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The Hudson's Bay Company is among the oldest, but still active companies in the world. When Canada confederated in 1867, the company was already 200 years old. It was incorporated in England on May 2, 1670, with hopes of seeking a northwest passage to the Pacific, and to generate business with those lands that might prove to be profitable. In 1667, the Royal Navy was ordered by King Charles II to sponsor the Eaglet (ship), while a group of private investors outfitted the other ship called the Nonsuch. On June 3, 1668 the Eaglet, with a man named Pierre-Esprit Radisson (1636 - 1710) on board and the Nonsuch with Medal Court Des Groseilliers (1618 - 1710), set sail down the Thames River to cross the Atlantic.
The Eaglet was captained under William Stannard, and the Nonsuch under Captain Zachariah Gillam. Throughout this voyage the Eaglet was damaged in a storm and had to return to England. The Nonsuch arrived in the southern tip of James Bay on September 29, 1668. After spring break up, the Native people were able to travel down the Rupert River to trade their furs. After the trading ceased, Captain Gillam, Des Groseilliers, and the crew left with a ship full of furs. The success of their voyage prompted England to give right to the charter, and soon after, the Hudson's Bay Company Charter of Rights (1670) was formed.
This occurred when Charles II, king of England, granted the charter to his cousin Prince Rupert and 17 other noblemen, which gave them the rights to trade in any region where waters flowed into Hudson's Bay. Since 1670 when the company was formed, it has controlled one-third of present day Canadian territory. This widely spread out territory soon became known as Rupert's Land, however its boundaries were never really clearly defined. The general understanding was that the boundaries extended from Labrador to the Rocky Mountains and from the start of the Red River to the Chesterfield Inlet on Hudson Bay. In order to maintain some rules and regulations, the company was allowed to establish its own laws and impose its own penalties within this boundary.
For its first two centuries of existence the Hudson's Bay Company only engaged in the trading of furs. The company appointed Charles Bayley as its first overseas Governor. When he first arrived in Hudson Bay he confirmed the treaty that Des Groseilliers had made with the native peoples. He built up the York Factory and over the next few years his imagination and sound judgment made the Hudson's Bay Company a success. In fact about 15 years after the charter was granted, the company was generating profits of 200 % yearly. In the late 1670 s and early 1680 s, the company established a number of posts along the shores of Hudson Bay and James Bay.
By the mid 1680 s, the Hudson's Bay Company was becoming a fairly profitable company. In 1684, it declared its first dividend and then military conflict with the French during 1689 - 1713 caused profits and shares to drop by 50 %. In the years after the Royal Charter was granted, the company showed success but not without its difficulties, one of which was the loss of its two founders, Radisson and Des Groseilliers. With the company doing so well, the two men were not given direction to expand exploration. Therefore, in 1682 Radisson and Des Groseilliers established La Compagnie du Nord offering direct competition to the Hudson's Bay Company. This caused growing problems to become even worse.
With the French already in heavy competition with the English for control of the fur trade in North America, a war broke out between England and France. In North America this resulted in military raids in attempts to capture each others fur trading posts. One of the most famous of these French raids was led by Chevalier des Troyes. It included an 800 mile journey from Montreal all the way to James Bay that began in March of 1686.
It was there that Moose Factory, the first Hudson's Bay Company fort, was captured. That was followed by Rupert House, seventy five miles up the east coast of James Bay, and Fort Albany located on the west coast of the Bay. During the Hudson's Bay Companys first decades, the French and English were constantly at battle for trading posts, and most of these posts were captured by the French between 1686 and 1713. When the Treaty of Utrecht was enforced in 1713, the rivalry was finally settled in the companys favor.
Two sections of the treaty stated that all trading posts, forts and lands taken from the Hudson's Bay Company during the war were to be rightfully returned. The Treaty of Utrecht was the beginning of 31 years of peace between England and France. With the loss of the companys forts and trading posts, the Hudson's Bay Company found itself deeply in debt and had to borrow money just to pay the interest to its creditors. The company hired an administrator from England named James Knight to reclaim York Factory from the French. When Knight arrived, he found the factory in shambles and had to restore it to its former state. Knight helped the Hudson's Bay Company regain its monopoly, as a matter of fact, he might have succeeded a little too well.
With no competition the Hudson's Bay Company was not forced to expand into new regions. The company traders were content with the natives bringing the furs right to Hudson Bay. The fur trade was now growing at an alarming rate. Until the 1770 s it remained a relatively profitable company, by just dealing in the fur trade industry.
Eventually they tried to develop and expand for other means of income besides the fur trade, such as the development of mica deposits and the development of whale oil in Churchill. They even tried to explore for minerals but their efforts were futile. The Hudson's Bay Company quit exporting all goods because they would profit enough by just setting up trading posts in the Hudson Bay Area. To make a long story short, the Hudson's Bay Company only traded out of the Hudson Bay area, and did not want to expand their industry inland. The main reason that the company based themselves strictly out of Hudson Bay was because most of their employees were from the Orkney Islands. In the 18 th century it is estimated that about 75 % of the employees were Orkney men.
It was from the Orkney Islands that the design for the York boat emerged. The legacy of the Orkney men remains in many Northern Cree communities with names such as Lenklater, Feet, and Norway. They were industrious and inexpensive sources of labor. People from the Orkney Islands had little knowledge about canoe construction which was key to moving the company inland...
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Research essay sample on Analysis Of The Hudson Bay Company
