Stages of the Fur Trade Phase 1 Ship

Stages of the Fur Trade

Phase 1: Ship to Shore (1497 -1608) Informal fur trade between French and English fishermen and natives Cabot discovers cod fishery 1497 1534 Cartier claims Gulf of St. Lawrence for France – meets natives who want to trade furs for European goods Increasing demand for furs in Europe – need for more organized trade to provide adequate supply 1600 French and natives meet each summer at Tadoussac, exchanging furs for European goods

Phase 2: Company Monopoly (1608 -63) Champlain establishes French settlement at Quebec 1608 Huron, weakened by disease, are exterminated in warfare with Iroquois § French form alliance with Huron, who become “middlemen in French fur trade § 1630 s: Jesuit missionaries sent to convert Huron to Christianity 1649 Flow of furs to France disrupted 1663 French colony on verge of collapse due to Iroquois attacks

Phase 3: Reorganization & Rivalry (1663 -1763) Young King Louis XIV assumes direct control of New France French government issues licenses to fur traders 1663 1668 ‘Coureurs de bois’ (young Frenchmen) replace Huron as middlemen in fur trade § Two French traders Radisson & Groseilliers, refused license to export furs out of Hudson Bay, take their idea to England, making successful voyage in 1668

Phase 3: Reorganization & Rivalry (1663 -1763) England’s King Charles II issues charter to Hudson’s Bay Co. , granting it exclusive rights to trade furs out of Hudson Bay 1670 Natives bring furs to HBC posts on shore of Hudson Bay (“sleep by the frozen sea”) HBC charter grants ownership of all lands drained by rivers emptying into Hudson Bay 1700

Phase 3: Reorganization & Rivalry (1663 -1763) French establish chain of trading posts west of Great Lakes in effort to divert furs from HBC to Quebec 1700 French trading lines stretch thousands of kilometers into Canadian West 1730 s La Vérendrye & sons establish French posts on Lake Winnipeg and Saskatchewan River 1763 § French lose Seven Years’ War § New France becomes British colony § Newly arrived English merchants assume control of French fur trade