With little control over what happened across the ocean, the company eventually relaxed its restrictions. By the end of the 18th century, the practice of HBC employees marrying Indigenous women was widespread.
From to , he fathered five children with four different women, whom he often passed off to someone else, sometimes with detailed instructions. Other men demonstrated respect for their wives and families. Her husband, Humphrey Marten, recorded her passing at a. Traders and officials relied on them to strengthen ties with male relatives who could provide furs and speak with trappers in Indigenous languages, not to mention cook, clean, care for their children and treat the furs they received.
Still, their labour was rarely rewarded by officials, whose attitudes toward Indigenous women became clear when their husband retired from the company or died. As a result, most men returned to Britain. But the company also banned employees from taking Indigenous wives or children with them.
Officials adopted this policy in the wake of the tragic story of Chief Factor Robert Pilgrim and his Cree wife, Thu-a-Higon, who retired to London in with their son. Soon after their return, Pilgrim died. In his will, he stipulated that his son should stay in England, while Thu-a-Higon was to return to her family in Churchill.
While Thu-a-Higon likely agonized over the forced separation from her son, HBC officials agonized over the cost of sending her back and caring for the child. Attitudes toward Indigenous Peoples grew more disdainful by the mids, as HBC officials became more comfortable in the region and relied less on Indigenous knowledge.
As Van Kirk notes, the arrival of white women stratified fur trade society and ushered in disrepute of the very Indigenous customs HBC employees had depended on for so long. Back in London, the fur trade was making some men — and a few women who held shares in the company — rich. As historian David Chan Smith has calculated, from through this translated into more than one million beaver pelts.
Things could have gone differently. And some Americans were hoping they would. By the mids, profits from the fur trade had dropped. The settler population of Canada and the United States was growing.
Industrialization was spreading. The future was not in fur but in real estate, agriculture, railroads and oil and gas. Meanwhile in Britain, public opinion was turning against the HBC. Under the leadership of Prime Minister John A. Macdonald, the government aimed to bring Western Canada into its fold and colonize the region. But Macdonald faced persistent and sustained resistance to this plan from Indigenous nations. And there was another challenge coming from the south.
From as early as the American Revolution, the British — and later Canadian — governments feared American encroachment. Alarm grew after the U. Ramsey hoped to make a deal the HBC and U.
American authorities understood that the best policy was to respect earlier agreements on the U. But if shareholders were excited by the prospect of a seven-figure deal for their landholdings, they were less enthusiastic about the proposed deal with Canada. They knew they were sitting on valuable land and the brand-new Canadian government was broke.
If there was any buyer who could pay a good price, it was the United States. But the British and Canadian governments were eager to make the sale happen and keep the territory within the empire. This was a far cry from the millions Ramsey had proposed, but the British and Canadian governments sweetened the pot by promising the company title to some 10 million acres of their choosing.
We want that money. Since its inception, the HBC had helped establish an English presence in the region by founding trading posts, three of which became provincial capitals: Fort Garry in Winnipeg, Fort Edmonton and Fort Victoria.
But from the perspective of HBC officials, things were more complicated. The sale ceased their efforts to govern the West and their claims to the region. It also ended their attempted monopoly of the fur trade. But there were benefits for those looking to make a buck, or two. While the HBC provided urban shoppers with a range of goods, many Indigenous Peoples maintained a different relationship to the company, particularly those in northern communities where the HBC trading post was the only store around.
The history of the HBC is messy and complicated. It has moments of compassion, but also competition and contention. In , U. Everything from coffee mugs to dog collars to those timeless wool blankets is adorned with the iconic green, red, yellow and blue stripes. Canadian Geographic commemorates is a series of articles, funded by the Government of Canada, celebrating milestone anniversaries of significance to the country's history.
See more stories in the series. Our publisher, The Royal Canadian Geographical Society, happily makes this content accessible for free as part of its mission to make Canada better known to Canadians and the world. But we need your support to keep going. View the discussion thread. The RCGS acknowledges that its offices are located on the unceded territory of the Algonquin Peoples, who have been guardians of, and in relationship with, these lands for thousands of years.
The RCGS is a registered charity. Click here to learn more. Donate and Support Geography in Canada. The Royal Canadian Geographical Society family of sites:. The Royal Canadian Geographical Society. Canadian Geographic Photo Club. Canadian Geographic Education.
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It approved the offer after a recommendation by a committee of independent directors. The company needs a majority of them to approve the new deal for it to go through. A number of traditional retailers are struggling and closing stores as consumer preferences change and shoppers increasingly migrate online to competitors like Amazon. Chief executive Helena Foulkes, who was brought in last year, also sold flash-sale e-commerce site Gilt and cashed out of European operations.
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