Editing Hudson's Bay Company (section)

== 19th century history ==
[[File:The Fight at Seven Oaks.jpg|thumb|Depiction of the [[Battle of Seven Oaks]], a violent confrontation between HBC and the [[North West Company]] during the [[Pemmican War]]]]

The North West Company (NWC) was the main rival in the fur trade. The competition led to the small [[Pemmican War]] in 1816, which culminated in the [[Battle of Seven Oaks]] on 19 June 1816.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Dick |first=Lyle |date=1991 |title=The Seven Oaks Incident and the Construction of a Historical Tradition, 1816 to 1970 |url=https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/jcha/1991-v2-n1-jcha998/031029ar/ |journal=Journal of the Canadian Historical Association / Revue de la Société historique du Canada |language=en |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=91–113 |doi=10.7202/031029ar |issn=0847-4478 |doi-access=free}}</ref> In 1821, the NWC and Hudson's Bay Company were forcibly merged by intervention of the British government to put an end to the violent competition. Of the 175 posts, 68 of them the HBC's, were reduced to 52 for efficiency and because many were redundant as a result of the rivalry and were inherently unprofitable.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Early Trading Networks |url=http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/atlas/themes.aspx?id=earlytrade&sub=earlytrade_east_hudsons&lang=En |access-date=6 October 2015 |publisher=Canadian Geographic magazine |archive-date=7 October 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151007150457/http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/atlas/themes.aspx?id=earlytrade&sub=earlytrade_east_hudsons&lang=En |url-status=dead}}</ref> Their combined territory was extended by a licence to the [[North-Western Territory]], which reached to the [[Arctic Ocean]] in the north and, with the creation of the [[Columbia Department]] in the [[Pacific Northwest]], to the [[Pacific Ocean]] in the west. The NWC's regional headquarters at [[Fort Astoria|Fort George]] (Fort Astoria) was relocated to [[Fort Vancouver]] by 1825, making it the HBC's base of operations on the [[Pacific Slope]].{{sfn|Newman|1988|pp=369–370}}

Before the merger, the employees of the HBC, unlike those of the NWC, did not participate in its profits. After the merger, with all operations under the management of [[George Simpson (administrator)|Sir George Simpson]] (1826–60), the company had a corps of commissioned officers: 25 chief factors and 28 chief traders, who shared in the company's profits during the monopoly years. Its trade covered {{convert|7770000|km2|abbr=on}}, and it had 1,500 contract employees.{{sfn|Galbraith |1957 |pp=[{{google books|fOscZfLNOQkC|plainurl=yes|page=8}} 8–23]}}
[[File:Hudsons Bay Company currency to fur traders 1820 Fort York (crop).jpg|thumb|Currency issued by the Hudson's Bay Company, 1820]]
Between 1820 and 1870, the HBC issued its own [[Banknote|paper money]]. The notes, denominated in sterling, were printed in London and issued at York Factory for circulation primarily in the [[Red River Colony]].<ref>Ryan, Michael H. (2022), Paper Money of a 'Peculiar Character': The Notes of the Hudson's Bay Company, 1820–1870, https://ssrn.com/author=1846992. Retrieved 6 December 2022. McCullough, A.B. (1996). Money and Exchange in Canada to 1900. Dundurn. pp. 230–232. {{ISBN|978-1-5548-8228-1}}. Retrieved 6 October 2015.</ref>

=== Competition and exploration ===
Although the HBC maintained a monopoly on the fur trade during the early to mid-19th century, there was competition from James Sinclair and [[Andrew McDermot]] (Dermott), independent traders in the Red River Colony. They shipped furs by the [[Red River Trails]] to [[Norman Kittson]],{{sfn|Galbraith|1957|pp=60–72}} a buyer in the United States. In addition, Americans controlled the [[maritime fur trade]] on the Northwest Coast until the 1830s.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gibson |first=James R. |url={{google books||plainurl=yes|page=60}} |title=Otter Skins, Boston Ships, and China Goods: The Maritime Fur Trade of the Northwest Coast, 1785–1841 |publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press |year=1992 |isbn=978-0-7735-2028-8 |location=Montreal, Quebec |pages=60–61 |access-date=6 October 2015}}</ref>

Throughout the 1820s and the 1830s, the HBC controlled nearly all trading operations in the Pacific Northwest region and was based at its headquarters at Fort Vancouver, on the [[Columbia River]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Zeller |first=Suzanne |date=1 Jul 2006 |title=Humboldt and the Habitability of Canada's Great Northwest |journal=Geographical Review |volume=96 |issue=3 |pages=382–398 |doi=10.1111/j.1931-0846.2006.tb00257.x |bibcode=2006GeoRv..96..382Z |s2cid=159102947}}</ref> Although claims to the region were by agreement in abeyance, commercial operating rights were nominally shared by the United States and Britain through the [[Treaty of 1818|Anglo-American Convention of 1818]], but company policy, enforced via Chief Factor [[John McLoughlin]] of the company's [[Columbia District]], was to discourage US settlement of the territory. The company's effective monopoly on trade virtually forbade any settlement in the region.{{sfn|Newman|1988|p=370}}

=== Additional early presence in present-day United States ===
Over and above the NWC Fort George headquarters site, the HBC carried on the early presence in the region of the NWC when it merged in 1821 with noteworthy sites: [[Spokane House]], [[Fort Okanogan]] and [[Fort Nez Percés]]. [[Fort Colville]] located further North on the Columbia River replaced Spokane House in 1825.

[[Fort Umpqua]] was established in 1832 in present-day southern [[Oregon]] after the [[Willamette River]] had been explored up toward its headwaters by mainly the NWC. Nisqually House was built during the same year to establish a presence further North on Puget Sound in present-day State of [[Washington (State)|Washington]], resulting in [[Fort Nisqually]] a few years later closer to present-day Canadian sites.

The HBC established [[Fort Boise]] in 1834 (in present-day southwestern Idaho) to compete with the American [[Fort Hall]], {{convert|483|km|mi|abbr=on}} to the east. In 1837, it purchased Fort Hall, also along the route of the [[Oregon Trail]]. The outpost director displayed the abandoned wagons of discouraged settlers to those seeking to move west along the trail.{{sfn|Mackie|1998|pp=106–107}}
[[File:Hudson's Bay Company express canoe.jpg|thumb|left|HBC officials in an express canoe crossing a lake, 1825]]

HBC trappers were also deeply involved in the early exploration and development of [[Northern California]]. Company trapping brigades were sent south from Fort Vancouver, along what became known as the [[Siskiyou Trail]], into Northern California as far south as the [[San Francisco Bay Area]], where the company operated a trading post at [[Yerba Buena, California|Yerba Buena]] ([[San Francisco]]). The southern-most camp of the company was [[French Camp, California#History|French Camp]], east of San Francisco in the Central Valley adjacent to the future site of the city of [[Stockton, California|Stockton]].  These trapping brigades in Northern California faced serious risks, and were often the first to explore relatively uncharted territory. They included the lesser known [[Peter Skene Ogden]] and [[Samuel Black]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Paterson |first=TW |date=7 September 2019 |title=T.W. Paterson column: Peter Skene Ogden the latest victim of map mending |url=https://www.bclocalnews.com/opinion/t-w-paterson-column-peter-skene-ogden-the-latest-victim-of-map-mending/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190916011255/https://www.bclocalnews.com/opinion/t-w-paterson-column-peter-skene-ogden-the-latest-victim-of-map-mending/ |archive-date=16 September 2019 |access-date=17 December 2020 |website=BC Local News |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Maloney |first=Alice B. |date=March 1936 |title=[[s:en:Oregon Historical Quarterly/Volume 37/Number 1#9|Hudson's Bay Company in California]] |work=[[Oregon Historical Quarterly]]}}</ref>

The HBC also operated a store in what were then known as the Sandwich Islands (now the [[Hawaiian Islands]]), engaging in merchant shipping to the islands between 1828 and 1859.<ref>Spoehr, A. "A 19th Century Chapter in Hawaii's maritime history" ''Hawaiian Journal of History'' 1988 (vol 22)</ref>

Extending the presence it had built in present-day British Columbia northern coast, the HBC reached by 1838 as far North as [[Fort Stikine]] in the [[Alaska Panhandle]] by present-day [[Wrangell]]. The [[RAC-HBC agreement]] (1839) with the [[Russian American Company]] (RAC) provided for such a continuing presence in exchange for the HBC to supply the Russian coastal sites with agricultural products. The [[Puget Sound Agricultural Company]] subsidiary was created to supply grain, dairy, livestock and manufactured goods out of Fort Vancouver, Fort Nisqually, [[Cowlitz Farm|Fort Cowlitz]] and [[Fort Langley]] in present-day southern British Columbia.

The company's stranglehold on the region was broken by the [[Oregon Trail#Great Migration of 1843|first successful large wagon train to reach Oregon in 1843]], led by [[Marcus Whitman]]. In the years that followed, thousands of emigrants poured into the [[Willamette Valley]] of Oregon. In 1846, the United States acquired full authority south of the [[49th parallel north|49th parallel]]; the most settled areas of the Oregon Country were south of the Columbia River in what is now Oregon. McLoughlin, who had once turned away would-be settlers when he was company director, then welcomed them from his general store at [[Oregon City, Oregon|Oregon City]]. He later became known as the "Father of Oregon".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Van Voorhies Holman |first=Frederick |title=Dr. John McLoughlin, the Father of Oregon |publisher=Nabu Press |year=2012 |isbn=978-1279056677}}</ref>

=== Early presence in present-day Canada (British Columbia) ===
The HBC also carried on the early presence in the region of the NWC in present-day central and northern [[British Columbia]] with noteworthy sites: [[Alexandria, British Columbia|Fort Alexandria]], [[Fort St. John, British Columbia|Fort d'Épinette (Fort St. John)]], [[Fort St. James]], [[Prince George (British Columbia)|Fort George]] and [[Kamloops|Fort Shuswap (Fort Kamloops)]].

Since the 1818 Treaty settled the 49th parallel border only as far as the [[Rocky Mountains]], the HBC was looking for a site further West in case the parallel border would become further extended at the end of the 10 years joint occupancy term.  By 1824, the HBC was commissioning an expedition to travel from the [[Fort Astoria|Fort George]] regional headquarter on the southern shore of the [[Columbia River]] all the way to the [[Fraser River]]. The three boats 40 some crew led by the [[James McMillan (fur trader)|James McMillan]] were first to officially ever make it to [[Puget Sound]] from the continent, to reach its northern end into [[Boundary Bay]] and to bypass the mouth of the Fraser. They shortcut through two mainland rivers and a portage in order to finally reach the lower Fraser. Friendly tribes were identified along with subsistence farming land suitable for sustaining a trading post. The first [[Fort Langley National Historic Site|Fort Langley]] was subsequently built (1827), establishing an early settlers long lasting presence in current day southern British Columbia. The fur trade in a wet climate turned out to be marginal and quickly evolved into a salmon trade site with abundant supply in the vicinity.

The HBC stretched its presence North on the coastline with [[Fort Simpson (Columbia Department)|Fort Simpson]] (1831) on the [[Nass River]], [[Fort McLoughlin]] (1833) and the [[Beaver (steamship)|Beaver]] (1836), the first steamship to ever roam the Pacific Northwest for resupplying its coastline sites. The HBC was securing a trading monopoly on the coastline keeping away independent American traders: "By 1837, American competition on the North West Coast was effectively over".{{sfn|Mackie|1998|p=126}}

The HBC gained more control of the fur trade with both the coastline and inland tribes to access the fur rich [[New Caledonia (Canada)|New Caledonia district]] in current day northern British Columbia: "monopoly control of the coastal fur trade allowed the HBC to impose a uniform tariff on both sides of the Coast Mountains".{{sfn|Mackie|1998|p=133}}

By 1843, under pressure from the Americans to withdraw further North with the looming [[Oregon Treaty]] border negotiation finalized in 1846, and strong of its coastal presence on the northern coast,  HBC built [[Fort Victoria (British Columbia)|Fort Victoria]] at the southern end of present-day [[Vancouver Island]] in southern BC. A well sheltered ocean port with agricultural potential in the vicinity would allow the new regional headquarter to further develop the trade on salmon, timber and cranberries. Trade via the Hawaiian post was also increasing. The [[Fort Rupert]] (1849) at the northern end of the island would open up access to coal fields. On the continent mainland, [[Hope, British Columbia|Fort Hope]] and [[Yale, British Columbia|Fort Yale]] (1848) were built to extend the HBC presence on the [[Fraser River]] as far as navigable. Brigades would link a rebuilt [[Fort Langley]] (1840) on the Lower Fraser to [[Kamloops|Fort Kamloops]] by 1850 and the rest of the transportation network to [[York Factory]] on the [[Hudson Bay]] along with the [[New Caledonia (Canada)|New Caledonia district]] fur returns.

=== End of monopoly ===
[[File:A Section of a General Map of the Routes in British North America Explored by the Expedition Under Captain Palliser (1865) (2211818555).jpg|thumb|A section of a map showing the routes explored during the [[Palliser expedition]]]]

The Guillaume Sayer trial in 1849 contributed to the end of the HBC monopoly. [[Guillaume Sayer]], a [[Métis people (Canada)|Métis]] trapper and trader, was accused of illegal trading in furs. The Court of [[Assiniboia]] brought Sayer to trial, before a jury of HBC officials and supporters. During the trial, a crowd of armed Métis men led by [[Louis Riel Sr.]] gathered outside the courtroom. Although Sayer was found guilty of illegal trade, having evaded the HBC monopoly, Judge [[Adam Thom]] did not levy a fine or punishment. Some accounts attributed that to the intimidating armed crowd gathered outside the courthouse. With the cry, "{{lang|fr|Le commerce est libre! Le commerce est libre!}}" ("Trade is free! Trade is free!"), the Métis loosened the HBC's previous control of the courts, which had enforced their monopoly on the settlers of Red River.{{citation needed|date=May 2017}}

Another factor was the findings of the [[Palliser Expedition]] of 1857 to 1860, led by Captain [[John Palliser]]. He surveyed the area of the prairies and wilderness from Lake Superior to the southern passes of the Rocky Mountains. Although he recommended against settlement of the region, the report sparked a debate. It ended the myth publicized by Hudson's Bay Company: that the Canadian West was unfit for agricultural settlement.{{citation needed|date=May 2017}}

In 1863, the [[International Financial Society]] bought controlling interest in the HBC, signalling a shift in the company's outlook: most of the new shareholders were less interested in the fur trade than in real estate speculation and economic development in the West. The Society floated £2 million in public shares on non-ceded land held ostensibly by the Hudson's Bay Company as an asset and leveraged this asset for collateral for these funds. These funds allowed the Society the financial means to weather the [[Panic of 1866|financial collapse of 1866]] which destroyed many competitors and invest in railways in North America.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Records of the International Finance Society |url=https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/data/gb50-udfs |access-date=16 November 2018 |website=Archives Hub |publisher=[[Jisc]]}}</ref>

[[File:Canada provinces 1867-1870.png|thumb|Map of [[British North America]] in 1870, prior to HBC ceding [[Rupert's Land]] and the [[North-Western Territory]] to Canada]]
In 1869, after rejecting the American government offer of {{CAD|10}}{{nbsp}}million,<ref>{{Cite web |title=John A. Macdonald |url=http://www.canadahistory.com/sections/Politics/pm/johnmacdonald.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070405101925/http://www.canadahistory.com/sections/Politics/pm/johnmacdonald.htm |archive-date=5 April 2007 |access-date=17 November 2013 |website=Canada History |publisher=Access HT}}</ref> the company approved the return of Rupert's Land to Britain. The government gave it to Canada and loaned the new country the £300,000 required to compensate HBC for its losses.<ref name="H-2" /> HBC also received one-twentieth of the fertile areas to be opened for settlement and retained title to the lands on which it had built trading establishments.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Hudson's Bay Company |encyclopedia=The Canadian Encyclopedia |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/hudsons-bay-company |access-date=16 November 2018}}</ref> The deal, known as the [[Deed of Surrender]], came into force the following year. The resulting territory, the [[North-West Territories]], was brought under Canadian jurisdiction under the terms of the [[Rupert's Land Act 1868]], enacted by the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Deed enabled the admission of the fifth province, [[Manitoba]], to the [[Canadian Confederation|Confederation]] on 15 July 1870, the same day that the deed itself came into force.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Our History: Business: Fur Trade: The Deed of Surrender |url=http://www.hbcheritage.ca/hbcheritage/history/week/the-deed-of-surrender |access-date=6 October 2015 |website=HBC Heritage |archive-date=7 October 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151007091750/http://hbcheritage.ca/hbcheritage/history/week/the-deed-of-surrender |url-status=dead}}</ref>

During the 19th century the Hudson's Bay Company went through great changes in response to such factors as growth of population and new settlements in part of its territory, and ongoing pressure from Britain. It seemed unlikely that it would continue to control the future of the West.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Owram |first=Doug |url={{google books|IHZhBKRH080C|plainurl=yes|page=3}} |title=The Promise of the West as Settlement Frontier |date=2007 |work=The Prairie West as Promised Land |publisher=University of Calgary Press |editor-last=Francis |editor-first=R. Douglas |location=Calgary, Alberta |pages=3–28 |access-date=2 February 2015 |editor-last2=Kitzan |editor-first2=C.}}</ref>

=== Shift to department stores ===
{{See also|Hudson's Bay (department store)}}
[[File:Hudsons Bay Company on Cordova Street.jpg|thumb|An [[Hudson's Bay (department store)|HBC store]] in [[Vancouver]], {{circa|1890s}}]]

The iconic department store today evolved from trading posts at the start of the 19th century, when they began to see demand for general merchandise grow rapidly. HBC soon expanded into the interior and set-up posts along river settlements that later developed into the modern cities of Winnipeg, [[Calgary]] and [[Edmonton]]. In 1857, the first sales shop was established in [[Fort Langley]]. This was followed by other sales shops in [[Victoria, British Columbia|Fort Victoria]] (1859), Winnipeg (1881), Calgary (1884), [[Vancouver]] (1887), [[Vernon, British Columbia|Vernon]] (1887), Edmonton (1890), [[Yorkton]] (1898), and [[Nelson, British Columbia|Nelson]] (1902). The first of the grand "original six" department stores was built in Calgary in 1913. The other department stores that followed were in Edmonton, Vancouver, Victoria, [[Saskatoon]], and Winnipeg.<ref name="HH-3">{{Cite web |title=Our History: Timelines: Early Stores |url=http://www.hbcheritage.ca/hbcheritage/history/timeline/early/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150927094024/http://www.hbcheritage.ca/hbcheritage/history/timeline/early/ |archive-date=27 September 2015 |access-date=6 October 2015 |website=HBC Heritage}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Our History |url=http://www2.hbc.com/hbc/history/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150531192023/http://www2.hbc.com/hbc/history/ |archive-date=31 May 2015 |access-date=6 October 2015 |website=Hudson's Bay Company}}</ref>