annual fair took on the nature of a social function. Gradually the markets widened, agents being sent to establish trade with Holland, Russia, and other parts of Northern Europe. Profits were large, the dividend in 1690 being seventy-five per cent. of the original stock.
French Rivalry.—The success of the English aroused the jealousy of the French traders in the St. Lawrence Valley, and there ensued a rivalry which constituted one of the important episodes of the intercolonial wars which now occurred. In the contest Radisson, who had aided in the formation of the Company, played fast and loose between the English and the French. Before the end of the century French rivalry in the interior, beyond Lake Superior, did much to shake the "H.B.C." from its exclusive, seaboard policy. By 1691 Henry Kelsey, an employe of the Company, had made an expedition to the Winnipeg district.
READINGS
NEW YORK
Andrews, C.M., Colonial Self-Government, 74-100, 273-287; Andrews, C.M., ed., Narratives of the Insurrections, 315-401; Brodhead, J.R., History of New York, II; Channing, Edward, History of the United States, II, 31-60, 203-209; Doyle, J.A., The Middle Colonies, 78-223; Fiske, John, Dutch and Quaker Colonies, II, 1-98, 168-208; New York Historical Society, Collections, 1st Series, I, 307-428; Osgood, H.L., The English Colonies in the Seventeenth Century, II, 119-168; Winsor, Justin, Narrative and Critical History, III, 385-411.