Studies in American History 
103 
altho he continued in the fur trade on a small scale for several 
years he never regained his old prestige. 
In the negotiations preceding Jay's Treaty with Great Brit- 
ain, the fur trade was hardly mentioned. The heavy losses 
sustained by British traders during the seven preceding 
years had made them less strenuous in their demands for con- 
trol over the American posts. The treaty ended their long 
struggle for a monopoly of this trade, and thereafter they had 
to work in competition with the Americans. 
The wars in Europe made the demand for furs so uncertain 
that cautious dealers ceased to send out traders to buy what 
they could find. Every trader bought on his own responsibility 
with the knowledge that prices were always likely to decline 
still further. 
For twenty years the fur trade in the country south of the 
Great Lakes was carried on in this slow-moving manner. 
Whites as well as Indians were engaged in trapping, and they 
sold their catch to the small traders of their vicinity. The 
most extensive markets were at Vincennes and Fort Wayne. 
For a time the only outlet was Detroit, but after the Louis- 
iana Purchase the Vincennes collections were shipped to St. 
Louis.^^ It was not until after 1815 that a new organization 
was accomplished which restored to the fur trade its ancient 
glory. 
The United States government early sought to regulate the 
Indian trade. Congress established an Indian department 
with a superintendent after the old British model. Every 
trader was to have a license and to obey the regulations 
drawn for those engaged in the Indian trade."^® In 1796 Con- 
gress marked off an Indian frontier, leaving to the Indians 
all the Maumee and Wabash valleys. No one should go with- 
in the Indian territory without a license, and no white person 
should hunt there at all. The trader’s license required a bond 
of $1,000 that he would not violate any of the regulations 
of the President regarding the Indian trade.^® The regula- 
tions for traders forbade the introduction of any kind of alco- 
John B. Dillon, A Histwy of Indiana from its Earliest Exploration hy Europeans, 
to the Close of the Territm-ial Government in 1816 (Indianapolis, 1859), 397; Lasselle, 
“The Old Indian Traders of Indiana”, in the Indiana Magazine of History, II, 5-7, gives 
a list of the traders in Indiana licensed in 1801 and 1802. Most of their names are 
French. 
The Public Statutes at Large of the United States of America (Boston, 1845), 
I, 137. 
^^Ihid., 469, May 19. 1796. 
