Pike's remarks on the fur-trade are sound and very much to the point; together with his descriptions of the trading-houses, etc., they represent probably the best account extant of things as they were in 1805. His present Observations, etc., as well as his correspondence with Hugh M'Gillis (Arts. 8 and 9 of the foregoing chapter, [pp. 247]-[254]), were extracted for use in the Statutes, Documents, and Papers bearing on the Discussion respecting the Northern and Western Boundaries of the Province of Ontario, pub. Toronto, Hunter, Rose and Co., 1877, 8vo, pp. 318-323.
[VI-2] The Indian trade is not among the least of the vexed questions which the United States has sought to answer in the natural and necessary process of causing the Indians to make their exeunt from the world's stage. The prices at which goods were sold by private individuals, whether French, English, or American, seem exorbitant, extortionate—in a word, monstrous! But trade is a thing that seems to regulate itself, without regard to theory or sentiment; the Indian trade certainly did. I once asked the lion-tamer of a popular circus what was the secret of his profession, expecting some discerning remarks from him on the power of the human eye over wild beasts, and so forth; but all he told me was, "You just have to know your lion." In war, trade, or religion, you just have to know your Indian, as our soldiers, traders, and priests found out for their respective selves. General Whiting has some extremely moderate and judicious words on the subject, in his Life of Pike, p. 231 seq., which I will reproduce in substance, as it was a part of Pike's business on this voyage to keep an eye on the Indian traders and trade. The various expenses attending the transport of goods swelled the original value to such an extraordinary degree that a knife cost an Indian the ordinary price of a handsome sword, when he stuck it in his belt; and by the time his squaw had put a yard and a half of blue strouds around her waist, her lord was in debt for an amount that would have bought a city belle a ball dress. Such high prices would have been ruinous to the Indian had not their trade customs furnished a corrective. Few Indians ever hunted beforehand; they seldom got their stock of skins to offer for sale at a fair or any price, else the traffic would have been on more nearly equal terms. They must have their outfit for the chase first, and then they must feel the pangs of hunger before they would start on a hunt. The trader was obliged to overcome their indolence by offering certain inducements, besides furnishing the necessary means. This was an invention of necessity on which the whole system of credits was based, and on which such a structure of extortion and other evils was reared. The trader had to let his goods go on credit into lazy, improvident, always uncertain and often dishonest or criminal hands, with no security for any adequate return for his outlay except in a scale of ordinary prices that would cover him in case of extraordinary losses. He took great risks and put up his premium accordingly. He expected to realize 200 to 250 per cent. on the price of goods for which he got anything, to cover the loss on what he got nothing for. Thus the Indians were a prey to cupidity and extortion; they were swindled, as it seems to us. Yet they had a way of getting even with the most unprincipled trader, sometimes of beating him at his own game. At the end of the hunt the Indian brought in his peltries. "If these paid his debt," says Whiting, "which was not often the case, the account was squared; if an arrearage remained, as was generally the case, no reasoning nor threats could convince the red man that the responsibility held over to another season, and that his obligations survived the hunt. When that hunt terminated, and the furs obtained by it had been fairly rendered, he considered the account as canceled. Whether it was balanced or not was a question he did not undertake to answer.
"One of the objects Lieutenant Pike appears to have been instructed to keep in view while on his trip, was the investigation of these evils of the Indian trade, and to ascertain where proper trading establishments could be fixed, which were intended to correct them. These establishments were of course to be made under the patronage of the Government. They were afterward actually made under the 'factor' system. In a benevolent spirit, the United States enacted that certain stores should be conveniently placed within the Indian territory, where factors, having a salary and no interest in the trade, were to keep on hand a constant supply of articles suitable for the Indians, which were to be exchanged with them for peltries, the articles bearing only a fair cost, all expenses included, and the peltries being received at a fair rate. Government thus, out of kindness to the Indians, became a trader, and a competitor with individual traders.
"The theory was as promising as it was benevolent; but, like many theories, it did not fulfill expectation when put into practice. It is true that the Indian under it was sure of a just equivalent for such furs and peltries as he brought in. This assurance was spread abroad by agents, and was generally known and understood. But an important consideration had been omitted in the calculations that suggested the arrangement. Most of the Indians are improvident, and leave the morrow to take care of itself. The future causes them no anxiety. It is the present moment, with its gratifications, or its wants, that occupies, almost exclusively, their minds—the former exhausted with blind avidity, the latter borne with passive endurance. They seldom lay up the means of providing themselves with the small equipments of a hunting expedition. While they used the bow and arrow, it was different. Then a few hours' exertion of their own hands provided all that was necessary. But the moment a gun was put into their hands, their dependence upon the trader was secured. They must have ammunition, or their guns were more useless than the bow and arrow; and they could obtain this only on credit.
"Hence the United States factor, who had a knife at a few shillings, and a stroud at not many more, and powder and ball at a fair rate, but who could sell for cash only, or its equivalent, would find his shelves nearly as full at the end of the season as at the beginning; while the individual trader, who sold on credit, though he might sell at an enormous profit, at a thousand per cent. above his government competitor, would empty his shelves in a few weeks. Besides, no system can work well unless it is managed well. The factor was expected, by the law, to be honest and disinterested; and he was often so. Still, he was in a remote part of the country, and beset by temptations, and dealt with a people that were supposed to be unable to tell tales that could be understood. The system was abandoned after a vain experiment of a few years."
About the time that Pike was on this expedition, Lewis and Clark also had their attention turned to the same business. One of the results of their observations was Lewis' Essay on an Indian Policy, which had special regard to the commercial aspects of the case, and will never go entirely out of date till the last Indian has bought his last bullet, or had it fired into him. The reader is referred to this article, occupying pp. 1215-43 of the 1893 ed. of L. and C.
Trade is one of those things which, like a hen hunting for a nest, does best when let alone. Any hen will lay more eggs and hatch more chicks in a nest of her own selection than in the most artful contrivances of the coop to provide for her comfort and convenience. All interference with a man's tendency to take advantage of his neighbor is unwise, and injurious to both parties. It tends to sharpen the wits of the one and make him more of a knave than he was before; while it blunts the wits of the other with a specious sense of being protected, and thus makes him a bigger fool than ever. Trade being what it is, in consequence of the great quantity of human nature there is in mankind, can never be legislated into anything else than an attempt to enrich one's self at another's expense by buying cheap and selling dear. Free trade in all the markets of the world is the only natural postulate; all tariff regulations and restrictions are simply necessary concessions to the inherent weakness of artificial systems of trade. The evils of damming individual channels of trade—or rather, of attempting to dam them with desultory yet reiterated interference—reach a climax of absurdity and injury in what is known as tariff-tinkering. Very likely they ought to be dammed—all avenues of selfishness ought to be; but they never will be in this world. As to the practical worldly wisdom displayed in specific measures to promote commercial activity by legislative interference, it is probable that any jockey in the land, with a hidebound horse for sale and some arsenic in his pocket, could give our legislators pointers on those tricks which are said to be in all trades but ours.
[VI-3] "A Mr. M'Coy" is not easily identified. I am inclined to think that the name is McKay or Mackay, and that the person meant is Alexander Mackay, who had been with Sir A. Mackenzie, left the N. W. Co. in 1810, for Astor's American Fur Co., and was blown up with the ship Tonquin in 1811; but I am far from feeling sure of this.
[VI-4] David Thompson was among the Mandans from Dec. 29th, 1797, to Jan. 10th, 1798. He left McDonald's house, which was near the mouth of Mouse r., on Nov. 28th, en route to the Missouri. On Dec. 7th he reached the old Ash house on Mouse r., "settled two years ago and abandoned the following spring." Being unable to procure a guide here, he took the lead himself and struck for Turtle mountain, west of which he again crossed Mouse r., and followed this stream up to the bight of the great loop it makes in North Dakota, at a point 37 m. from the Missouri. Here leaving the river and coming south over the plains, he struck the Missouri Dec. 29th, at a point 6 m. above the uppermost Mandan village. These villages are said to have been five in number, and to have contained in all 318 houses and seven tents, inhabited by Mandan and Willow Indians in about equal numbers. (The census of the Willow Indians is given as from 2,200 to 2,500, in another place in Thompson's MS., where he calls them Fall Indians.) While among the Mandans Thompson prepared a vocabulary of about 375 words of their language. He left the villages Jan. 10th, 1798; but being delayed by storms, it was Jan. 24th before he reached Mouse r., and Feb. 3d when he regained McDonald's house. I take these items from J. B. Tyrrell's paper on the journeys of David Thompson, read before the Canadian Institute Mar. 3d, 1888, and pub. in advance of the Proceedings, Toronto, 1888, 8vo, pp. 7, 8: see also [note9], 167. Another account of Thompson's travels occupies pp. 94-103 of Statutes, etc., N. and W. Bound. Ontario, pub. Toronto, 8vo, 1877.
[VI-5] The plus in the fur-trade was the standard of value, viz.: one prime beaver (abiminikwa). In the above scale of prices the plus was reckoned as $2. The scale was a multiple or fraction of this, which answered the purpose of an English shilling, French franc, Indian rupee, or our dollar. Thus Perrault tells us that in 1784 a bear, an otter, or a lynx was worth a plus; three martens or 15 muskrats were also a plus; a buffalo was two plus, etc. A keg of "made" liquor, i. e., three-fourths water, one-fourth alcohol, with a little strychnine, Cocculus indicus, or tobacco-juice to flavor and color it, has been sold to many an Indian for 20 to 40 plus. During my recent canoe voyage to the source of the Mississippi, I believe that I could have been provisioned, lodged, and transported by the Chippewas for a month at the cost of a gallon or two of "made" whisky, had I been provided with that article and disposed to put it to an unlawful purpose.