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Asleep By The Frozen Sea
Asleep by the frozen sea is a phrase coined by Joseph Robson to describe the policy of the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) from its foundation in 1670 until the establishment of its first inland post in 1774. Unlike the French who sent Coureurs des bois inland to trade, the HBC built posts on Hudson Bay and waited for the Indians to bring furs to them. The decision to abandon this policy and move inland gradually turned the HBC into an informal government for western Canada and led ultimately to the confederation of western and eastern Canada. The Robson quote seems to be "The Company have for eighty years slept at the edge of a frozen sea.... They have shewn no curiosity to penetrate farther themselves, and have exerted all their art and power to crush that spirit in others." In 1752 Joseph Robson: published "An Account of Six Years Residence in Hudson's-Bay". He worked as a stonemason on Prince of Wales Fort from 1733 to 1735 and returned to the Bay in 1744 as surveyor and Superintende ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business division is Hudson's Bay, commonly referred to as The Bay ( in French). After incorporation by English royal charter in 1670, the company functioned as the ''de facto'' government in parts of North America for nearly 200 years until the HBC sold the land it owned (the entire Hudson Bay drainage basin, known as Rupert's Land) to Canada in 1869 as part of the Deed of Surrender, authorized by the Rupert's Land Act 1868. At its peak, the company controlled the fur trade throughout much of the English- and later British-controlled North America. By the mid-19th century, the company evolved into a mercantile business selling a wide variety of products from furs to fine homeware in a small number of sales shops (as opposed to trading posts) acros ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anglo-French Conflicts On Hudson Bay
The Anglo-French conflicts on Hudson Bay were a series of conflicts in the 17th and 18th centuries between England and France for control over the area around the Hudson Bay. Overview Beginning in 1672, the French sought to drive out the English Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) trading posts that were established on Hudson Bay in 1668. This continued during King William's War and mostly ended in 1713, when France recognized British sovereignty over the Bay in the Treaty of Utrecht. The last instance would be in 1782, when the French captured Fort Churchill (Prince of Wales Fort). Since the posts were held by, at most, a few dozen traders and labourers, they could easily be captured by a small group of soldiers; however, it was difficult to send soldiers to the Bay and impractical to keep them there over winter. The short ice-free season made it difficult to take all the posts in one year. Thus, the posts changed hands more or less at random whenever one side or the other sent a for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Assiniboine River Fur Trade
Fur trading on the Assiniboine River and the general area west of Lake Winnipeg began as early as 1731. Geography Lake Winnipeg was a major junction for the fur trade routes. See Canadian canoe routes (early). To the southeast the route ran to Grand Portage and the French center at Montreal. To the northeast the Hayes River led to the English base on Hudson Bay. To the northwest the Saskatchewan River led west to the Rocky Mountains. From this river another route led northwest to the even richer Athabasca Country. West of Lake Winnipeg is the chain of lakes that look like a single lake on large maps (Cedar Lake (Manitoba), Lake Winnipegosis and Lake Manitoba). West of this is the Assiniboine River. The Assiniboine flows southeast and then the east to Winnipeg, Manitoba where it meets the Red River of the North which flows north into Lake Winnipeg. Further west the Qu'Appelle River flows east to meet the Assiniboine. South of the Qu'Appelle is the Souris River which was not im ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saskatchewan River Fur Trade
Saskatchewan River fur trade The Saskatchewan River was one of the two main axes of Canadian expansion west of Lake Winnipeg. The other and more important one was northwest to the Athabasca Country. For background see Canadian canoe routes (early). The main trade route followed the North Saskatchewan River and Saskatchewan River, which were just south of the forested beaver country. The South Saskatchewan River was a prairie river with few furs. Overview The Saskatchewan River was a natural highway for furs going east and trade goods going west. The forests to the north provided beaver pelts. The grassland to the south provided buffalo for food and pemmican to feed to voyageurs in the food-poor country to the north. Pemmican was often more important than beaver. Most was sent downriver to Cumberland House, Saskatchewan, before being sent northward, but from 1790 some was sent via a relatively short overland route to the Green Lake, Saskatchewan and on to the Athabasca Country. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
North West Company
The North West Company was a fur trading business headquartered in Montreal from 1779 to 1821. It competed with increasing success against the Hudson's Bay Company in what is present-day Western Canada and Northwestern Ontario. With great wealth at stake, tensions between the companies increased to the point where several minor armed skirmishes broke out, and the two companies were forced by the British government to merge. Before the Company After the French landed in Quebec in 1608, spread out and built a fur trade empire in the St. Lawrence basin. The French competed with the Dutch (from 1614) and English (1664) in New York and the English in Hudson Bay (1670). Unlike the French who travelled into the northern interior and traded with First Nations in their camps and villages, the English made bases at trading posts on Hudson Bay, inviting the indigenous people to trade. After 1731, pushed trade west beyond Lake Winnipeg. After the British conquest of New France in 1763 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frog Portage
Frog Portage or Portage du Traite was one of the most important portages on the voyageur route from eastern Canada to the Mackenzie River basin. It allowed boatmen to move from the Saskatchewan River basin to the Churchill River basin. The Churchill then led west to the Mackenzie River basin. The fur trade route ran from Cumberland House, Saskatchewan north up the Sturgeon-Weir River. At its source the 300-yard Frog Portage ran, with a 20-foot drop, to Trade Lake on the Churchill a few miles west of the mouth of Reindeer River. The route then ran at least 250 miles northwest up the Churchill to Methye Portage which led to the Mackenzie basin. For background, see Canadian canoe routes (early). The name is said to come from a dried frog skin that the Cree Nation put up in derision of the Chipewayan's incompetence in preparing beaver skin. The name Traite (trade) comes from Frobisher's coup (see below). Today there are still a plank road and push car. There is a cairn at the Churc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Pas
The Pas ( ; french: Le Pas) is a town in Manitoba, Canada, located at the confluence of the Pasquia River and the Saskatchewan River and surrounded by the unorganized Northern Region of the province. It is approximately northwest of the provincial capital, Winnipeg, and from the border of Saskatchewan. It is sometimes still called ''Paskoyac'' by locals after the first trading post, called Fort Paskoya and constructed during French colonial rule. The Pasquia River begins in the Pasquia Hills in east central Saskatchewan. The French in 1795 knew the river as Basquiau. Known as "The Gateway to the North", The Pas is a multi-industry northern Manitoba town serving the surrounding region. The main components of the region's economy are agriculture, forestry, commercial fishing, tourism, transportation, and services (especially health and education). The main employer is a paper mill operated by Canadian Kraft Paper Industries Ltd. The Pas contains one of the two main campuses of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pedlar (fur Trade)
Pedlar is a term used in Canadian history to refer to English-speaking independent fur traders from Montreal who competed with the Hudson's Bay Company in western Canada from about 1770 to 1803. After 1779 they were mostly absorbed by the North West Company. The name was first used by the Hudson's Bay Company to refer to French coureurs des bois, who travelled inland to trade with the Indians in their villages and camps. This was in contrast to the HBC policy of building posts on Hudson Bay, to where the Indians would bring furs to trade with them. The pedlars were important for three reasons: they helped transfer woodland skills from French-Canadians to the English-speakers who dominated the trade in the nineteenth century. Although English and Scots men had the capital to become traders for the HBC, most of the voyageurs, guides, and interpreters were French-Canadian or Métis people. They helped transfer knowledge of the country from the Indigenous peoples. Second, the pedlar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Tomison
William Tomison was a Scottish fur trader who helped found and build a number of trading posts for the Hudson Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business div ... such as the Edmonton House. He was involved in the fur trade for over thirty years, during which time he served in York Factory and the Severn House. During his fifty years of service with the Hudson Bay Company, Tomison worked his way through the ranks. Early life Tomison was born in the Orkney Islands in 1739. Career William Tomison's career with the Hudson Bay Company started in 1760. There was a lack of trading posts in particular areas, when Tomison started there was not one in the Western interior. This was vital information that helped William Tomison progress within the Hudson Bay Company, giving ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ferdinand Jacobs
Ferdinand Jacobs ( – November 1783) was a Hudson's Bay Company chief factor. He joined the company's outpost in Prince of Wales's Fort (now Churchill, Manitoba Churchill is a town in northern Manitoba, Canada, on the west shore of Hudson Bay, roughly from the Manitoba–Nunavut border. It is most famous for the many polar bears that move toward the shore from inland in the autumn, leading to the nickname ...) in 1732. In 1752 he was promoted to chief factor of the trading post. External links * 1710s births 1783 deaths Hudson's Bay Company people {{Canada-business-bio-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Louis Primeau
Louis Primeau or Primo ( fl. 1749–1800) was one of the first European fur traders on the Churchill River. Primeau Lake in northern Saskatchewan, Canada () is named after him. Little is known of his youth. Morton says that he was born in Quebec of an English father and French mother, but the DCB does not repeat this. Career Toward the end of the French period in the 18th century, Louis Primeau was trading on the Saskatchewan River at the far western edge of trade and exploration. He spent much time with the Indians, i.e., First Nations people. When the French and Indian War broke out in 1756, as the North American front of the Seven Years' War between Britain and France, most of the French officers were recalled to Quebec. But, Primeau stayed in the west and tried to maintain the fur trade. Following the war and victory by the British in 1763, the Montreal trade had broken down. Primeau went to York Factory and joined the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), a British business. From 1765 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Montreal Campaign
The Montreal Campaign, also known as the Fall of Montreal, was a British three-pronged offensive against Montreal which took place from July 2 to 8 September 1760 during the French and Indian War as part of the global Seven Years' War. The campaign, pitted against an outnumbered and outsupplied French army, led to the capitulation and occupation of Montreal, the largest remaining city in French Canada. Under the overall direction of Jeffery Amherst, British forces numbering around 18,000 men converged on Montreal starting in July from three separate directions. One under Amherst moved in from Lake Ontario, the other under James Murray moved from Québec and the third under William Haviland moved from Fort Crown Point. After capturing French positions and outposts along the way all three forces met up and surrounded Montreal. Many Canadiens deserted or surrendered their arms to British forces while the native allies of the French began to negotiate peace treaties and alliances wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
