How was hbc formed?

Answer 1

In the 17th century, the French had a monopoly on the Canadian fur trade. However, two French traders, Pierre-Esprit Radisson and Médard des Groseilliers (Médard de Chouart, Sieur des Groseilliers), Radisson's brother-in-law, learned from the Cree that the best fur country was north and west of Lake Superior and that there was a "frozen sea" still further north.[19] Assuming that this was Hudson Bay, they sought French backing for a plan to set up a trading post on the Bay, thus reducing the cost of moving furs overland. According to Peter C. Newman, "concerned that exploration of the Hudson Bay route might shift the focus of the fur trade away from the St. Lawrence River, the French governor", Marquis d'Argenson, "refused to grant the coureurs de bois permission to scout the distant territory."[19] Despite this refusal, in 1659 Radisson and Groseilliers set out for the upper Great Lakes basin. A year later they returned from their expedition with premium furs, evidence of the potential of the Hudson Bay region. Subsequently, they were arrested for trading without a licence and fined, and their furs were confiscated.

Determined to establish trade in the Hudson Bay, Radisson and Groseilliers approached a group of business men in Boston, Massachusetts to help finance their explorations. The Bostonians agreed on the plan's merits but their speculative voyage in 1663 failed when their ship ran into pack ice in Hudson Strait. This came to the attention of Boston-based English commissioner Colonel George Cartwright, who brought the two to England to elicit financing.[19] Radisson and Groseilliers arrived in London in 1665 at the height of the Great Plague. Eventually, the two met and received the sponsorship of Prince Rupert. Prince Rupert also introduced the two to his cousin, King Charles II.[20] In 1668, the English acquired two ships, the Nonsuch and the Eaglet, to explore possible trade into Hudson Bay. The Nonsuch was commanded by Captain Zachariah Gillam, who was accompanied by Groseilliers, while the Eaglet was commanded by Captain William Stannard and accompanied by Radisson. On 5 June 1668, both ships left port at Deptford, England, but the Eaglet was forced to turn back off the coast of Ireland.[21]

The Nonsuch continued to James Bay, the southern portion of Hudson Bay where its explorers founded the first fort on Hudson Bay, Charles Fort (later Rupert House, now Waskaganish, Quebec[22]), at the mouth of the Rupert River. Both the fort and the river were named after the sponsor of the expedition, Prince Rupert of the Rhine, one of the major investors and soon to be the new company's first governor. After a successful trading expedition over the winter of 1668-1669, the Nonsuch returned to England on 9 October 1669, with the first cargo of fur resulting from trade in Hudson Bay. The bulk of the fur - worth £1,233 - was sold to Thomas Glover, one of London's most prominent furriers. This and subsequent purchases by Glover made it clear that the fur trade business in Hudson Bay was indeed viable.[23]

Rupert's Land, the drainage basin of Hudson Bay, the company's grant.

The Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading into Hudson's Bay was incorporated on 2 May 1670, with a royal charter from King Charles II.[24] The charter granted the company a monopoly over the region drained by all rivers and streams flowing into Hudson Bay in northern Canada. The area was called Rupert's Land after Prince Rupert, the first governor of the company appointed by the King. This region, the drainage basin of Hudson Bay, constitutes 1.5 million square miles (3.9×106 km2), comprises over one-third the area of modern day Canada and stretches into the north central United States. The specific boundaries were unknown at the time. Rupert's Land would eventually be Canada's largest land purchase in the 1800s.

The HBC established six posts between 1668 and 1717. Rupert House (1668, southeast), Moose Factory (1673, south) and Fort Albany, Ontario (1679, west) were erected on James Bay; three other posts were established on the western shore of Hudson Bay proper: Fort Severn (1689), York Factory (1684) and Fort Churchill (1717). Inland posts were not built until 1774. After 1774, York Factory became the main post because of its convenient access to the vast interior waterway systems of the Saskatchewan and Red rivers. Called "factories" (because the "factor," i.e., a person acting as a mercantile agent did business from there), these posts operated in the manner of the Dutch fur trading operations in New Netherlands.