The Hudson’s Bay Company was founded in May of 1670 with a charter from King Charles II of England. The charter gave the company rights to control the fur trade coming from the vast North American lands that drained into Hudson Bay.
It amounted to three million square miles of territory in what is today known as Canada. The land was full of streams, rivers and lakes, and home to millions of beaver. And beaver pelts were in great demand by European hat makers. Beaver hats were status symbols.
The Hudson’s Bay Company set up forts and trading posts around Hudson Bay. Native trappers and hunters brought beaver pelts in to trade for guns, metal tools and textiles. By the 1800s, the company had opened mercantile stores which supplied settlers with everything from tobacco and tea to pianos. Hudson’s Bay Company lives on today in the form of Canadian department stores which continue to sell the same iconic Hudson’s Bay striped blankets that were originally traded for beaver pelts.
Learn more in the Merrill J. Mattes papers at UW’s American Heritage Center.
For more information, visit the American Heritage Center site.