6 THE FUR TRADE OF AMERICA 



In 1914, white fox was at #16. By 1917, it was $20. By 1920, 

 white fox sold in Montreal at #60 to #70. 



Beavers that were $6.50 in 1917 were $8.50 by 1918 and #20 

 by 1919. 



The world fur sales dispose of 100,000,000 pelts a year, not count- 

 ing rabbit and mole and muskrat. 



In the April sales of three great fur markets in 1920, almost 

 4,000,000 skins were sold in the New York market, nearly 9,000,000 

 on the London market, and over 7,000,000 on the St. Louis market. 

 Add to this the Montreal sales; multiply by three sales a year; 

 and you have almost 100,000,000 skins sold yearly in the United 

 States and Canada, including rabbits, mole and muskrat. 



Montreal thinks nothing of a fur sale totalling #5,000,000 to 

 #6,000,000; St. Louis #27,000,000 to #30,000,000; and New York 

 #12,000,000 to #27,000,000. 



Before the War, the United States had a total fur trade — what 

 we bought and what we sold — of #40,000,000. To-day, that 

 trade is over #100,000,000. 



In the environs of New York only are 830 manufacturers of 

 furs, 170 importers of furs, 25 firms devoted exclusively to dressing 

 furs and 12,000 skilled dressers and dyers, supporting a population 

 of 60,000 people drawing their living from furs. 



That is — there are more people making a living out of furs 

 round New York only than there are hunters and trappers from 

 the Rio Grande to the Arctic Circle. 



In the palmiest days of the palmiest past, when it had not a 

 rival from Hudson Bay to the Pacific or from the Arctic to the 

 Missouri, the Hudson Bay did not sell half a million dollars' 

 worth of furs. To-day furs of a greater value pass through 

 Edmonton alone, and it is now only one of a dozen great com- 

 panies operating in America. 



The world is doing the greatest fur business in all its history. 

 The world appetite for furs is an insatiable demand that cries for 

 more, the more it gets. With high power silent rifles, with newly 



