CHAPTER XIV 



THE GREATEST FUR COMPANY OF THE WORLD 



IN the history of the world only one corporate com 

 pany has maintained empire over an area as large as 

 Europe. Only one corporate company has lived up to 

 its constitution for nearly three centuries. Only one 

 corporate company s sway has been so beneficent that 

 its profits have stood in exact proportion to the well- 

 being of its subjects. Indeed, few armies can boast a 

 rank and file of men who never once retreated in three 

 hundred years, whose lives, generation after genera 

 tion, were one long bivouac of hardship, of danger, of 

 ambushed death, of grim purpose, of silent achieve 

 ment. 



Such was the company of &quot; Adventurers of England 

 Trading into Hudson s Bay,&quot; as the charter of 1670 

 designated them.* Such is the Hudson s Bay Company 

 to-day still trading with savages in the white wilder 

 ness of the north as it was when Charles II granted 

 a royal charter for the fur trade to his cousin Prince 

 Rupert. 



Governors and chief factors have changed with the 



* The spelling of the name with an apostrophe in the charter 

 seems to be the only reason for the company s name always hav 

 ing the apostrophe, whereas the waters are now known simply as 

 Hudson Bay. 



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