Hudson's Bay Company Adventures by Elle Andra-Warner

Author:Elle Andra-Warner
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-926613-14-7
Publisher: Heritage House
Published: 2010-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

7

The Rivalry Continues

During its first 100 years of operation, the Hudson’s Bay Company had successfully operated with only seven trading posts, all strategically located at the mouths of rivers flowing into the Hudson and James bays. Native peoples annually travelled long distances by birchbark canoe and overland to transport their harvest of furs to the HBC posts. All the HBC men had to do was wait and be prepared to trade. Except for the inland expeditions made by Henry Kelsey from 1690 to 1692 and Anthony Henday in 1754, there had been no initiatives to expand into the interior.

The HBC’s rivalry with the French coureurs de bois ended when Britain defeated New France in 1763. But a new, more dangerous trading rival was emerging from the vacuum left by the Montreal fur traders—one that would bring the HBC into a deadly war and to the brink of destruction.

It was around this time that the HBC took notice that its fur-trade profits were beginning to erode. First Nations trading groups heading toward the HBC forts on the bay were being intercepted en route by competing fur traders. Business was falling as fewer fur-laden canoes made it to the HBC posts. In 1773, York Factory had only 8,000 “made beaver,” compared with an annual average of 30,000 in the ten-year period from 1756 to 1766. A made beaver was the standard of trade in the fur trade, equalling one good-quality adult beaver pelt.

The Hudson’s Bay Company finally realized it had to establish inland trading posts to be competitive. And in 1774 the London Committee sent Samuel Hearne to establish Cumberland House, its first permanent inland post. Hearne set off in the spring of 1774 and selected a site on the Saskatchewan River called Pine Island Lake (now Cumberland Lake in Saskatchewan) at the junction of several water routes. The site was about 95 kilometres west of modern-day The Pas, in northwestern Manitoba.

After clearing the ground, Hearne and his men built a low-slung log bunker with a plank roof, using moss for caulking and insulation. It was a primitive building, but it served as the first inland post for HBC. The men stored their supplies in a warehouse at the east end of their shelter. Hearne, an experienced expedition leader, knew the winter would be difficult. It was the first time he was faced with men not accustomed to wilderness. Though they were stocked with trading goods and supplies, the HBC men almost starved the first winter, as they had brought along very little extra food. An added element of concern was the 150 rival traders set up in the area around the fort. But Hearne kept relations with the other traders cordial and no confrontations occurred.

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