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Full Description
Before Hudson's Bay Company domination, two companies attempted large-scale corporate trapping and vied to command Northwest fur trade. On one side were the North West Company's Montreal entrepreneurs, and on the other, American John Jacob Astor and his Pacific Fur Company.They were businessmen first and explorers second, and their era is a story of grand risk in both lives and capital--a global mercantile initiative in which controlling the mouth of the Columbia River and developing the China market were major prizes. Traversing the world in search of profit, these fur moguls gambled on the price of beaver pelts, purchases of ships and trade goods, international commerce laws, and the effects of war.
In the process, partners and clerks quarreled, surveyed transportation routes, built trading posts, and worked to forge relationships with both French Canadian and Native American trappers. The loss of valuable natural resources as well as the intermixing of cultures significantly impacted relationships with the region's native peoples. Ultimately, their expansion attempts were economically unsuccessful. The Astorians sold their holdings to the North West Company, who later accepted a humiliating 1821 merger.
Drawing from a reservoir of previously unexploited business and personal correspondence, including the letters of clerk Finnan McDonald and a revealing personal memorandum by Fort George partner James Keith, the authors examine Columbia drainage operations and offer a unique business perspective.
Contents
Dramatis Personae
Introduction: Bon VoyageurChapter One: "Oh Caledonia, Stern and Wild": Duncan McGillivray, Simon Fraser, 1793-1808
Chapter Two: Into a Heart of Darkness: David Thompson
Chapter Three: Competing for the Columbia: North West Company on a Slippery Pacific Slope
Chapter Four: "Doing Indian Business": Spokane House and Okanogan
Chapter Five: War and Robbery at Astoria
Chapter Six: "a dull sailer": The Tardy Voyage of the Isaac Todd, 1812
Chapter Seven: The Early "Adventures to China"
Chapter Eight: Canton and Return, 1814-1815
Chapter Nine: Maritime and Marital Activities of the "other" Columbia
Chapter Ten: Final Attempts at Shipping: The Voyage of the Colonel Allan, 1815-1817
Chapter Eleven: "A Place so Dull and Dreary": The Interior Fur Trade
Chapter Twelve: Reforms and Unconvinced Reformers
Chapter Thirteen: Genesis of McKenzie's Snake Brigades
Chapter Fourteen: The Restoration of Astoria
Chapter Fifteen: Fort Nez Perces and the Snake Country Hunting Brigades
Chapter Sixteen: "We cannot blame ourselves therefore": A Financial Failure
Chapter Seventeen: Revelations of Character
Chapter Eighteen: Freemen
Chapter Nineteen: The Human Legacy
Appendix A: Columbia People
Appendix B: Business Records
Bibliography
Index
About the Authors
