

FUBS AND THE FUR-TRADE. 



Fl'RS AND THE FUK-TRADE. 



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hinuclf equal to the difficulties of Ilia new position. It must be under- 

 stood that the company had no governing power in the inland ; they 

 held a lease of the coil for ten years (1849 to 1859) for trading pur- 

 poses, on condition of establishing a colony and disposing of land to 

 emigrant* ; but the governor wai ap|>ointod by the Crown, and legis- 

 ; .iv-. . \\i ii< eli" .n liy tin- |Ho|>le. The euiu|niiy as well an the 

 ! innieiit full that such an iiu|M>rtAiit inland could not lung remain 

 in thU anomalous condition ; for it has all the capabilities for being 

 .1 great naval station for British ships on the eastern margin of the 

 I'acific, and is moreover very advantageously situated for commerce. 

 It had become well understood that the lease to the company would 

 not be renewed in 1859 ; but the gold discoveries on the adjacent 

 coast rendered additional arrangements necessary. In July 1858 the 

 government brought a bill into the House of Commons for the esta- 

 blishment of a new colony to be called New Caledonia, to comprise 

 the island uf Vamvuvor and a wide stretch of the adjacent main- 

 land. This mainland portion extends from the Pacific to the Rocky 

 Mountains, about 300 miles ; and from latitude 49 N. to about 56 , 

 a little over 400 miles. No governor or magistrate of any kind 

 existed within those limits, for Mr. Douglas only governed the island ; 

 and therefore speedy legislation became necessary, to prevent anarchy, 

 and to secure the region to the British crown. The act proposed by 

 the bill was to endure only until 1863, to afford an opportunity for 

 modification in the governmental regulations. With a few amend- 

 ments and alterations the bill became a law (21 & 22 Viet. c. 99) ; 

 but the name of the colony was changed from New Caledonia to 

 British Columbia. A disagreement with the United States Govern- 

 ment, in 1859, did not affect the general ownership of this new colony, 

 but only referred to the small island of St. Juan, which is claimed by 

 both nations, owing to a want of clearness in a treaty which settles 

 the boundary in those regions at the 49th parallel of north latitude. 

 Tin- eventual colonisation of British Columbia will interfere a little 

 with the [fur-hunting arrangements of the Hudson's Bay Company ; 

 but it will exert still more influence by introducing the principles 

 of unshackled trade into a region where strict monopoly has hitherto 

 been maintained. There seems a probability, also, that the fur-trading 

 privileges of the company in other quarters will shortly be curtailed ; 

 the wishes of the legislature in this respect were pretty strongly 

 expressed in 1858 and 1859, in reference to certain licence-privileges 

 erminable in 1860. 



A committee of inquiry, appointed by the House of Commons in 

 1857, was the means of bringing to light much curious information 

 concerning the fur- trade. Occurring before the events just noticed 

 were fully known, the inquiries could not bear relation to the 

 gold deposits, nor to the new political relations of the western coast ; 

 but as far as concerns the fur-trade, the information remains as true in 

 1860 as it was in 1857. This is the more valuable, because the com- 

 pany have always been very chary of communicating information con- 

 cerning their commercial transactions; on this account, a few facts 

 may suitably be introduced here. 



The company's vast territories are ruled by a goveraor-in-chief, 

 invested with large powers. For forty years this office has been held 

 by Sir George Simpson. Under him arc sixteen chief factors, control- 

 ling districts or provinces into which the territories are divided. Sub- 

 ordinate to these are twenty-five chief traders. Each factor or trader 

 has a sort of metropolis or head-quarters, called a fort, factory, or post, 

 . large enough to accommodate a considerable number of persons, and 

 strong enough to be defended against any hostile attacks by Indians. 

 The chief factors and chief traders are not salaried servants ; they are 

 partners or shareholders, receiving, in return for their personal services, 

 a definite percentage on the company's annual trading net profits. 

 Under the factors and traders, or associated with them, are five 

 surgeons, forty chaplains or missionaries (belonging to four Christian 

 denominations), about a hundred and fifty clerks and postmasters or 

 messengers, and twelve hundred servants or subordinates. Nearly all 

 these persons receive their appointment from the directors of the 

 company, and a large number of them are Orkney men. They go out 

 at first under an engagement for live years ; but most of them stop 

 much longer, some as long as twenty-five or thirty yean, and thu 

 average as many as fifteen. The first wages for servants, labourers, &c., 

 is about 20/. a year, besides board, lodging, and other necessaries; 

 and the men gradually rise in station and in salary according to their 

 ability. The chief factors, with the governor-in-chiof, constitute the 

 members of a council, which meets annually in June, to review the 

 whole events of the past year, and to make arrangements for the 

 year next ensuing. If the factors from the more distant stations 

 cannot conveniently come to make up a quorum of seven or eight, a 

 few of the chief traders are admitted to complete the number. The 

 governor-in-chicf and the council of factors bear some such relation to 

 the Hudson's Bay Board in London, as the governor-general and 

 supreme council of India bore to the board of directors in the old 

 East India Company ; there are certain general rules and order* sent 

 out from home, but a wide discretion is left in the application of 

 them. 



Bo much for the relations between the company and their white 

 servants ; those with the natives bring us at once to the present mode 

 of managing the fur-trade. Besides the persons already mentioned, 

 the company employ five hundred royaytnri, to manage the canoes on 



the riven and portages ; and an indefinite number of persons as servants, 

 labourers, hunters, fishers, and assistants generally, just as their services 

 are wanted. Nearly all then persons are Canadians or European* ; 

 or they are half-breeds, descendants of white men and native women. 

 The Indians, the natives proper, are not sen-ants of the company ; 

 tlii-y kill the animaln, and bring the nkins and furs to the trading 

 posts; but each one i- .in iml.-].. tuli nt trailer, bartering and Kir/.uinni; 

 for himself. The iudejiendencc is, however, a peculiar one. 1 hiring 

 the summer months the Indians work for the company at any dd 

 jobs, if willing, and if their sen-ices are needed : but when winter is 

 coining on, they set off to the hunting-grounds. Being poor and im- 

 provident, they have nothing to set out with ; the company give them 

 blankets, guns, and ammunition, which are to be paid for in the i. 1 

 lowing miring, each article being valued at so many beaver-skins. 

 During the winter they obtain what furs they can. The company do 

 not inform them what kinds are most highly valued, or bring most 

 money, in England. Dr. Ra, the enterprising Arctic explorer, and 

 one of the most energetic of the company's servants, said in evidence 

 the committee : " The company s tariff with the Indians is 

 formed in a peculiar way, and necessarily so. The sums given for fnrs 

 do not coincide with the ralue of the furs traded for ; because the 

 musk-rat, or the less valuable furs, are paid for at a higher [propor- 

 tionate !] rate. Were the company to pay for the fine furs at the same 

 rate, the Indians would hunt up the finer furs, and destroy them off, 

 as has been done all along the frontier of America ; and we should 

 require to reduce the price for the musk-rat and the inferior furs, and 

 the Indians would not hunt them at all. The Indians would never 

 understand our varying the prices of the furs according to the prices 

 here (in England). ' The meaning of this is, that the company, by 

 giving a comparatively high price for common furs, realise only a small 

 profit thereon ; but they get an enormous profit on the best furs, such 

 as the beaver and the silver fox ; and it may be doubted whether their 

 motive is altogether so disinterested as is stated, in concealing the 

 European estimate of furs from the knowledge of the Indians. These 

 Indians would gladly obtain ardent spirits in barter for furs ; but the 

 company have wisely forbidden this, except in a few frontier districts, 

 where the company have to compete with the Americans, who enter- 

 tain no such scruples. The company send out yearly about 60,OOW. 

 worth of blankets, cloth, guns, ammunition, knives, and miscellaneous 

 articles; of which about one-third is for the use of the company's 

 sen-ante, and two-thirds for barter with the Indians for furs, v 

 is never paid for the furs, except near the frontiers, where competition 

 exists. The Indians mostly live upon fish and buffalo ; all their other 

 necessaries (and luxuries) they obtain from the company by bartering 

 furs. Beads, needles, thread, and numerous small articles, are kept at 

 the trading posta, not for barter, but as presents to retain the good 

 will of the natives. The company are nurtiny the northern half of their 

 territories : that is, encouraging the hunters to bring in the cheaper 

 and more plentiful furs, instead of exhausting the stock of those which 

 are scarcer and more valuable ; as a consequence, the whole stock and 

 the whole trade have been gradually becoming more valuable between 

 1840 and 1860. An average beaver-skin is the standard of currency 

 between the company and the hunters ; European articles are worth 

 so many " beavers " each. A sort of tariff was agreed upon many 

 yean ago, and is only in a slight degree altered, once now and then. 

 The company are virtually the makers of this tariff, for they sedulously 

 keep the Indians in ignorance of the relative values of furs in Europe. 

 Ten musk'rata equal one beaver ; so many beavers equal one silver- 

 fox ; &c. But when we come to compare English goods with Indian 

 furs, the nature of the company's profit peeps out. A blanket equals 

 " four beavers ; " a gnu (bought at Birmingham for 22*.) is equal to 

 " twenty beavers ; " a slop-made coat is equal to " five or six beavers." 

 A gun, in consideration of the relative high price given for inferior 

 skins, may sell for only 4/. or 51. in musk-rats ; but estimated in silver- 

 foxes, it sometimes brings 50/. worth a startling profit on a cheap 

 Birmingham gun. Beaver fur has varied in price, during the last few 

 years, from 8. to 30. per IK in the London market : an average skin 

 yielding about 1 Ib. of fur ; so that the company's profits vary greatly, 

 seeing that the Indian tariff does not vary with the London prices. 

 Moreover, it is asserted by the company, as a drawback on their 

 apparently excessive profits, that a period varying from three to seven 

 years elapses before capital can be returned : that is, between the time 

 at which goods ore bought in England, and the time at which the furs 

 are sold in England which have been procured by bartering those 

 goods so extremely slow and tedious are all the operations in the 

 wide-spreading .and tliinly-inhabited territories of the company. It is 

 undisputed, however, that the company's profits from the fur-trade are 

 quite out of the line of ordinary commercial transactions ; and if the 

 statements of many writers on the subject are to be received as correct, 

 the profits are quite enormous. Lieutenant Chappel, some years ago, 

 estimated the profits at 2000 per cent. The Rev. C. O. Nicholay, in 

 his ' Oregon Territory,' says, " A fourpcnny comb will barter for a 

 bear's skin worth 2/." Dr. King; in his ' Arctic Narrative,' says, " A 

 coarse knife, worth, all expenses included, no more than sixpence, is 

 bartered for three marten skins, worth in London five guineas ; ami 

 for the i kin of the black sea otter, worth fifty guineas, the natives 

 obtain in exchange only goods to the value of two shillings." 

 It is believed by competent authorities, that even if the fur-trade 



