The Northwest Fur Trade

1
The Northwest Fur Trade
2
The Companies

• What were the four major fur trading companies
  that operated in the Pacific Northwest in the
  1700s and 1800s?
• Hudsons Bay Company
• Northwest Fur Company
• Pacific Fur Company
• Rocky Mountain Fur Company

3
Significant Individuals

• John Jacob Astor
• Wealthiest man in America headed the Pacific Fur
  Company (owned by U.S.) and founded a trading
  post at Astoria. He eventually sold his company
  to the North West Fur Company because of the War
  of 1812.
• David Thompson
• The North West Company map prepared by David
  Thompson covered an area of two million three
  hundred and forty thousand square miles from Lake
  Superior and Hudson Bay to the mouth of the
  Columbia River.
• Alexander MacKenzie
• Worked for the North West Fur Company, and
  unsuccessfully tried to find a major waterway
  from the interior of Canada to the Pacific
• Dr. John McLoughlin
• Leader of Hudsons Bay Company in the Oregon
  Country. He was very powerful and helped serve as
  an extension of the British government in the
  region

4
Reasons for the Fur Trade

• Why have the fur trade in the Pacific Northwest?
• Access to abundant fur-bearing animals
• Huge global demand for these animals
• Ability to trade with natives for animals
• The trappers explorations increases claims to
  the land (Britain and America)

5
Where to Locate

• Knowing what you do about the fur trade, where
  would you locate a fur trading post? Why?
• River locations
• Access to interior
• Access to ocean trade
• Protection from others
• Proximity to fur-bearing animals territory

6
Which Animals were the Most Profitable?

• Beaver
• Sea Otter and River Otter
• Fox

7
How could you profit the most?

• Where was demand high?
• Europe, eastern U.S., far east/Asia
• Where was supply high?
• Pacific Northwest
• Describe the process

8
What were the impacts of the fur trade on

• Native American and European-American relations?
• The relationship was strengthened because both
  groups benefited from the trade and depended on
  each other for goods/furs
• Claims to the Pacific Northwest by Britain and
  the U.S.?
• Because the U.S. was closer and sent more
  trappers, their claims to the Pacific Northwest
  were also strengthened
• Exploration of the Pacific Northwest?
• Sending all these trappers really helped to map
  the area and figure out what was out here it led
  to a better understanding of the area
• The economic development and profit motive of the
  Pacific Northwest?
• People began to realize that the Pacific
  Northwest wasnt just wilderness it was an
  untapped goldmine of natural resources (furs,
  timber, fish, precious metals, etc.). There was
  also millions of acres of unsettled land onto
  which people could move