V. The Commerce in Raw Furs 



THE raw furs of America are mostly collected by large companies 

 having elaborate systems for gathering the skins from the trap- 

 pers. The chief operators in Canada are the Hudson's Bay Co. and 

 Eevillon Freres, and, in Labrador, the Harmony Co. During the 

 past ten years a change has been taking place in marketing and many 

 furs, particularly the more valuable ones, are consigned direct to Lon- 

 don or to American fur houses. In the Old World, furs are collected 

 at fairs at the following places : 



Town Time of Fair 



Frankfort-on-the-Oder January 



Irbit, Siberia February 



Leipzig, Germany Easter 



Mjni-Novgorod, Eussia August 



Ishim, Siberia December 



Many of the skins, particularly those of finer quality, are ulti- 

 mately offered at the London sales where the majority of the world's 

 fine furs are sold. In recent years, however, Germany and the United 

 States have been purchasing a larger proportion. 



The total sales in London are generally iitilized in estimat- 

 of Skins ing the quantities of furs at the world's disposal. Of the 

 undressed skins not usually sold at London sales, there are 

 the Persian lambs, broadtails and karakules, of which Thorer estimates 

 that 2,900,000 come to Leipzig alone. A United States consular report of 

 1911 estimated that Eussia produces 4,525,000 squirrels, whose raw pelts 

 are valued at $2,000,000. Of squirrel tails, Eussia, in 1911, produced 

 twenty-one tons, valued at $5.50 per pound. Owing to the growing 

 popularity of muskrat or ' Hudson Bay seal ', the use of this skin has 

 increased enormously and the sales now amount to over 9,000,000 an- 

 nually, London selling 6,000,000, Leipzig, 1,000,000 and America re- 

 taining 2,000,000. Two hundred thousand ermine pelts, valued at 

 $350,000, are sold annually in Eussia. About 83,000,000 rabbit skins 

 are imported into Great Britain annually, while immense quantities of 

 skins are used in the felting industry in Australia. 



Leipzig, Germany, is the most important city for the 

 the Fur Trade dressing and manufacture of furs. Its raw supplies are 

 drawn from all parts of the world but particularly from 

 Ijondon and Moscow storehouses and the ISTijni-Novgorod Fair. Mos- 

 cow is the largest storehouse for Eussian and Asiatic furs, while New 

 York, St. Louis and Montreal are important American centres which 

 are rapidly increasing their facilities for fur-dressing and fur-dyeing. 

 London is the largest selling centre and is still of great importance in 

 the dressing, dyeing and manufacturing of furs. 



