A General History of the Fur Trade, ggg 



It will not be superfluous in this place, to explain the ge- 

 neral mode of carrying on the fur trade. 



The agents are obliged to order the necessary goods from 

 England in the month of October, eighteen months before 

 they can leave Montreal ; that is, they are not shipped from 

 London until the spring following, when they arrive in 

 Canada in the summer. In the course of the following win- 

 ter they are made up into such articles as are required for 

 the savages ; they are then packed into parcels of ninety 

 pounds weight each, but cannot be sent from Montreal until 

 the May following j so that they do not get to market until 

 the ensuing winter, when they are exchanged for furs, which 

 come to Montreal the next fall, and from thence are shipped, 

 chiefly to London, where they are not sold or paid for be- 

 fore the succeeding spring, or even as late as June ; which 

 Is forty-two months after the goods were ordered in Canada ; 

 thirty-six after they had been shipped from England, and 

 twenty-four after they had been forwarded from Montreal 

 so that the merchant, allowing that he has twelve months' 

 credit, does not receive a return to pay for those goods, and 

 the necessary expenses attending them, which is about equal 

 to the value of the goods themselves,- until two years after 

 they are considered as cash, which makes this a very heavy 

 business. There is even a small proportion of it that re^ 

 quires twelve months longer to bring round the payment, 

 owing to the immense distance it is carried, and from the 

 shortness of the seasons, which prevents the furs, even after 

 they are collected, from coming out of the country for that 

 period. 



The articles necessary for this trade, are coarse woollen 

 cloths of different kinds; milled blankets of different sizes ; 

 arms and ammunition ; twist and carrot tobacco ; Manches- 

 ter goods ; linens and coarse sheetings ; thread, lines and 



* This will be better illustrated by the following statement : 

 We will suppose the goods for 1798 ; 

 The orders for the goods are sent to this country 25th Oct. 1796, 

 They are shipped from London - - March 1797. 



They arrive in Montreal - - June 1797. 



They are made up in the course of that summer and winter. 

 They are sent from Montreal ... May 1798. 



They arrive in the Indian country, and are exchanged for 



furs the following winter - - - 1798-9. 



Which furs come to Montreal - - - Sept. 1799, 



And are shipped for London, where they are sold in March 



and April, and paid for in May or June - 18Q0. 



