Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant documents that can help answer the question.
Query: Where was the first fur trading in North America?
French explorer Jacques Cartier in his three voyages into the Gulf of St. Lawrence in the 1530s and 1540s conducted some of the earliest fur trading between European and First Nations peoples associated with sixteenth century and later explorations in North America. Cartier attempted limited fur trading with the First Nations in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and along the St. Lawrence River. He concentrated on trading for furs used as trimming and adornment. He overlooked the fur that would become the driving force of the fur trade in the north, the beaver pelt, which would become fashionable in Europe.[1]
The fur trade is the worldwide buying and selling of fur for clothing and other purposes. The fur trade was one of the driving forces of exploration of North America and the Russian Far East.
Innis's 15-page conclusion to the "Fur Trade in Canada" explains the significance of staple products, such as furs, to colonial development. It also explores the effects of the staples trade on the more technologically advanced home countries of France and Britain. "Fundamentally the civilization of North America is the civilization of Europe," Innis writes, "and the interest of this volume is primarily in the effects of a vast new land area on European civilization." He notes that European settlers in North America survived by borrowing the cultural traits of the indigenous peoples, but also sought to maintain European standards of living by exporting goods not available in the home country in exchange for manufactured products. In Canada's case, the first such goods were the staples cod fish and beaver fur. Later staples included lumber, pulp and paper, wheat, gold, nickel and other metals.
The American Fur Company (AFC) was founded in 1808, by John Jacob Astor, a German immigrant to the United States.[1] During the 18th century, furs had become a major commodity in Europe, and North America became a major supplier. Several British companies, most notably the North West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company, were eventual competitors against Astor and capitalized on the lucrative trade in furs. Astor capitalized on anti-British sentiments and his commercial strategies to become one of the first trusts in American business and a major competitor to the British commercial dominance in North American fur trade. Expanding into many former British fur-trapping regions and trade routes, the company grew to monopolize the fur trade in the United States by 1830, and became one of the largest and wealthiest businesses in the country.
For centuries one of the most important economic ventures in North America was the fur trade. This trade, which had been pioneered by the French, came to be dominated by the British as they gained increasing territory on the continent. The main British fur trading posts were located inside of what became the United States (the British were forced to relocate northward as borders were established with the new nation). First Nations were central to the trade as they were the primary fur trappers. The role gave the peoples of many of the First Nations a political voice as, though they were viewed as an underclass, they were too important to simply be ignored. The American Revolution led to intense competition between the British and the U.S. By the 1830s changing fashions in Europe had begun a steep decline in fur prices and an overall collapse in the market. Apart from the economic losses to "whites" involved in the fur trade, many of the First Nations were devastated, both in terms of economic loss and in terms of loss of influence in local politics.
Modern fur trapping and trading in North America is part of a wider $15 billion global fur industry where wild animal pelts make up only 15percent of total fur output.
In about 1660, Radisson and Groseilliers, two explorers and fur traders, made their way to Chequamegon Bay. They started a French fur trading post on the island, which they then considered part of New France, although it was traditional territory of the Anishinaabeg and previous indigenous cultures. From about 1660 through 1763, a fierce rivalry grew between France and Great Britain in North America, as each European power struggled to expand its fur-trading territories and control the lucrative fur trade. As part of the Seven Years' War, British and French regular and mostly colonial forces, together with assorted Indian allies, fought in North America. With the British victory, France ceded all its territories east of the Mississippi River.
Deerskin trade Fur trade Métis buffalo hunt British colonization of the Americas French colonization of the Americas Economic history of Canada Economic history of the United States
But, as more Métis lived in communities with a fur-trapping tradition, they created a new, distinct Aboriginal people in North America. First Nations women were the link between cultures; they provided companionship for the fur traders, introductions to their people and culture, and also aided in their survival. First Nations women were able to translate the native languages, sewed new clothing for their husbands and children, and generally were involved in resolving any cultural issues that arose. The First Peoples had survived in the west for thousands of years, so the fur traders benefited greatly from their First Nations wives' knowledge of the land and its resources. Métis people were thought of as the familial bond between the Europeans and First Nations and Inuit peoples of North America. As adults, the men often worked as fur-trade company interpreters, as well as fur trappers in their turn. Many of the first generations of Métis lived within the First Nations societies of their wives and children, but also started to marry Métis women.
On the Pacific coast of North America, the fur trade mainly pursued seal and sea otter. In northern areas, this trade was established first by the Russian-American Company, with later participation by Spanish/Mexican, British, and U.S. hunters/traders. Non-Russians extended fur-hunting areas south as far as the Baja California Peninsula.
The trails were first used to obtain seed and supplies for the Selkirk colony. They soon became trade routes for local fur traders, and in the 1830s began to be heavily used by American fur traders operating just south of the international border. The Americans acquired furs from fur traders in British North America who were evading the Hudson's Bay Company monopoly on trade within its chartered domain.
Early exploration parties were often fur-trading expeditions, many of which marked the first recorded instances of Europeans' reaching particular regions of North America. For example, Abraham Wood sent fur-trading parties on exploring expeditions into the southern Appalachian Mountains, discovering the New River in the process. Simon Fraser was a fur trader who explored much of the Fraser River in British Columbia.
The most profitable furs were those of sea otters, especially the northern sea otter, "Enhydra lutris kenyoni", which inhabited the coastal waters between the Columbia River in the south to the Aleutian Islands in the north. The sea otter was the most hunted during the Maritime Fur Trade during the 17th and 18th centuries. Sea otters possess a thicker fur than any other mammal, and the sea otter's habit of grooming their coat prevents molting. The reason for their exploitation was due to this 'dark [thick] and silver tipped fur'. The popularity and demand in fashion of sea otter pelts in China was one of the reasons why it was hunted to the point of disappearance. These mammals of the Pacific are currently 'listed as Threatened under the Canadian Species at Risk Act'. Sea otter distribution extends from the north of Japan all the way to the vicinity of Cedros Island, Mexico. The species stayed approximately within the arc of the Northern Pacific until the pressure of the maritime trade forced them to move north. The start of their decline with the first Russian expeditions in this region. Aleut hunters were the providers of the skins to the Russians; the former became 'the main purveyor of prime otter skins to Russian traders and American adventurers'. Before the exploitation of these mammals, their population ranged from 150,000 to 300,000. Sea otters are 'slow breeders, only one sometimes two pups [are] being born at a time' which does not help the population when being pursued. The Chinese sought this mammal's fur due to its great commercial value and its 'prime coat' all year long. The pelt was used by the wealthy Chinese as clothing decoration (robe trimming) and the Russians used it as an ornamental piece. The other furs that were sent to Europe and America were changed to 'coat collars or hats'. Due to this great demand and worth of the sea otters pelt, the Russian-America Company (RAC) annual expenses was around 1000,000 rubles each year and profited over 500,000 rubles per year. The fur of the Californian southern sea otter, "E. l. nereis", was less highly prized and thus less profitable. After the northern sea otter was hunted to local extinction, maritime fur traders shifted to California until the southern sea otter was likewise nearly extinct. The British and American maritime fur traders took their furs to the Chinese port of Guangzhou (Canton), where they worked within the established Canton system. Furs from Russian America were mostly sold to China via the Mongolian trading town of Kyakhta, which had been opened to Russian trade by the 1727 Treaty of Kyakhta.
Starting in the mid-16th century, Europeans traded weapons and household goods in exchange for furs with Native Americans in southeast America.[67] The trade originally tried to mimic the fur trade in the north, with large quantities of wildcats, bears, beavers, and other fur bearing animals being traded.[68] The trade in fur coat animals decreased in the early 18th century, curtailed by the rising popularity of trade in deerskins.[68] The deerskin trade went onto dominate the relationships between the Native Americans of the southeast and the European settlers there. Deerskin was a highly valued commodity due to the deer shortage in Europe, and the British leather industry needed deerskins to produce goods.[69] The bulk of deerskins were exported to Great Britain during the peak of the deerskin trade.[70]
The area was first inhabited by First Nations peoples (Plains Indians), long before European settlers began to arrive prior to 1850. In September 1738, after the fur trade had extended into Western Canada. Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vérendrye (a French-Canadian explorer and fur trader) built Fort La Reine north of the Assiniboine River to serve as a fur trading post, and provide the explorers with a "home" operating base, from which they would explore other parts of central Manitoba and western North America.
The term "maritime fur trade" was coined by historians to distinguish the coastal, ship-based fur trade from the continental, land-based fur trade of, for example, the North West Company and American Fur Company. Historically, the maritime fur trade was not known by that name, rather it was usually called the "North West Coast trade" or "North West Trade". The term "North West" was rarely spelled as the single word "Northwest", as is common today.
Russian maritime fur trading in the northern Pacific began after the exploration voyages of Vitus Bering and Aleksei Chirikov in 1741 and 1742. Their voyages demonstrated that Asia and North America were not connected but that sea voyages were feasible, and that the region was rich in furs. Private fur traders, mostly "promyshlenniki", launched fur trading expeditions from Kamchatka, at first focusing on nearby islands such as the Commander Islands. Unlike fur trading ventures in Siberia, these maritime expeditions required more capital than most "promyshlenniki" could obtain. Merchants from cities such as Irkutsk, Tobolsk, and others in European Russia, became the principal investors.
The North American fur trade was the industry and activities related to the acquisition, trade, exchange, and sale of animal furs in North America. Aboriginal peoples in Canada and Native Americans in the United States of different regions traded among themselves in the pre–Columbian Era, but Europeans participated in the trade beginning from the time of their arrival in the New World and extended its reach to Europe. The French started trading in the 16th century, the English established trading posts on Hudson Bay in present-day Canada in the 17th century, and the Dutch had trade by the same time in New Netherland. The 19th-century North American fur trade, when the industry was at its peak of economic importance, involved the development of elaborate trade networks.
The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period, furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the most valued. Historically the trade stimulated the exploration and colonization of Siberia, northern North America, and the South Shetland and South Sandwich Islands.
This area was one of the most important regions of the fur trade in North America. Both the Assiniboine and North Saskatchewan rivers were major fur trade routes, with a number of fur trade posts, much more so than rivers to the prairie south. The Métis people were formed around these posts from the intermarriage of white fur traders and native trappers.
As the Russians traveled across the Pacific, North Americans were brought into the fur trade. Siberian furs were brought to Alaska and traded there. Indirectly, this allowed Siberia to also become connected with the Western Hemisphere and the Americas.
By the early 19th century, several companies established strings of fur trading posts and forts across North America.
Members of NAFIC are: the auction houses American Legend Cooperative in Seattle, North American Fur Auctions in Toronto, and Fur Harvesters Auction[108] in North Bay, Ontario; the American Mink Council, representing US mink producers; the mink farmers' associations Canada Mink Breeders Association[109] and Fur Commission USA;[110] the trade associations Fur Council of Canada[111] and Fur Information Council of America;[112] the Fur Institute of Canada, leader of the country's trap research and testing program; Fur wRaps The Hill, the political and legislative arm of the North American fur industry; and the International Fur Federation,[113] based in London, UK.
A number of whales are still subject to direct hunting, despite the 1986 moratorium ban on whaling set under the terms of the International Whaling Commission (IWC). There are only two nations remaining which sanction commercial whaling: Norway, where several hundred common minke whales are harvested each year; and Iceland, where quotas of 150 fin whales and 100 minke whales per year are set. Japan also harvests several hundred Antarctic and North Pacific minke whales each year, ostensibly for scientific research in accordance with the moratorium. However, the illegal trade of whale and dolphin meat is a significant market in Japan and some countries.
The most profitable furs in the fur trade were those of sea otters, especially the northern sea otter which inhabited the coastal waters between the Columbia River to the south and Cook Inlet to the north. The fur of the Californian southern sea otter was less highly prized and thus less profitable. After the northern sea otter was hunted to local extinction, maritime fur traders shifted to California until the southern sea otter was likewise nearly extinct. The British and American maritime fur traders took their furs to the Chinese port of Guangzhou (Canton), where they worked within the established Canton System. Furs from Russian America were mostly sold to China via the Mongolian trading town of Kyakhta, which had been opened to Russian trade by the 1727 Treaty of Kyakhta.
The French interest in Canada focused first on fishing off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. However, at the beginning of the 17th century, France was more interested in fur from North America. The fur trading post of Tadoussac was founded in 1600. Four years later, Champlain made his first trip to Canada in a trade mission for fur. Although he had no formal mandate on this trip, he sketched a map of the St. Lawrence River and in writing, on his return to France, a report entitled Savages[9] (relation of his stay in a tribe of Montagnais near Tadoussac).