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Article: Trading Posts, Frontier
- 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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TRADING POSTS, FRONTIER
TRADING POSTS, FRONTIER.
British, French, and Dutch traders established some of the earliest North American trading posts in the seventeenth century as trade between Indians and European fur trappers increased. While Europeans engaged in the enterprise for profits to be realized from the sale of sought-after furs, Indians exchanged pelts for desired items such as guns and ammunition, blankets, copper kettles, silver, glass beads, and
cloth. Though often no more than a collection of dilapidated cabins, frontier trading posts served as the commercial centers of the frontier, built on or near waterways to expedite both the shipment of furs and pelts downriver, ...