? '' 



The Home of the Wolverene and Beaver. 



accounts, which they made out annually, keeping 

 the venture of each year distinct. Two of them 

 went annually to the Grande Portage at the mouth 

 of the Winnipeg River, on the north-west shore of 

 Lake Superior, to manage and transact the busi- 

 ness there and at the intermediate stations, besides 

 collecting, packing, and forwarding to England all 

 the Company's furs, on which they received a small 

 commission. Altogether the position of an agent 

 in the North-West Company was a highly desirable 

 one in a worldly point of view, for they amassed 

 enormous wealth, and were regarded as American 

 nabobs. 



The remaining shares were held by the pro- 

 prietors, who were obliged to winter in the wilds, 

 and manage the business part of the concern with 

 the Indians, aided by their respective clerks, &c. 

 They were not supposed to furnish either capital 

 or credit, and if they gained any capital by the 

 business, it remained in the hands of the agents at 

 a fixed rate of interest. Some of them, from their 

 long service and influence, held double shares, and 

 were allowed to retire whenever they thought fit, 

 retaining one share and making over the other to a 

 younger man who succeeded to the more onerous 

 part of the business, and in this manner the clerks 

 and subordinate officers of the Company were 



