|
English Colonies |
France vs. England |
Fur Trade
| HBC |
The Mississippi |
Le Petite Guerre |
Containment |
New France |
Preparations |
War |
Treaty of Paris
The development of the
fur trade had exploded once the fashion demands of
Europe had acquired an insatiable desire for felt hats made from
the short hairs of the Beaver. The fur trade had formed
an important part of the early economies of both the
English and French colonies.
The initial system was
based upon some Indian groups trying to control the
trade by playing the middleman between the European
settlers and other outlaying Indian nations. This
developed into a system where the colonists began to
travel to the hinterland to trade directly with the
native groups and eventually the French Coureurs des Bois began to lay their own
trap lines and would travel thousands of miles each year
by canoe. The
English decided upon a different approach when they
claimed the Hudson Bay and all of the lands that had
waters which flowed into the Bay. This system fell under
a private company - The Hudson Bay Company - which was
granted it's charter by King Charles II in 1670. The HBC
constructed trading posts called forts, factories or
Houses at the
mouths of rivers, along the western shore of the Hudson
Bay and initially relied on the natives travelling down
the rivers to trade their furs. As sources and the
quality of the furs began to deteriorate, the Bay men
used the natives to help them explore and establish new
forts further and further away from the Hudson Bay.
The expansion of these
two fur trading systems inevitably brought them into
contact and conflict. There were only so many furs and
the question became who was going to secure and dominate
the trade. It is an interesting fact that the furs from
Canada were usually considered to be more desirable due
to the colder winters and hence the greater development
of the fur to keep the animals warm. |
