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North West Company

 
US History Encyclopedia: North West Company
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The North West Company, a major fur-trading firm organized in the winter of 1783–1784, was never an incorporated company, as were its chief rivals, the Hudson'S Bay Company and the American Fur Company. It resembled a modern holding company, the constituent parts of which were chiefly Montreal firms and partnerships engaged in the fur trade. It came into existence during the American Revolution and ended by coalescing with the Hudson's Bay Company in 1821. In the interimit had reorganized in 1783; added the firm of Gregory, McLeod, and Company, its chief rival, in 1787; split into two factions in the later 1790s; reunited in 1804; joined forces with the American Fur Company temporarily in 1811; been ejected from effective work on the soil of the United States in 1816; and established its posts over much of Canada and the northern United States. Its main line of communication was the difficult canoe route from Montreal, up the Ottawa River, and through Lakes Huron and Superior to its chief inland depot: Grand Portage before 1804 and Fort William thereafter. Beyond Lake Superior, the route to the Pacific was the international boundary waters to Lake of the Woods in Minnesota, the Winnipeg River, Lake Winnipeg, the Saskatchewan River, the Peace River, and the Fraser River. Many lines branched from this main one: south into the Wisconsin, Dakota, Minnesota, and Oregon countries and north to Lake Athabasca and the Mackenzie River area.

The company made unsuccessful attempts to gain access to the interior through Hudson Bay, whose basin was the exclusive trading area of the Hudson's Bay Company. Intense competition between the two companies grew to fever pitch after Thomas Douglas, earl of Selkirk, established his colony in the Red River Valley in 1811, and it led to warfare. Thereafter, but only at the cost of sinking its individuality under the charter rights and acquiring the name of the Hudson's Bay Company, the North West Company got its cheaper transportation route. When this union occurred in 1821, the Scottish, Yankee, English, and French-Canadian employees of the North West Company had behind them nearly fifty years of valorous exploration and trailblazing; they had forced the Hudson's Bay Company to build forts in the interior, and they had developed the voyageur to the acme of his unique serviceability.

Bibliography

Brown, Jennifer S. H. Strangers in Blood: Fur Trade Company Families in Indian Country. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1996.

Keith, Lloyd, ed. North of Athabasca: Slave Lake and Mackenzie River Documents of the North West Company, 1800–1821. Ithaca: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2001.

White, Richard. The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650–1815. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

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Columbia Encyclopedia: North West Company
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Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Columbia Encyclopedia
North West Company, fur-trading organization in North America in the late 18th and early 19th cent.; it was composed of Montreal trading firms and fur traders.

Formation

After the conquest of Canada by the British, which was formalized by the Treaty of Paris in 1763, the French traders from Montreal and the coureurs de bois were gradually supplanted, more or less, in the fur trade by Scotsmen. Many of these new traders allied themselves with the French already in the country, and vigorous partnerships sprang up. The Montreal men contested control of the trade in the North with the Hudson's Bay Company, and they extended trade to the West rapidly and efficiently. There were, however, too many conflicting interests in the fields, and the competition not only took all profit out of the trade but also led to bloodshed.

The Montreal merchants who supplied the traders and the traders themselves sought to do away with some of the evils by forming in 1779 a company of sorts; this was later renewed, then abandoned. A new effort was made when a number of Montreal merchants under the leadership of Simon McTavish made an agreement in the winter of 1783-84 that created a company called the North West Company. There was some dissension, and the firm of Gregory and McLeod put up strong opposition. It was not until 1787 that a stable combination was reached. The stockholders were the trading companies of Montreal (which had many interests besides the fur trade and retained their separate existence) and the "wintering partners," the men who did all the actual trading for fur with the Native Americans.

Competition with the Hudson's Bay Company

The traders were, for the most part, active and aggressive, and they made much more headway than the Hudson's Bay Company men. The Northwesters, as they were called, broke new territory for the trade in the West and did not hesitate to try to take the trade even in the vicinity of Hudson Bay. The older company was stirred into some action, and there was an increasingly sharp rivalry. This was not serious, however, until after the Hudson's Bay Company became dominated by Lord Selkirk.

The younger company, meanwhile, was split by dissension, brought on chiefly by the hostility between two important figures in the company, McTavish and Sir Alexander Mackenzie. Mackenzie became (1802) the chief figure in a rival company created c.1798 and usually called the XY Company. This opposition disappeared after the death of McTavish in 1804; Mackenzie's men were reunited with the Northwesters.

To the North West Company is due some of the glory of Mackenzie's earlier voyages to the Arctic (1789) and Pacific (1792-93) oceans. The geographer David Thompson was in the company's employ when he did most of his valuable work, and other explorers, such as Alexander Henry, the younger, were Northwesters.

The company pushed its business into the territory of the United States and met with little opposition except from John Jacob Astor. The Southwest Company, established in 1811, was practically, although not actually, a combination of Astor and North West Company interests; this association was disrupted by the War of 1812. On the Pacific Northwest coast, which was largely explored by Northwesters, Astor was also a rival, but the American post, Astoria (see Astoria b>2), was sold to the North West Company during the War of 1812 by Astor employees sympathetic to the British; however, it helped establish a U.S. claim to the Pacific Northwest.

Merger

After 1810 the rivalry between the North West Company and Hudson's Bay Company grew in intensity and became a problem for the British government. The conflict over the Red River Settlement led to virtual warfare between the companies, and the final solution was the union of the two companies in 1821. The name of the older company was kept and there was no longer a North West Company. In the united company, however, the personnel was predominantly of the Northwestern stamp, and the spirit of the company was that of the vigorous North West Company.

Bibliography

See G. C. Davidson, The North West Company (1918, repr. 1967); H. A. Innis, The Fur Trade in Canada (1930, repr. 1962); W. S. Wallace, ed., Documents Relating to the North West Company (1934, repr. 1968); M. E. W. Campbell, The North West Company (1957); G. Franchère, Adventure at Astoria, 1810-1814 (tr. 1967).

Wikipedia: North West Company
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For the grocery chain, see The North West Company.
North West Company - Coat of Arms

The North West Company was a fur trading business headquartered in Montreal from 1779 to 1821. It competed with increasing success against the Hudson's Bay Company in what was to become Western Canada. With great wealth at stake, tensions between the companies increased to the point where several minor armed skirmishes broke out, and the two companies were forced to merge.

Contents

Beginnings

Although historical references to a North West Company as early as 1770, the first recorded involvement was a 16-share organization formed in 1779. For the next four years, it was little more than a loose association of a few Montreal merchants who discussed how they might break the stranglehold the Hudson's Bay Company held on the North American fur trade. In 1783, the North West Company was officially created, with its corporate offices on Vaudreuil Street in Montreal. It was led by businessmen Benjamin Frobisher, his brother Joseph, and Simon McTavish, along with investor-partners who included Robert Grant, Nicholas Montour, Patrick Small, William Holmes and George McBeath.

Simon McTavish

In 1787 the North West Company merged with Gregory, McLeod and Co. following which Roderick Mackenzie joined the expanded organization, as did his cousin Alexander Mackenzie. The latter oversaw the exploration of the western territories by the "wintering partners", those who did the actual trading for fur with the Native trappers. Grand Portage, Minnesota, on Lake Superior, became the key exchange point for the North West Company, where its western members met the supply canoes that came out from Montreal. In 1803 they relocated the exchange point to Fort William, also on the shore of Lake Superior, north of the American border.[1]

The business expanded to the country around Lake Athabasca, which was subject to major explorations westward led by Simon Fraser, as well as Alexander Mackenzie and David Thompson. These men pushed into the wilderness territories of the Rocky Mountains and all the way to the Gulf of Georgia on the Pacific Coast.[2]

Frobisher-MacTavish deal

The death of Benjamin Frobisher opened the door to a takeover of the North West Company by Simon McTavish, who made a deal with Frobisher's surviving brother Joseph. The firm of McTavish, Frobisher and Company, founded in November 1787, effectively controlled eleven of the company’s twenty outstanding shares. At the time the company consisted of 23 partners, but "its staff of Agents, factors, clerks, guides, interpreters, and voyageurs amounted to 2000 people."[3] In addition to Alexander Mackenzie, this group included Americans Peter Pond and Alexander Henry. Further reorganizations of the partnership occurred in 1795 and 1802, the shares being subdivided each time to provide for more and more wintering partners.

Vertical integration of the business was completed in 1792, when Simon McTavish and John Fraser formed a London house to supply trade goods and market the furs, McTavish, Fraser and Company. While the organization and capitalization of the North West Company came from Anglo-Quebecers, both Simon McTavish and Joseph Frobisher married French Canadians. Numerous French Canadians played key roles in the operations both in the building, management, and shareholding of the various trading posts scattered throughout the country, as well numbering among the voyageurs involved in the actual trading with natives.

In the northwest, the Company expanded its operations as far north as Great Bear Lake, and westwards beyond the Rocky Mountains. For several years, they tried to sell furs directly to China, using American ships to avoid the British East India Company's monopoly, but little profit was made there. The company also expanded into the American Northwest Territory, where in 1795 Jacques Vieau established a trading post in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with outposts at Kewaunee, Manitowoc, and Sheboygan, all on Lake Michigan. In 1796, to better position themselves in the increasingly global market, where politics played a major role, the North West Company briefly established an agency in New York City.

Despite its efforts, the North West Company was at a distinct disadvantage in competing for furs with the Hudson's Bay Company, whose charter gave it a virtual monopoly in the northwest of Canada, where the best furs came from. The company tried to persuade the British Parliament to change arrangements, at least so the North West Company could obtain transit rights to ship goods to the west needed for trading for furs. Simon McTavish made a personal petition to Prime Minister William Pitt, but all requests were refused.

Charlton island

A few years later, with no relief to the Hudson's Bay Company's stranglehold, McTavish and his group decided to gamble. They organized an overland expedition from Montreal to James Bay and a second expedition by sea. In September 1803, the overland party met the company's ship at Charlton Island in what is now Nunavut Territory. There, they lay claim to the region, inhabited by the Inuit, in the name of the North West Company. This bold move caught the Hudson's Bay Company off guard. In succeeding years it retaliated rather than reaching a compromise, which McTavish had hoped might be negotiated.

Late 18th/early 19th century

Simon McTavish brought several members of his family into the company, but nepotism took a back seat to ability. His brother-in-law, Charles Chaboillez, oversaw the Lower Red River trading post. McTavish also hired several cousins and his nephews William McGillivray and Duncan McGillivray to learn the business. Over several years, William McGillivray demonstrated considerable business acumen, and in 1788 he acquired the share owned by Peter Pond when Pond chose to retire. Soon after, he replaced his uncle as the Montreal agents' representative at the annual meetings at Grand Portage.

Simon McTavish was an aggressive businessman who understood that powerful forces in the business world were always ready to pounce on any weakness. As such, his ambition and forceful positions caused disagreements between him and some of the shareholders, several of whom eventually left the North West Company during the 1790s. Some of these dissidents formed their own company, known unofficially as the "XY Company" because of the mark they used on their bales of furs. In 1799 this rival group started to trade in some of the same areas as the North West Company. The XY Company was greatly strengthened when Alexander Mackenzie joined it in 1801.

There was intense competition between the rivals. When Simon McTavish died on July 6, 1804, the new head William McGillivray set out to put an end to the five years' rivalry. It had escalated to a point where the master of the North West Company post at Great Bear Lake had been shot by an XY Company employee during a quarrel. McGillivray was successful in putting together an agreement with the XY Company in 1804. It stipulated that the old North West Company partners held 75 per cent of the shares, and the former XY Company partners the remaining 25 per cent. Alexander Mackenzie was excluded from the new joint partnership.[4]

Under William McGillivray, more success came during the first decade of the 19th century as the North West Company expanded its operating territory. Competition with the Hudson's Bay Company was intense, however, and profit margins were squeezed. The North West Company branch in New York City had allowed the Canadians to get around the British East India Company's monopoly and ship furs to the Chinese market. Cargo ships owned by the North West Company conveniently sailed under the American flag, and doing so meant continued collaboration with John Jacob Astor.

However, Astor was as aggressive as Simon McTavish had been. An intense rivalry soon developed between him and William McGillivray over the Oriental market and westerly expansion to unclaimed territory in what is now the Columbia River basin, in the present-day states of Washington and Oregon. Astoria's Pacific Fur Company beat the North West Company in an effort to found a post near the mouth of the Columbia, Fort Astoria. A collapse in the sea otter population and the imminent possibility of British seizure of Astoria during the War of 1812 led to its sale to the North West Company in 1813, resulting in an awkward situation when the HMS Racoon and its Captain Black arrived and went through a ceremony of possession, even though the fort was already ostensibly a British possession. Due to treaty complications of the Treaty of Ghent requiring the return of seized assets, putative ownership of the site was returned to the United States in 1817, although the fort, renamed Fort George by the North West Company, continued to operate until the Hudson's Bay Company's takeover and the replacement of Fort Astoria by Fort Vancouver.[5]

The Canadian fur trade began to change in 1806, after Napoleon Bonaparte ordered the blockade of the Baltic Sea as part of the ongoing struggle between France and Britain for world dominance. Britain was dependent for almost all of its timber on the Baltic countries and on New Hampshire and Massachusetts. By then, however, tensions had also begun to escalate again between Britain and America, and in 1809 the American Government passed the Non-Intercourse Act, which effectively brought about an almost complete cessation of trade between the two countries. Britain then found itself totally dependent on her Canadian colony for its timber needs, especially the great white pine used for ships' masts. Almost overnight, timber and wood products replaced fur as Canada's number one export. Fur remained profitable, however, as it had a high value-to-bulk ratio, and in an economy short of ready money was routinely used by Canadian merchants to remit value to their London creditors.

Forced merger

By 1810 another crisis hit the fur industry, brought on by the over-harvesting of animals, the beaver in particular. The destruction of the North West Company post at Sault Ste. Marie by the Americans during the War of 1812 was a serious blow during an already difficult time. All these events only intensified competition, and when Thomas Douglas convinced his fellow shareholders in the Hudson's Bay Company to grant him the Selkirk Concession it marked another in a series of events that would lead to the demise of the North West Company. The Pemmican Proclamation, the ensuing Battle of Seven Oaks in 1816, and its violence, resulted in Lord Selkirk arresting William McGillivray and several North West Company proprietors, seizing their outpost property in Fort William and charging them with responsibility for the deaths of twenty-one people at Seven Oaks. Although this matter was resolved by the authorities in Montreal, over the next few years some of the wealthiest and most capable partners began to leave the company, fearful of its future viability. The form of nepotism within the company too had changed, from the strict values of Simon McTavish to something that now was harming the business in both its costs and morale of others.[6]

By 1820, the company was issuing coinage, each coin representing the value of one beaver pelt. However, the continued existence of the North West Company was in great doubt, and shareholders had no choice but to agree to a merger with their hated rival after Henry Bathurst, the Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, ordered the companies to cease hostilities. In July 1821, under more pressure from the British government, which passed new regulations governing the fur trade in British North America, a merger agreement was signed with the Hudson's Bay Company, whereby the North West Company name disappeared after more than forty years in existence. At the time of the merger, the amalgamated company consisted of 97 trading posts that had belonged to the North West Company and 76 that belonged to the Hudson's Bay Company. George Simpson (1787-1860), the Hudson's Bay Company Governor-in-Chief of Rupert's Land who became the Canadian head of the northern division of the greatly enlarged business, made his headquarters in the Montreal suburb of Lachine.

Personnel

Beyond the non-operating investors, these were some of the post proprietors, clerks, interpreters, explorers and others of the nearly 2,500 employed by the North West Company in 1799[7]:

Athabaska:

  • John Finlay (proprietor), Simon Fraser, James MacKenzie, Duncan Livingston, John Stuart, James Porter, John Thompson, James MacDougall, G. F. Wintzel, John Heinbrucks;

Upper English River:

  • Angus Shaw (proprietor), Donald MacTavish (proprietor), Alexander MacKay, Antoine Tourangeau, Joseph Cartier, Simon Réaume;

Lower English River:

  • Alexander Fraser (proprietor), John MacGillivray, Robert Henry, Louis Versailles, Charles Messier, Pierre Hurteau;

Fort Dauphin:

  • A. N. McLeod (proprietor), Hugh McGillis, Michel Allary, Alexander Farguson, Edward Harrison, Joseph Grenon, François Nolin, Nicholas Montour;

Upper Fort des Prairies and Rocky Mountains:

  • Daniel Mackenzie (proprietor), John MacDonald (proprietor), James Hughes, Louis Châtellain, James King, François Décoigne, Pierre Charette, Pierre Jérôme, Baptiste Bruno, David Thompson, J. Duncan Campbell, Alexander Stewart, Jacques Raphael, Francois Deschamps;

Lower Fort des Prairies:

  • Pierre Belleau, Baptiste Roy, J. B. Filande, Baptiste Larose;

Upper Red River:

  • John Macdonell (proprietor), George MacKay, J. Macdonell, Jr., Joseph Auger, Pierre Falcon, François Mallette, William Munro, André Poitvin;

Lower Red River:

  • Charles Chaboillez (proprietor), Alexander Henry, J. B. Desmarais, Francois Coleret, Antoine Déjarlet, Louis Giboche;

Lac Winipic:

  • William MacKay (proprietor), John Cameron, Donald MacIntosh, Benjamin Frobisher, Jacques Dupont, Joseph Laurent, Gabriel Attina, Francois Amoit;

Nipigon:

  • Duncan Cameron (proprietor), Ronald Cameron, Dugald Cameron, Jacques Adhémar, Jean-Baptiste Chevalier, Allen MacFarlane, Jean-Baptiste Pominville, Frederick Shults;

Pic:

  • J. B. Perrault, Augustin Roy;

Michipicoten and the Bay:

  • Lemaire St-Germain, Baptiste St-Germain, Léon Chênier

Sault Ste. Marie and Sloop "Otter":

South of Lake Superior:

  • Michel Cadotte (partner), Simeon Charrette, Charles Gauthier, Pierre Baillarge;

Fond du Lac:

  • John Sayer (proprietor), J. B. Cadotte, Charles Bousquet, Jean Coton, Ignace Chênier, Joseph Réaume, Eustache Roussin, Vincent Roy;

Lac La Pluie:

  • Peter Grant (proprietor), Arch. MacLellan, Charles Latour, Michel Machard;

Grand Portage:

  • Doctor Munro, Charles Hesse, Zacharie Clouthier, Antoine Colin, Jacques Vandreil, Francois Boileau, Mr. Bruce.

See also

References

  1. ^ Innes, Harold A.; The Fur Trade in Canada; Toronto, Ontario; University of Toronto Press; 1930, revised 1970
  2. ^ Innes, Harold A.; The Fur Trade in Canada; Toronto, Ontario; University of Toronto Press; 1930, revised 1970
  3. ^ [ William Kingsford, C.E., "John Johnston, of Sault Ste. Marie: A Passage in Canadian History", in G. Mercer Adam, Canadian Monthly and National Review, p.3, Vol. 7, 1881 Jul-Dec, Toronto: Rose-Belford Publishing Co., 1881, accessed 23 Dec 2008
  4. ^ Rich, E.E.; Montreal and the Fur Trade; Montreal, Quebec: McGill University Press; 1966
  5. ^ Rich, E.E.; Montreal and the Fur Trade; Montreal, Quebec; McGill University Press; 1966
  6. ^ Aspects of the Fur Trade; Selected Papers of the 1965 North American Fur Trade Conference; Russell W. Friedley (ed); Minneapolis, Minnesota; Minnesota Historical Society; 1967 Davies, K.G.; "From Competition to Union"
  7. ^ Masson, L.R.; Les Bourgeois de la Compagnie du Nord-Ouest, 2 Vol.; New York, New York; Antiquarian Press Ltd.; 1889-90; reprinted 1960

Further reading

Further information on the North West Company can be found in Marjorie Wilkins Campbell's 1957 book of that name, as well as her 1962 biography of William McGillivray, McGillivray, Lord of the North West. Campbell served as a consultant to the government of Ontario for the restoration of the North West Company trading post in Fort William, Ontario, Fort William Historical Park. Campbell also wrote a book for young adults—The Nor'westers—which won the 1954 Governor General's Awards.

In addition, the North West Company is also a case example in Oxford's John Roberts book The Modern Firm.

  • Canada. Bill An Act to Incorporate the North West Company. Ottawa: I.B. Taylor, 2004. ISBN 0659049937
  • Fox, William A. Archaeological Investigation of the North West Company Great Hall Cellar, Fort William, 1976. Data box research manuscript series, 348. [Toronto]: Ministry of Culture and Recreation, Historical Planning and Research Branch, 1977.
  • Hoag, Donald R. Agents of the North West Company in the Fond du Lac District. Duluth: The Author, 1981.
  • Keith, Lloyd. North of Athabasca Slave Lake and Mackenzie River Documents of the North West Company, 1800-1821. Rupert's Land Record Society series. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2001. ISBN 0773520988
  • M'Gillivray, Duncan, and Arthur Silver Morton. The Journal of Duncan M'Gillivray of the North West Company at Fort George on the Saskatchewan, 1794-5. Toronto: Macmillan Co. of Canada, 1929.
  • Schwörer, Ute. The Reorganization of the Fur Trade of the Hudson's Bay Company After the Merger with the North West Company, 1821 to 1826. Ottawa: National Library of Canada, 1988. ISBN 0315358122
  • Selkirk, Thomas Douglas. A Sketch of the British Fur Trade in North America With Observations Relative to the North West Company of Montreal. New-York: Printed for James Eastburn and Co. [by] Clayton & Kingsland, 1818.
  • Wallace, W. Stewart. Documents Relating to the North West Company. New York: Greenwood Press, 1968.

External links

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Hudson's Bay Trading Company, L.P.
U.S. holdings:  Creative Design Studios | Lord & Taylor
Former holdings:  North West Company (1779-1821) | Designer Depot (2004-2008) | Fortunoff (2008-2009)
Related Topics:  HBC Rewards | Hudson's Bay Company Archives | NRDC Equity Partners | Rupert's Land

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