Studies in American History 
99 
During the years of general peace following 1783 there was 
a heavy demand for furs, and with continually mounting 
prices the profits were large.®^ Askin gathered great numbers 
of deer, raccoons, mink, and muskrats from the south and 
probably obtained all the furs that were sold from the valleys 
of the Maumee and Wabash. The urgent demands of the 
trappers, reinforced by large quantities of liquor, stimulated 
the Indians to unusual exertions. The fur markets became 
overloaded and prices began to fall.®^ Askin had put all he 
could borrow into the trade, and with falling prices he soon 
found the burden too heavy. “The continuous loss of Skins’’, 
he wrote in 1786, “has nearly thrown me into a Stupid 
State.”^^ 
Askin’s losses may be further explained by his methods 
of dealing. He sent large numbers of traders among the 
Indians with orders to get the skins. They paid prices that 
kept out the Americans from the East and the French and 
Spaniards from the Mississippi. Askin’s traders bought on 
commission, and this induced competition among themselves. 
This competition led to the purchase of all sorts of furs. 
Many were of inferior quality, and would not sell in London 
for their first cost.^^ 
The expenses of selling the furs were, as always in the fur 
business, heavy. Askin shipped his furs to the firm of James 
Todd and Andrew McGill at Montreal, who furnished him 
with trading goods, advanced him cash, and disposed of his 
furs. With this firm, commissions and interest charges ab- 
sorbed much of the returns. Todd and McGill then shipped 
the furs to Phyn and Ellice, fur dealers in London. Their 
Todd and McGill to Askin, Montreal, October 11, 1784, “Furs shipped last year on 
your account yield a very handsome profit.” Their value totaled £1,972.10.8 sterling. 
Askin, Papers, I. 
“We fear much for deer skins as the quantity going have greatly exceeded that 
of last year.” Todd and McGill, 1785, in ibid. 
33 Askin to Todd and McGill, Detroit, June 22, 1786, in ibid. 
3^ Todd and McGill, Montreal, October 10, 1787, complained of a large number of 
packs sent to them: “. . . they appear all to be long-haired skins -which are . . . 
the worst . . . now that you have got into a Company at Detroit, if you do not 
adopt some measures to prevent the traders from taking such trash. . . . Many skins 
tho in season are badly stretched and unfit for London market,” in ibid. 
