Her husband, Humphrey Marten, recorded her passing at a. Traders and officials relied on them to strengthen ties with male relatives who could provide furs and speak with trappers in Indigenous languages, not to mention cook, clean, care for their children and treat the furs they received. Still, their labour was rarely rewarded by officials, whose attitudes toward Indigenous women became clear when their husband retired from the company or died.
As a result, most men returned to Britain. But the company also banned employees from taking Indigenous wives or children with them. Officials adopted this policy in the wake of the tragic story of Chief Factor Robert Pilgrim and his Cree wife, Thu-a-Higon, who retired to London in with their son.
Soon after their return, Pilgrim died. In his will, he stipulated that his son should stay in England, while Thu-a-Higon was to return to her family in Churchill. While Thu-a-Higon likely agonized over the forced separation from her son, HBC officials agonized over the cost of sending her back and caring for the child. Attitudes toward Indigenous Peoples grew more disdainful by the mids, as HBC officials became more comfortable in the region and relied less on Indigenous knowledge.
As Van Kirk notes, the arrival of white women stratified fur trade society and ushered in disrepute of the very Indigenous customs HBC employees had depended on for so long. Back in London, the fur trade was making some men — and a few women who held shares in the company — rich. As historian David Chan Smith has calculated, from through this translated into more than one million beaver pelts. Things could have gone differently.
And some Americans were hoping they would. By the mids, profits from the fur trade had dropped. The settler population of Canada and the United States was growing. Industrialization was spreading. The future was not in fur but in real estate, agriculture, railroads and oil and gas.
Meanwhile in Britain, public opinion was turning against the HBC. Under the leadership of Prime Minister John A. Macdonald, the government aimed to bring Western Canada into its fold and colonize the region. But Macdonald faced persistent and sustained resistance to this plan from Indigenous nations. And there was another challenge coming from the south. From as early as the American Revolution, the British — and later Canadian — governments feared American encroachment.
Alarm grew after the U. Ramsey hoped to make a deal the HBC and U. American authorities understood that the best policy was to respect earlier agreements on the U. But if shareholders were excited by the prospect of a seven-figure deal for their landholdings, they were less enthusiastic about the proposed deal with Canada.
They knew they were sitting on valuable land and the brand-new Canadian government was broke. If there was any buyer who could pay a good price, it was the United States. But the British and Canadian governments were eager to make the sale happen and keep the territory within the empire.
This was a far cry from the millions Ramsey had proposed, but the British and Canadian governments sweetened the pot by promising the company title to some 10 million acres of their choosing. We want that money. Since its inception, the HBC had helped establish an English presence in the region by founding trading posts, three of which became provincial capitals: Fort Garry in Winnipeg, Fort Edmonton and Fort Victoria.
But from the perspective of HBC officials, things were more complicated. The sale ceased their efforts to govern the West and their claims to the region.
It also ended their attempted monopoly of the fur trade. But there were benefits for those looking to make a buck, or two. While the HBC provided urban shoppers with a range of goods, many Indigenous Peoples maintained a different relationship to the company, particularly those in northern communities where the HBC trading post was the only store around. The history of the HBC is messy and complicated.
It has moments of compassion, but also competition and contention. In , U. Everything from coffee mugs to dog collars to those timeless wool blankets is adorned with the iconic green, red, yellow and blue stripes. Canadian Geographic commemorates is a series of articles, funded by the Government of Canada, celebrating milestone anniversaries of significance to the country's history.
See more stories in the series. Our publisher, The Royal Canadian Geographical Society, happily makes this content accessible for free as part of its mission to make Canada better known to Canadians and the world. But we need your support to keep going. View the discussion thread. The RCGS acknowledges that its offices are located on the unceded territory of the Algonquin Peoples, who have been guardians of, and in relationship with, these lands for thousands of years.
The RCGS is a registered charity. Click here to learn more. Donate and Support Geography in Canada. The Royal Canadian Geographical Society family of sites:. The Royal Canadian Geographical Society. Canadian Geographic Photo Club. Canadian Geographic Education. Canadian Geographic student geography challenge.
Help designate an official bird for Canada. Help improve energy literacy in Canada. All about Energy. Grade 8 students exploring Parks Canada sites. Compare countries' statistics and explore our changing world. Innovative projects in the developing world. Commemorating Canada's Great War flyers. The revolution of mapping in the First World War. Canadian pilots heroically earn their wings. The officers had a vested interest in these concerns since they shared in the profits of the trade according to the terms set out in deed polls in , and Council members had an equal voice and vote theoretically, but Simpson had considerable power, and the London governor and committee could overrule council decisions.
After the merger, the HBC closed many trading posts that had become unprofitable. This had an adverse effect on Indigenous groups who had become reliant on the fur trade for survival. Between and , the governors of Assiniboia were agents of the Selkirk estate, although they were overshadowed by the HBC. In , Britain granted to the HBC the colony of Vancouver Island, which was to be developed as an agricultural settlement.
In , Chief Factor James Douglas was appointed governor. In this way, the company began to relinquish its colonial responsibilities. This belief, however, was challenged by reports of the Palliser and Hind expeditions, which encouraged westward European settlement.
In addition, it retained title to the lands on which it had built trading establishments. The terms of the agreement strongly influenced company development after By retaining large landholdings on the prairies and the parcels adjacent to its posts, many of which were located in developing urban centres in the West and North, the HBC was able to become one of the most important developers in western Canada.
In , it disposed of the latter and in bought controlling interest in Roxy Petroleum. As economic development in the Prairie West accelerated after , the company did an increasing amount of business with settlers. Initially, most of this activity was carried on at its trading posts. Since it differed in many respects from the trade with Indigenous groups, separate sales shop accounts were kept.
In , the company was restructured into three departments: lands sales, fur trade and retail. In , the HBC invested in the construction of new retail stores, recognizing that this department had a greater future potential than land sales and the fur trade. The last was opened in Winnipeg in In , the fur trade department was renamed the northern stores department, while the land sales department was moved to a subsidiary company in The s were a period of expansion with the acquisition of Shop-Rite and A.
Freiman Ltd. In , HBC acquired the Simpsons department store chain, established in by Robert Simpson , converting its locations to Bay stores in Beginning in , Zellers faced fierce competition from its American rival Wal-Mart. While the company built its brand around the department store setting and selling over the counter, the s brought a change in the retail landscape. Traditional ways of selling goods were challenged by online retailers. The company first offered an online shopping experience in , a direct response to this evolving retail landscape.
Declining sales and competition from US retailers encouraged rumours regarding takeovers. Initiatives included offering shoppers more external brands, product selection as well as contemporary branding. Zellers closed most of its locations by The next year, it acquired American luxury retailer Saks, Inc. The purchase included some stores in Europe.
HBC acquired online retailer Gilt. By , the company owned over stores but had reported losses three years in a row. As of , HBC operates nearly stores and employs about 30, people. They offer a full range of goods and services typically associated with department stores and feature proprietary brands. The company also has investments in real-estate joint ventures. The motif has adorned everything from dog apparel to housewares and canoes.
This partnership was renewed in for a term ending in In , the company created the HBC Foundation to represent its charitable efforts, which have included the Zellers charity gift box program, cystic fibrosis and the Canadian Cancer Society. In , the HBC Foundation launched in the United States and announced that its charitable work would focus on mental health programs in both countries.
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