Why was the Hudson Bay Company important?

The Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC), chartered 2 May 1670, is the oldest incorporated joint-stock merchandising company in the English-speaking world. HBC was a fur trading business for most of its history, a past that is entwined with the colonization of British North America and the development of Canada.

What was the impact of the Hudson Bay Company?

From the Canadian perspective, the purchase of Rupert’s Land was a magnificent win. Since its inception, the HBC had helped establish an English presence in the region by founding trading posts, three of which became provincial capitals: Fort Garry in Winnipeg, Fort Edmonton and Fort Victoria.

How did the Hudson Bay Company benefit the colony?

Even though the land did not belong to him or to his country. The deep-water ports gave the British traders easy access to the richest fur country of all, and a great advantage over the French: Big ocean-going ships could sail directly between Britain and Hudson’s Bay, bringing in trade goods, and carrying out furs.

What makes the Hudson Bay company unique?

The Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) is the oldest corporation in Canada (and North America) and is one of the oldest in the world still in existence. Today the company is best known for its department stores throughout Canada. In the 17th century the French had a monopoly on the Canadian fur trade.

How did the NWC operate?

The NWC was different from HBC in several significant ways. Based in North America, it was owned and operated by men who were active in the business. Many of the partners had themselves travelled into the interior and traded there. It enabled HBC to benefit from a short business cycle.

Who owns the Bay?

NRDC Equity Partners
Hudson’s Bay Company/Owners

What lives in Hudson Bay?

Cod, halibut, salmon and polar plaice are the most common fish. Walrus, dolphins and killer whales live in the northern regions and polar bears migrate south to hunt seals among the ice. Some 200 species of birds including ducks, snow geese, gulls, swans, sandpipers, owls and crows gather on the coasts and islands.

Why is the Hudson’s Bay Company a Canadian story?

This telling of the HBC starts in London, the epicentre of the British Empire. It starts there because although the story of the HBC is a Canadian story, it’s a transnational one, too. It’s the story of an English company claiming and helping to colonize huge swathes of North America, inhabited by sovereign Indigenous nations.

Who was the king who gave the Hudson’s Bay Company a charter?

King Charles II of England grants a permanent charter to the Hudson’s Bay Company, made up of the group of French explorers who opened the lucrative North American fur trade to London merchants.

Where did the Hudson’s Bay blankets come from?

These stripped blankets were created by the Hudson’s Bay Company in the Northern part of North America in 1780. Typically, the wool blankets were traded with Native Americans for pelts; arctic fox, lynx and most importantly beaver.

Why did the Hudson’s Bay Company use the Made Beaver?

Often, Indigenous traders were middlemen, bringing furs from communities farther inland. In order to standardize trade among posts, the HBC introduced the Made Beaver as the currency of the fur trade. All furs and manufactured items were valued according to this standard, which was the equivalent of one prime male beaver skin.