Editing Hudson's Bay Company (section)

===Corporate hierarchy===
In the 18th and 19th centuries, Hudson's Bay Company operated with a very rigid employee hierarchy. This hierarchy essentially broke down into two levels; the officers and the servants. Comprising the officers were the factors, masters and chief traders, clerks and surgeons. The servants were the tradesmen, boatmen, and labourers. The officers essentially ran the fur trading posts. They had many duties which included supervising the workers in their trade posts, valuing the furs, and keeping trade and post records. In 1821, when Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company merged, the hierarchy became even stricter and the lines between officers and servants became virtually impossible to cross. Officers in charge of individual trading posts had much responsibility because they were directly in charge of enforcing the policies made by the governor and committee (the board) of the company. One of these policies was the price of particular furs and trade goods. These prices were called the Official and Comparative Standards. Made-Beaver, the quality measurement of the pelt, was the means of exchange used by Hudson's Bay Company to define the Official and Comparative Standards. Because the governor was stationed in London, England, they needed to have reliable officers managing the trade posts halfway around the world. Because the fur trade was a very dynamic market, HBC needed to have some form of flexibility when dealing with prices and traders. Price fluctuation was deferred to the officers in charge of the trade posts, and the head office recorded any difference between the company's standard and that set by the individual officers. Overplus, or any excess revenue gained by officers, was strictly documented to insure that it was not being pocketed and taken from the company. This strict yet flexible hierarchy exemplifies how Hudson's Bay Company was able to be so successful while still having its central management and trade posts located so far apart.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Carlos |first1=Ann M. |last2=Lewis |first2=Frank D. |date=September 1993 |title=Indians, the Beaver, and the Bay: The Economics of Depletion in the Lands of Hudson's Bay Company, 1700–1763 |journal=Journal of Economic History |volume=53 |issue=3 |pages=465–494 |doi=10.1017/s0022050700013450 |jstor=2122402|s2cid=154869132}}</ref><ref name="Judd">{{Cite journal |last=Judd |first=Carol |date=November 1980 |title=Native labour and social stratification in Hudson's Bay Company's Northern Department, 1770–1870 |journal=Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology |volume=17 |issue=4 |pages=305–314 |doi=10.1111/j.1755-618X.1980.tb00707.x}}</ref>

;Hierarchichal order pre-1821<ref name="Judd" />
{| class="wikitable"
! align="center" width="50" | #
! align="center" width="360" | Job Title
|-
|||''' ''OFFICERS'' '''
|-
| 1 || ''Chief Factor''
|-
| 2|| ''Second'' [Factor]
|-
| 3 || ''Master'' [of a trading station]
|-
| 4|| ''Sloopmaster'' <br /> ''Surgeon''
|-
| 5|| ''Writer''
|-
| 6|| ''Apprentice''
|-
|||''' ''SERVANTS'' '''
|-
|1|| ''Tradesman'' <br /> ''Steersman''
|-
|2|| ''Canoeman'' <br /> ''Bowsman''
|-
|3|| ''Middleman''
|-
|4|| ''Labourer''
|}

;Hierarchical order 1821–1871<ref name="Judd" /><ref>Taché, Alexandre Antonin & Cameron, Donald Roderick (1870). ''Sketch of the North-west of America''. Montreal: John Lovell, p. 72.</ref>
{| class="wikitable"
! align="center" width="50" | #
! align="center" width="260" | Job Title
! align="left" width="180" | Pay per year
|-
|||colspan=2 style="text-align:center;" |'''COMMISSIONED OFFICERS'''
|-
|1 || ''Governor of Rupert's Land'' || [[Performance-related pay|Performance Pay]]
|-
| 2 || ''Chief Factor'' || Two shares
|-
|3 || ''Chief Trader'' || One share
|-
| || colspan=2 style="text-align:center;" |  '''GENTLEMEN'''
|-
|4 || ''Clerk'' || £75–100
|-
| 5 ||''Apprenticed Clerk'' || £25–27
|-
| || colspan=2 style="text-align:center;" |  '''NON-GENTLEMEN'''
|-
| 6 || ''Postmaster'' ||  £40–75
|-
|7 || ''Guide'' <br /> ''Interpreter'' <br /> ''Sloopmaster''  ||£30–45
|-
| 8 || ''Apprentice postmaster'' ||
|-
| ||colspan=2 style="text-align:center;" |  '''SERVANTS'''
|-
| 9 || ''Tradesman'' <br /> ''Steersman'' <br />''Boatman'' <br /> ''Bowsman'' <br /> ''Middleman'' <br /> ''Labourer''|| £16–40
|}

==== Progression ====
In the 19th century, career progression for officers, together referred to as the Commissioned Gentlemen, was to enter the company as a fur trader. Typically, they were men who had the capital to invest in starting up their trading. They sought to be promoted to the rank of Chief Trader. A Chief Trader would be in charge of an individual post and was entitled to one share of the company's profits. Chief Factors sat in council with the Governors and were the heads of districts. They were entitled to two shares of the company's profits or losses. The average income of a Chief Trader was £360 and that of a Chief Factor was £720.<!-- convert to contemporary equivalents --><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Morton |first1=Arthur S. |title=A History of the Canadian West to 1870–71 |last2=Thomas |first2=Lewis G. |publisher=University of Toronto Press |year=1973 |isbn=978-0-8020-4033-6 |edition=2nd |location=Toronto, Ontario |page=690 |orig-year=1939}}</ref>