By Historical Society

Origins of the Hudson’s Bay Company

Dec 20, 2011 | 10:26 AM

The Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC), is the oldest commercial corporation in North America and is one of the oldest in the world. Today, what most people know HBC as is “The Bay”.

The company also owns several other chains like Zellers. It operates retail stores throughout Canada and has it’s headquarter in Toronto, Ontario.

However, when the company first came into existence, it was very much a fur trading business.

In 1670, the company was incorporated by British royal charter as The Governor and Company of Adventures of England trading into Hudson’s Bay.

The company actually functioned as a de facto government in parts of North America before Europe and the United States laid claim to those territories. De facto means in practice but not necessarily by law.

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At one point, the HBC was the largest landowner in the world with Rupert’s Land owning about 15% of North America. The company controlled the fur trade in the British controlled North America for several centuries.

The company’s traders and trappers forged relationships with many groups of First Nations and Native American; creating a vast network of trading posts that is one of the reasons why the company was so successful. In the late 19th Century, when the Dominion of Canada was formed and the HBC territories became a vast component of it.

The company became the largest private landowner.

In the Historical Museum, we have many artifacts of the HBC. As soon as you walk through the door and look on the display case on the right, you will find a Hudson’s Bay coat that was awarded to the Winter Festival Queen and Princesses in 1926.

On the side of the arm there are four stripes which indicate it was worth four beaver pelts. We also have a display upstairs on the company with various things like blankets, lamps, buckets that the HBC sold and traded.

Don Wang

Addendum:
In researching other Hudson’s Bay Company history the following information was found on the Hudson’s Bay Company website:
The misconception persists that originally the points were an indication of the
blanket price in beaver pelts. This is false. From time to time, given market
forces, there was a congruence of prices and points – whereby a 2 pt. blanket
might “cost” 2 beaver pelts. But this was merely coincidental.
I believe this would be the same for the jackets; the point system was developed to show the size of the blanket.