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Article: Fur Companies
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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FUR COMPANIES
FUR COMPANIES.
The Spanish and the French entered the fur trade in the sixteenth century. The Spanish contented themselves with an annual voyage of Manila galleons between North America and the Orient, exchanging sea otter pelts harvested on the California coast for Asian luxuries. The French opened trading posts for
the Hurons and their allies on the Saint Lawrence River. Dutch and, later, English traders pushed up the Hudson River and engaged in trade with the Iroquois.
In 1670 the British established the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), a joint-stock, corporate monopoly enterprise. Granted a royal monopoly and backed by London financiers, the HBC controlled all furs ...