Copyright 2000 - 2003 - Janine M. Bork
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Union County, OR AGHP
The Hudson's Bay Company Secures a New License of Trade, May 31, 1838 - Its System of Trade.
ON THE 31st of May, 1838, the Hudson's Bay Company surrendered the license of trade of 1821, and received a renewed license for twenty-one years. The renewed license granted "the exclusive privilege of trading with the Indians in all such parts of North America, to the northward and westward of the islands and territories belonging to the United States of America, as shall not form part of any of our (British) provinces in North America, or of any lands or territories belonging to the said United States of America, or to any European government, state or power. Without rent for the first four years, and afterwards the yearly rent of five shillings, payable on the first of June." The company were to keep an accurate register of their employés, a duplicate of which ws to be filed in the office of the Secretary of State. Bond was to be given in the sum of L5,000, for insuring, "by their authority over the servants and persons in their employ, the due execution of all civil and criminal process by the officers and persons legally empowered to execute such process within all territories included in the grant, and for the producing or delivering into custody, for the purpose of trial, all persons in their employ or acting under their authority within the said territories, who shall be charged with any criminal offences." Regulations for carrying on the fur trade with the Indians, and the conduct of employés, were to be submitted to the government for approval, by which was to be secured "the diminishing and preventing the sale or distribution of spirituous liquors to the Indians, and the promotion of their moral and religious improvement."
The license strictly prohibited the company "from claiming or exercising any trade with the Indians on the northwest coast of America westward of the Rocky Mountains to the prejudice or exclusion of any of the subjects of any foreign state, who, under or by force of any convention for the time being between Great Britain and such foreign states, may be entitled to and shall be engaged in such trade."
Under this license, which extends over the whole territory west of the Rocky Mountains, between forty-two degrees north latitude and the Russian line, the trade required the employment of a thousand men. The company possessed twenty-two permanent establishments, twelve of which were south of the forty-ninth parallel. It annually dispatched and maintained two trapping and trading expeditions, employed a steamer (1) (the Beaver) and five sailing vessels, from one hundred to three hundred tons register, all well armed and equipped, devoted to coasting and trade upon the Pacific. A large ship heavily laden with goods annually arrived to supply the posts. Fort Vancouver, the depot of the company, was the destination of those annual voyages.
(1) The steamer Beaver arrived at Fort Vancouver from Blackwall, England, in the spring of 1838. She was the pioneer vessel propelled by steam upon the Pacific Ocean. She was a side-wheel steamer of 120 tons' register, substantially built of oak at Blackwall. Strength, durability and hard service were attained rather than beauty or speed. Her engines were low pressure, built by Bolton and Watts, her paddle wheels small and set far forward. She carried a crew of thirty men, an armament of four six-pounders, and was extensively supplied with small arms. The decks were protected by border netting, to prevent access by the natives other than by the gangways. More than thirty Indians were never allowed on deck at one time unless they were accompanied by their wives and children. After departing from Fort Vancouver that fall, she never again entered the Columbia river, but coasted in northern seas, to collect furs, and to supply the northern posts.
The goods were divided into three classes, and a tariff of rates established. The first class, consisting of knives and tobacco, were for presents and gratuities to the Indians. The second class, or trading goods, included blankets, guns, cloth, powder and ball, etc., etc. The third class, termed Indian goods, consisted of shirts, handkerchiefs, paints, beads and small articles, with which debts for insignificant services and Indian labor were compensated, and for game, fish and berries purchased of Indians.
The company made advances to the trappers employed. To insure their return, parties of twenty or thirty were formed, and their families were allowed to accompany. These parties were placed in charge of an officer of the company. The trapping parties left Vancouver in the fall and returned in the following June.
The inland posts were annually supplied from Fort Vancouver. In the month of June, the brigade, as it was termed, left Fort Vancouver by way of Fort Okanagon, Colvile and Thompson's river for Fort James, on the south end of Stuart's Lake in latitude fifty-four degrees north. After the summer trappers had been fitted out, the brigades left Fort James in the spring months, with the year's collection of furs, on its return to Fort Vancouver. The route of the brigade was up the Columbia river in boats to Okanagon. These boats were especially made for and adapted to the service. They were clinker-built, sharp at both ends, about thirty feet long and five and a half feet beam, made so light that the crews could carry them over the portages. Each boat was capable of carrying three tons. Sixty packages of ninety pounds each, besides the crew, constituted the customary load.
Goods for the interior, regardless of bulk, were put in ninety-pound packs. Ease of trans-shipment across the portages, and convenience of packing on horses from Okanagon to Thompson's river, were thus afforded. The overland route between the two latter posts occupied about twenty days. The crew of each boat consisted of eight oarsmen or voyageurs, and one helmsman. The chief the party, generally a chief factor or chief trader, allowed but forty packs in his boat.
The method of accounts was extremely
simple. Fort Vancouver was called the depot. Each year's supply of goods
for trading purposes was called the outfit. The outfit year began June
1st, and ended on the 31st of May. At the beginning of each outfit year,
each post or district was charged as follows: 1st. With goods remaining
on hand on the 31st of May; 2d. With additional goods forwarded for the
trade of the year; 3d. With an uniform addition of thirty-three and a third
per cent over the prime cost in London; 4th. With the amount of wages of
servants and clerks employed at such post during the year. At the close
of each outfit year, each post or district was credited as follows: 1st.
With the goods remaining on hand; 2. With the value of furs and peltries
traded during the year, which are called returns, and which were each year
estimated enough below selling prices in London to pay for their shipment
thither. Each post, at the close of the outfit year, was also credited
with goods furnished to any other post, or charged with those received.
These statements compared would show the profit or loss for the year. The
details of goods issued from the depot were kept in transfer books "A;"
and the details of goods transmitted from post to post were kept in transfer
books "B." No account of expenses of erecting or repairing forts or buildings
were kept, as the labor was performed by the company's regular enlisted
servants, or by Indians who were hired at cheap rates for goods or trinkets.
The erection of posts was considered an incident in the purchase of furs.
At the depot, an account headed "General Charges" exhibited a detail of all presents and donations, the value of articles and provisions supplied to or consumed by visitors, and all expenses which could not be charged in any particular post or district. The sum of those items were annually carried to profit and loss.
Accuracy and method are apparent everywhere in the system of operations. The code of rules embraced the highest authority, as well as the humblest employé. All were amenable, and every one was bound to obey the most minute details, and subject to the strictest accountability. Each man had his duty defined, and was liable to the most rigid scrutiny. A fixed price was established upon every article of purchase and sale, and to it all must and did adhere.
The company's Indian policy alike commands favorable consideration. How profitable the lesson, how worthy of adoption that system upon which was predicated the successful career of the company, in acquiring absolute control and unbounded influence over the aborigines of the territories in which it operated. This policy had a two-fold object; first, to hold in moral subjection the native tribes, as a matter of self-defense and economical management; and, second, to convert them into dependents and allies. Thus did the company draw to itself and retain all the Indian trade, as a matter of preference. At the same time it converted the native tribes into auxiliaries, ready to serve the company should such service be required.
The sale or gift of ardent spirits to the Indians was positively prohibited. Their successful maintenance of this policy cannot be too highly approved. It would be useless to dwell on the bad effects of such traffic with the Indians; - how much difficulty has resulted from its introduction into Indian territory. The company did not permit such trade; their successful control of the native population for so long a period affords the best evidence of the wisdom of such policy. With comparatively few to defend their posts, oftentimes established in the midst of large bands of Indians, completely isolated and unprotected, yet those posts and the employés continued safe. Under Hudson's Bay rule there were no Indian outbreaks nor wars, and but little bloodshed. The establishment of schools, the effort to educate Indian children, the employment of Indians, the treatment of half-breeds, all embraced within their Indian policy, contributed to assure the confidence and gain the friendship of the native population.
Their purposes did not require the banishment or seclusion of the Indian. It was policy to use and employ him; to incite his zeal to bring to their posts furs, fish and game. The company required little or no land for settlement; and as a consequence the Indian had no occasion to fear that he should be expelled from his hunting or fishing grounds, or that the graveyards of his people would be appropriated. By conciliating the Indian, the company promoted success in its pursuit of trade, secured peaceable passage through the country for their parties, and stimulated the procurement by natives of furs and peltries.
They located their posts among
the tribes, employed Indians at such posts, and sent others on necessary
expeditions. Thus they scattered the native population, and prevented the
combination of tribes without such motive appearing. This system defeated
concentration of numbers, and rendered impossible concerted movements by
Indians, without the company's officers being at once apprised. The Indians
had early abandoned their weapons after the advent of the traders. They
had become dependent upon the posts for arms and ammunition. Having learned
the comfort of blankets, their use became indispensable. Other articles
introduced by the Whites had become quite as
essential, such as fishing hooks, wearing apparel and cooking utensils. On the posts the Indians placed their entire reliance for those articles and supplies, the substitution of which for their primitive mode of livelihood had become a necessity of Indian life. In fact, the trading goods of the company had absolutely become their sole dependence.
If an Indian displayed violent or threatening conduct, he was promptly and severely punished. If any depredation was committed, the tribe or party were instantly pursued by an armed force, and the wrong-doers demanded. No half-way measures were used. Uniformly kind and conciliatory to the well-disposed, punishing with promptness and firmness the wrong-doer, the natives were taught that it was their true interest to live on terms of friendship with the company. The influence which the company acquired over the Indian population was eradicated with difficulty. Indian suspicion of Americans resulted from their educated friendship to the Hudson's Bay company, continuing for many years after the actual withdrawal of the company from the territory.
Missionaries, United States officials in the military, naval or civil service, persons of influence and wealth, were treated with marked kindness and courtesy. The hospitality of the officers in charge of their posts to the early American immigrants entitle the company to the lasting gratitude of the early settlers.
But the America who made an effort
to trade with the Indians, to trap, hunt, or do anything in which the company
engaged, found in the company a rival and competitor. In such opposition,
the result was generally that the American trader was compelled to retire
from the field. Whenever an American established a trading-house, post
or kindred enterprise, immediately the company formed a counter-establishment
in the vicinity. American vessels were obstructed, nay, defeated, in obtaining
cargoes upon the coast. Hudson's Bay Company vessels were not allowed to
import, from the Sandwich Islands, goods and supplies ordered or purchased
by American merchants. Without mercy for a rival trade, yet the unfortunate
who suffered by land or sea was freely offered shelter and food in the
various establishments of the company.