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Hudson Bay Fur Trade System

Type Object Region North America Time 1610–1870

The Hudson Bay fur trade was a transcontinental commercial system formed in northern North America in the early 17th century, centered on European tr…

Timeline

  1. 1610–1620Hudson Bay, North America · CanadaIn 1610, English explorer Henry Hudson sailed deep into the great bay of northern North America; after wintering in James Bay, his crew mutinied and Hudson himself disappeared. His voyage records brought Hudson Bay to British attention, and several expeditions followed, establishing initial fur exchange relations with local peoples such as the Cree, laying the geographic and personal foundations of the trade system.
  2. 1621–1630Hudson Bay and the St. Lawrence River basin · CanadaBetween 1621 and 1630, both British and French colonists pushed deep into the North American interior to compete for fur sources. The French expanded northward along the St. Lawrence river system, while the British infiltrated inland from the Hudson Bay coast, establishing barter networks with the Cree, Assiniboine, and other Indigenous peoples, exchanging iron goods, cloth, and alcohol for beaver pelts. This decade established the basic pattern of the fur trade for the next two centuries.
  3. 1670–1713Rupert's Land, Hudson Bay basin · CanadaIn 1670, King Charles II granted the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) a monopoly charter over the fur trade in the entire drainage basin of Hudson Bay (Rupert's Land). The company established fixed trading posts along the bay's shore, to which Indigenous hunters brought their pelts each summer in exchange for European goods. The Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 confirmed British sovereignty over Rupert's Land, further consolidating HBC's monopoly position.
  4. 1774–1870North American interior plains, east of the Rocky Mountains · CanadaIn the second half of the 18th century, the North West Company from Montreal entered fierce competition with the HBC, forcing both sides to push inland and establish posts. In 1821 the two companies merged, leaving the HBC in sole control of the North American fur market, but beaver populations declined sharply due to overhunting. In 1870 the HBC sold Rupert's Land to the Canadian Confederation, marking the end of the fur trade system that had lasted over two centuries.

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