North American Beaver (Fur Trade) (Castor canadensis)

Timeline

1. 1608–1627Quebec settlement, New France · QuebecSamuel de Champlain established Quebec at the St. Lawrence narrows, making beaver pelts New France's most stable export. French traders exchanged metal tools, cloth, and firearms with the Montagnais, Algonquin, and Huron for raw pelts, which were then shipped to hat-making centers in Paris, La Rochelle, and elsewhere. The beaver thus transformed from a forest species into the core resource of colonial finance.
2. 1614–1639Fort Orange (Albany) and the St. Lawrence River · New NetherlandThe Dutch established Fort Orange on the upper Hudson River, trading beaver pelts directly with the Iroquois Confederacy and creating a flanking competition against the French–Huron inland network. Beavers declined in the St. Lawrence Valley through sustained hunting, forcing the trade's center of gravity toward the Great Lakes. Firearms, wampum, and alcohol entered the exchange, binding beaver pelt prices to tribal diplomacy.
3. 1640–1649Great Lakes and the former Huron homeland · Lake HuronTo gain new hunting grounds and cut off the Huron–French beaver corridor, the Iroquois Confederacy launched devastating attacks on the Huron, Petun, and Neutral peoples in the 1640s. The beaver was no longer merely a commodity but a target of war: whoever controlled the flow of raw pelts to Quebec or Fort Orange controlled firearms and alliances. The migration and re-alliance of northeastern peoples made this species a medium for redrawing the political map.
4. 1670Hudson Bay and North American inland waterways · Hudson BayAfter the Hudson's Bay Company received its charter in 1670, the beaver trade pushed further into subarctic waters. Sustained intensive hunting in the 18th–19th centuries drove beavers nearly to extinction in many eastern North American watersheds, altering wetland landscapes. Conservation and reintroduction in the 20th century brought a significant population rebound; today the species remains a widely distributed large rodent of North America, but its historical role as a pillar of imperial finance has ended.