Fur Trade in New World

choi

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Michael Taube, The Riches Came Pelting Down; How the quest for beaver, otter and buffalo fueled America's westward expansion. Wall Street Journal, July 10, 2010.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703509404575300743173582892.html

Note:
(1) factory (trading post)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factory_(trading_post)
("factory (from Latin facere, meaning to do)")
(2) Hudson's Bay Company
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hudson%27s_Bay_Company

* is the oldest commercial corporation in North America and one of the oldest in the world;
* incorporated by British royal charter in 1670;
* now headquartered in Toronto;
* was once the de facto government in parts of North America before European-based colonies and states were established. It was at one time the largest landowner in the world, with Rupert's Land having 15% of North American acreage;
* the company controlled the fur trade throughout much of British-controlled North America for several centuries;
* With the decline of the fur trade, the company evolved into a mercantile business selling vital goods to settlers in the Canadian West. Today the company is best known for its department stores throughout Canada, and Lord & Taylor in US.

(3) beaver
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaver
(two extant species: North American Beaver (Castor canadensis) (native to North America) and European Beaver (Castor fiber) (Eurasia); the second-largest rodent in the world (after the capybara))

(a) North America Beaver and European Beaver look alike.
(b) European Beaver "still occurs as far as China and Mongolia."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Beaver

(c) Architects in the Wild. United Nations Works to Protect Endangered Species, undated.
http://www.un.org/works/OLD/environment/animalplanet/beaver.html
(all about European Beaver)

Quote:

(i) "This animal mates for life, with two adults living in small family groups known as lodges. Their offspring stay with their parents until they are around three years old and go out on their own.

(ii)
"Once, the European Beaver inhabited most of temperate Eurasia from the British Isles to the eastern coast of the Russia Federation. By the 19th century, the beaver could only be found in small, isolated wetland areas in, Germany, Norway, Belarus, Mongolia and the Russian Federation.

"As recently as 10 years ago, this builder was on the edge of extinction, hunted because of the high demand for its soft water proof fur and a substance called castoreum found in the beaver's anal glands. Castoreum contains salicylic acid - the active ingredient in aspirin.

My comment: Because Europeans almost killed of beavers in Europe, they turned to the New World.

(4) The review states "the leaders of Plymouth soon realized that the Indians wanted corn."

Corn (or maize) is indigenous to New World (there was no corn in Europe, that is). White settlers learned of corn and how to plant it, from Native Americans.

Plymouth Colony
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plymouth_Colony
("Agriculture also made up an important part of the Plymouth economy. The colonists adopted Native American agricultural practices and crops. They planted maize, squash, pumpkins, beans, and potatoes. Besides the crops themselves, the Pilgrims learned productive farming techniques from the Native Americans, such as proper crop rotation and the use of dead fish to fertilize the soil. In addition to these native crops, the colonists also successfully planted Old World crops such as turnips, carrots, peas, wheat, barley, and oats")

* pumpkin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumpkin
(The word pumpkin originates from the word pepon (πέπων), which is Greek for “large melon". The French adapted this word to pompon, which the British changed to pumpion and later American colonists changed that to the word we use today, "pumpkin". The origin of pumpkins is not definitively known, although they are thought to have originated in North America. The oldest evidence, pumpkin-related seeds dating between 7000 and 5500 B.C., were found in Mexico.)

** squash (plant)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squash_(plant)
(Squashes generally refer to four species of the genus Cucurbita native to Mexico and Central America; The English word "squash" derives from askutasquash (a green thing eaten raw), a word from the Narragansett language, which was documented by Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island, in his 1643 publication A Key Into the Language of America.)

(5) The review also says "so in September 1621, six months after the Mayflower's arrival, a Pilgrim contingent set out on the colony's first fur-trading mission."

I do not know why the author says this. Everybody knows Mayflower set foot in 1620 (not 1621). See
Plymouth Colony
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plymouth_Colony
("On December 21, 1620, the first landing party arrived at the site of what would become the settlement of Plymouth")

(6) For Dutch America, see Dutch colonization of the Americas
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_colonization_of_the_Americas
(map)
(7) sea otter
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_otter
(The sea otter (Enhydra lutris) is a marine mammal native to the coasts of the northern and eastern North Pacific Ocean./ Unlike most marine mammals [which have a thick layer of fat under skin], the sea otter's primary form of insulation is an exceptionally thick coat of fur, the densest in the animal kingdom. Although it can walk on land, the sea otter lives mostly in the ocean)
(8) Robert Gray (sea captain)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Gray_(sea_captain)
(1755-1806; in 1790 completed the first American circumnavigation of the world; Perhaps his most remembered accomplishment from his explorations was his coming upon and then naming of the Columbia River, in 1792)
(9) John Jacob Astor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Jacob_Astor
(1763-1848; the first prominent member of the Astor family and the first multi-millionaire in the United States. He was the creator of the first trust in America, from which he made his fortune in fur trading, real estate and opium [2])

(a)  Reference 2: "In 1816, John Jacob Astor of New York City joined the opium smuggling trade. His American Fur Company purchased ten tons of Turkish opium, then shipped the contraband item to Canton on the Packet Ship Macedonian. Astor would later leave the China opium trade and sell solely to England." The All-Time Richest Americans - Forbes.com, which excerpted from

Peter W. Bernstein  and Annalyn Swan (eds), All the Money in the World; How the Forbes 400 Make--and Spend--Their Fortunes. Random House, 2007.

(b) The review next mentions "the London-born Astor." But Wikipedia says he was born in "Walldorf, Germany." It must be true, considering a famous hotel in Manhattan:

Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waldorf-Astoria_Hotel





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