From the records of the Department of Indian Trade, and the reports of the Superintendent printed in the volumes of the American State Papers devoted to Indian affairs, considerable information concerning the operations of the Chicago factory can be gleaned. The buildings of the factory cost $1,000, and the value of the furniture prior to the war was placed at $134.31.[759] The operations for the four-year period ending September 30, 1811, produced a profit of $3,454.24.[760] This favorable showing was due to the fact that the peltries received at the Chicago factory consisted chiefly of hatters' furs on which a profit was made, and shaved deer skins, which deteriorated comparatively little in handling.[761] For the year ending April 1, 1812, the business done at Chicago showed a profit of $1,773.94, a larger gain than for any similar period thus far.[762] At the last-mentioned date the stock on hand amounted to almost $12,500, and the total value of the stock, buildings, peltries, and other assets was $13,727.15. When Fort Dearborn was evacuated in the following August, Captain Heald distributed the merchandise of the factory, amounting in value to more than $6,000, among the Indians. Prior to this nearly $5,000 worth of peltries and furs had been shipped to Mackinac, all of which, like the peltries belonging to Kinzie and Forsyth, fell into the hands of the British. Together with the loss incurred through debts owed by the Indians or by members of the Fort Dearborn garrison, and the destruction of the buildings and furniture of the factory, the total loss of the Chicago factory was $13,074.47.[763]
[759] American State Papers, Indian Affairs, I, 770, 792.
[760] Ibid., 792.
[761] Ibid., 788, 792.
[762] Ibid., II, 40.
[763] American State Papers, Indian Affairs, U, 59.
That the operations of the Chicago factory prior to the War of 1812 were, on the whole, successful, can scarcely be doubted. The realization of a profit from the Indian trade had never entered into the calculations of the founders of the factory system, yet, as has been shown, a steady profit was realized from the Chicago factory, at least from the year 1807 on. How well the factory fulfilled its primary function of regulating the prices of the private traders is significantly shown by the unconscious testimony of Black Partridge and Petchaho, the latter the brother and successor of Gomo, the head chief of the Illinois River Pottawatomies. In 1814 they complained to Thomas Forsyth, who visited them as a representative of the United States Indian Department, of the high prices of goods in the sutler's store at Fort Clark. They pleaded that the United States take pity on them and establish a factory at Fort Clark, and expressed the hope that they would be able to get goods as cheap in this way "as they formerly did in the factory at Chicago."[764] At another time Forsyth himself, than whom no one was more familiar with the conditions affecting the Indian trade in Illinois, stated that no one who bought his goods in this country could sell them as cheaply as the factories. The British traders only could oppose the factories, and this was possible because of their extensive credit, and the superior quality of their goods.[765]
[764] Wisconsin Historical Collections, XI, 337.
[765] Ibid., XI, 344.
