1.
Canada
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Canada is a country in the northern half of North America. Canadas border with the United States is the worlds longest binational land border, the majority of the country has a cold or severely cold winter climate, but southerly areas are warm in summer. Canada is sparsely populated, the majority of its territory being dominated by forest and tundra. It is highly urbanized with 82 per cent of the 35.15 million people concentrated in large and medium-sized cities, One third of the population lives in the three largest cities, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Its capital is Ottawa, and other urban areas include Calgary, Edmonton, Quebec City, Winnipeg. Various aboriginal peoples had inhabited what is now Canada for thousands of years prior to European colonization. Pursuant to the British North America Act, on July 1,1867, the colonies of Canada, New Brunswick and this began an accretion of provinces and territories to the mostly self-governing Dominion to the present ten provinces and three territories forming modern Canada. With the Constitution Act 1982, Canada took over authority, removing the last remaining ties of legal dependence on the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy, with Queen Elizabeth II being the head of state. The country is officially bilingual at the federal level and it is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many other countries. Its advanced economy is the eleventh largest in the world, relying chiefly upon its abundant natural resources, Canadas long and complex relationship with the United States has had a significant impact on its economy and culture. Canada is a country and has the tenth highest nominal per capita income globally as well as the ninth highest ranking in the Human Development Index. It ranks among the highest in international measurements of government transparency, civil liberties, quality of life, economic freedom, Canada is an influential nation in the world, primarily due to its inclusive values, years of prosperity and stability, stable economy, and efficient military. While a variety of theories have been postulated for the origins of Canada. In 1535, indigenous inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct French explorer Jacques Cartier to the village of Stadacona, from the 16th to the early 18th century Canada referred to the part of New France that lay along the St. Lawrence River. In 1791, the area became two British colonies called Upper Canada and Lower Canada collectively named The Canadas, until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, Canada was adopted as the name for the new country at the London Conference. The transition away from the use of Dominion was formally reflected in 1982 with the passage of the Canada Act, later that year, the name of national holiday was changed from Dominion Day to Canada Day
2.
Quebec
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Quebec is the second-most populous province of Canada and the only one to have a predominantly French-speaking population, with French as the sole provincial official language. Quebec is Canadas largest province by area and its second-largest administrative division and it also shares maritime borders with Nunavut, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia. Quebec is Canadas second-most populous province, after Ontario, most inhabitants live in urban areas near the Saint Lawrence River between Montreal and Quebec City, the capital. Approximately half of Quebec residents live in the Greater Montreal Area, the Nord-du-Québec region, occupying the northern half of the province, is sparsely populated and inhabited primarily by Aboriginal peoples. Even in central Quebec at comparatively southerly latitudes winters are severe in inland areas, Quebec independence debates have played a large role in the politics of the province. Parti Québécois governments held referendums on sovereignty in 1980 and 1995, in 2006, the House of Commons of Canada passed a symbolic motion recognizing the Québécois as a nation within a united Canada. These many industries have all contributed to helping Quebec become an economically influential province within Canada, early variations in the spelling of the name included Québecq and Kébec. French explorer Samuel de Champlain chose the name Québec in 1608 for the colonial outpost he would use as the seat for the French colony of New France. The province is sometimes referred to as La belle province, the Province of Quebec was founded in the Royal Proclamation of 1763 after the Treaty of Paris formally transferred the French colony of Canada to Britain after the Seven Years War. The proclamation restricted the province to an area along the banks of the Saint Lawrence River, the Treaty of Versailles ceded territories south of the Great Lakes to the United States. After the Constitutional Act of 1791, the territory was divided between Lower Canada and Upper Canada, with each being granted an elected legislative assembly, in 1840, these become Canada East and Canada West after the British Parliament unified Upper and Lower Canada into the Province of Canada. This territory was redivided into the Provinces of Quebec and Ontario at Confederation in 1867, each became one of the first four provinces. In 1898, the Canadian Parliament passed the first Quebec Boundary Extension Act that expanded the provincial boundaries northward to include the lands of the aboriginal peoples. This was followed by the addition of the District of Ungava through the Quebec Boundaries Extension Act of 1912 that added the northernmost lands of the Inuit to create the modern Province of Quebec. In 1927, the border between Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador was established by the British Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. Located in the part of Canada, and part of Central Canada. Its topography is very different from one region to another due to the composition of the ground, the climate. The Saint Lawrence Lowland and the Canadian Shield are the two main regions, and are radically different
3.
Louis Jolliet
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Louis Jolliet was a French Canadian explorer known for his discoveries in North America. Jolliet and Jesuit Father Jacques Marquette, a Catholic priest and missionary, were the first non-Natives to explore, Jolliet was born in 1645 in a French settlement near Quebec City. When he was seven years old, his father died but his mother remarried a successful merchant, Jolliets stepfather owned land on the Ile dOrleans, an island in the Saint Lawrence River in Quebec that was home to First Nations. Jolliet spent much time on Ile dOrleans, so it was likely that he began speaking Aboriginal languages at a young age, during his childhood, Quebec was the center of the French fur trade. The Natives were part of life in Quebec, and Joliet grew up knowing a lot about them. He entered a Jesuit school as a child and focused on philosophical and religious studies and he also studied music, becoming a skilled harpsichordist and church organist. Yet he decided to leave the seminary as an adult and pursued fur trading instead, Jolliet attended a Jesuit school in Quebec and received minor orders in 1662, but abandoned his plans to become a priest in 1667. He spoke French, English, and Spanish, de Soto had named the river Rio del Espiritu Santo, but tribes along its length called it variations of Mississippi. On May 17,1673, Jolliet and Marquette departed from St. Ignace Michigan with two canoes and five voyageurs of French-Indian ancestry. The group followed Lake Michigan to the end of Green Bay and they then paddled upstream on the Fox River to the site now known as Portage, Wisconsin. There, they portaged a distance of less than two miles through marsh and oak forest to the Wisconsin River. Europeans eventually built a trading post at that shortest convenient portage between the Great Lakes and Mississippi River basins, on June 17, the canoeists ventured onto the Mississippi River near present-day Prairie du Chien. The Jolliet-Marquette expedition traveled down the Mississippi to within 435 miles of the Gulf of Mexico and they turned back north at the mouth of the Arkansas River. By this point, they had encountered natives carrying European goods, the voyageurs then followed the Mississippi back to the mouth of the Illinois River, which friendly natives told them was a shorter route back to the Great Lakes. Following the Illinois river upstream, they turned up its tributary the Des Plaines River near modern-day Joliet. They then continued up the Des Plaines river, and portaged their canoes and they then followed the Chicago River downstream until they reached Lake Michigan near the location of modern-day Chicago. Father Marquette stayed at the mission of St. Francis Xavier at the end of Green Bay. Joliet returned to Quebec to relate the news of their discoveries, Marquette returned to what later became the Illinois Country in late 1674
4.
Guillaume Delisle
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Guillaume Delisle, also spelled Guillaume de lIsle, was a French cartographer known for his popular and accurate maps of Europe and the newly explored Americas and Europe. Deslile was the son of Marie Malaine and Claude Delisle, who later remarried Charlotte Millet de la Croyère after his first wife died following childbirth and it is possible that the couple had as many as 12 children, but many of them died at a young age. Although Claude Delisle had studied law, he taught history. Guillaume and his two of half-brothers, Joseph Nicolas and Louis, ended up pursuing similar careers in science, while Claude certainly has to be given credit for Guillaume’s education, the latter showed early signs of being an exceptional talent. He would soon contribute to the workshop by drawing maps for his father’s historical works. In order to perfect his skills, Guillaume Delisle became the student of the astronomer Jean-Dominique Cassini, early on he produced high quality maps, the first being his Carte de la Nouvelle-France et des Pays Voisins in 1696. At 27, Delisle was admitted into the French Académie Royale des Sciences, after that date, he signed his maps with the title of “Géographe de l’Académie”. Five years later, he moved to the Quai de l’Horloge in Paris, Delisle’s ascension through the ranks culminated in 1718 when he received the title of Premier Géographe du Roi. His new office consisted in teaching geography to the Dauphin, King Louis XIV’s son, again, Claude Delisle’s reputation as a man of science probably helped Guillaume. In Delisle’s case, it could be said that his accomplishments surpassed his father’s, like many cartographers of his day, Delisle did not travel with the explorers and elaborated the maps mostly in his office. The quality of his maps depended on a network that would provide him first-hand information. Given the family’s reputation and his own, Delisle had access to fairly recent accounts of travellers who were coming back from the New World, being a member of the Académie, he was also aware of recent discoveries, especially in astronomy and measurement. When he could not confirm the accuracy of his source, he would indicate it clearly on his maps, Delisles search for exactitude and intellectual honesty entangled him in a legal dispute in 1700 with Jean-Baptiste Nolin, a fellow cartographer. Noticing Nolin had used details that were considered original from his Map of the World, in the end, Delisle managed to convince the jury of scientists that Nolin only knew the old methods of cartography and therefore that he had stolen the information from his manuscript. Nolins maps were confiscated and he was forced to pay the court costs, the scientificity of the work produced by the Delisle family contrasted with the workshop of Sanson. While Sanson knowingly published outdated facts and mistakes, Delisle strived to present up-to-date knowledge, after Guillaume Delisles death in 1726, his widow tried to preserve the workshop and protect the family. She appealed to the king with the help of the abbot Bignon, by that time, Guillaumes brothers Joseph-Nicolas and Louis had already left to serve Peter the Great in Russia. The youngest Delisle, Simon Claude, lacked practical knowledge in cartography, the Delisle workshop was then bequeathed to Philippe Buache
5.
Hudson's Bay Company
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The Hudsons Bay Company, commonly referred to as The Bay, is a Canadian retail business group. HBCs head office is in the Simpson Tower in Toronto, Ontario, the company is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol HBC. It was once the worlds largest landowner, with the area of the Hudson Bay watershed, known as Ruperts Land, having 15% of North American acreage. From its long-time headquarters at York Factory on Hudson Bay, the company controlled the fur trade throughout much of the English, undertaking early exploration, its traders and trappers forged relationships with many groups of aboriginal peoples. Its network of trading posts formed the nucleus for later official authority in areas of Western Canada. By the mid-19th century, the company evolved into a business selling everything from furs to fine homeware. They quickly introduced a new type of client to the HBC – one that shopped for pleasure and not with skins, in July 2008, HBC was acquired by NRDC Equity Partners, which also owns the upmarket American department store Lord & Taylor. From 2008 to 2012, the HBC was run through a company of NRDC, Hudsons Bay Trading Company. Since 2012, the HBC directly oversees its Canadian subsidiaries Hudsons Bay and Home Outfitters, on 29 July 2013, the HBC announced its takeover of Saks, Inc. operator of the Saks Fifth Avenue brand. The merger was completed on 3 November 2013, in September 2015, HBC acquired the German department store chain Galeria Kaufhof and its Belgian subsidiary from Metro Group for $3.2 billion U. S. In May 2016, HBC announced it would expand to the Netherlands by taking over up to 20 former Vroom & Dreesmann sites by 2017, v&D was an historic Dutch department store chain that went bankrupt and shut down in early 2016. HBC said the expansion would cost CAD $340 million and create 2,500 jobs in the stores, the Dutch stores would operate under the Hudsons Bay and Saks Off Fifth brands. In January 2016, HBC announced it would also expand deeper in the space with its acquisition of online flash sales site. In the 17th century the French had a de facto monopoly on the Canadian fur trade with their colony of New France. Assuming this was Hudson Bay, they sought French backing for a plan to set up a trading post on the Bay, despite this refusal, in 1659 Radisson and Groseilliers set out for the upper Great Lakes basin. A year later returned with premium furs, evidence of the potential of the Hudson Bay region. Subsequently, they were arrested for trading without a licence and fined, determined to establish trade in the Hudson Bay, Radisson and Groseilliers approached a group of businessmen in Boston, Massachusetts to help finance their explorations. The Bostonians agreed on the plans merits but their speculative voyage in 1663 failed when their ship ran into pack ice in Hudson Strait, boston-based English commissioner Colonel George Cartwright learned of the expedition and brought the two to England to raise financing
6.
Tadoussac
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Tadoussac is a village in Quebec, Canada, at the confluence of the Saguenay and Saint Lawrence rivers. The indigenous Innu called the place Totouskak meaning bosom, probably in reference to the two round and sandy hills located on the west side of the village, according to other interpretations, it could also mean place of lobsters, or place where the ice is broken. Although located in Innu territory, the post was also frequented by the Mikmaq people in the half of the 16th century. Alternate spellings of Tadoussac over the centuries included Tadousac, Tadoussak, jacques Cartier came to the site in 1535 during his second voyage. He found Innu people using it as a base for hunting seal, later that same century, Basques from Spain conducted whaling expeditions on the river. Gravé and Chauvin built the settlement on the shore at the mouth of the Saguenay River, at its confluence with the St. Lawrence, but the frontier was harsh and only five of the 16 men with them survived the first winter. In 1603, the tabagie or feast of Tadoussac reunited Gravé with Samuel de Champlain and with the Montagnais, the Algonquins, in 1615, the Mission of LExaltation-de-la-Sainte-Croix-de-Tadoussac, named in memory of a cross planted by Jean de Quen, was founded by the Récollet Order. Their missionary brothers sang the first Mass there two years later, Tadoussac remained the only seaport on the St. Lawrence River for 30 years. Historians believe the St. Lawrence Iroquoians, who inhabited the St. Lawrence valley upriver to the west, were defeated and pushed out by the Mohawk before the early 17th century. By the late 17th and early 18th century, Tadoussac was the center of fur trade between the French and First Nations peoples, competition over the fur trade increased among the nations. Colonists from the Tadoussac area were involved in whaling from 1632 until at least the end of the century, in the 19th century, with industrialization reaching other parts of Canada, tourists discovered the appeal of this rural village. Wealthy Québécois built a number of vacation villas, a Victorian hotel was built in 1864, it later was lost to a fire. In the 1940s, it was replaced by the large Hotel Tadoussac, in 1855, the geographic township of Tadoussac was established. In 1899, it was incorporated as a village municipality, in 1937, the Parish Municipality of Tadoussac was formed, but dissolved in 1949 because it had less than 500 inhabitants. The modern village of Tadoussac lies close to the site of the settlement at the mouth of the Saguenay River. It is known as a tourist destination because of the beauty of the Saguenay fjord. The authority for the Port of Tadoussac was transferred in April 2012 to the Municipality of Tadoussac, the entire area is either rural or still in a wilderness state, with several federal and provincial natural parks and preserves protecting natural resources. Tadoussac encompasses the first marine park of Canada
7.
Rupert River
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The Rupert River is one of the largest rivers in Quebec, Canada. From its headwaters in Lake Mistassini, the largest natural lake in Quebec, the Rupert drains an area of 43,400 square kilometres. There is some extremely large whitewater on the river, but paddlers can avoid much of it by portage routes on the side. The most impressive falls, which cannot be avoided except by portaging, are the Oatmeal Rapids right at the James Bay Road, the Rupert has long been an important river for the Cree of the area. Every year, a group of Cree youth from the village of Waskaganish, at the mouth of the Rupert, lawrence River and in doing so, trying to break the French hold on the fur trade. They named the river after the sponsor of the expedition, Prince Rupert, a fort was established at the mouth of the river, which later became the trading post Rupert House, the oldest trading post of the Hudsons Bay Company. While having lost its importance as a route, the Rupert River has long been a popular destination for recreational canoe camping. The Rupert, together with the Nottaway and Broadback Rivers, was considered to be dammed and diverted as part of the James Bay Project. But in 1972, hydro-electric development began on the more northerly La Grande and Eastmain Rivers, the Grand Chief of the Crees, Matthew Mukash, elected in late 2005, opposed the Rupert diversion project, preferring the development of wind turbines in the region. The diversion of water from the river began in November,2009, the remaining work was scheduled to be complete in 2012. com Rupert River Archive The Rupert River
8.
Atlantic salmon
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The Atlantic salmon is a species of ray-finned fish in the family Salmonidae. It is found in the northern Atlantic Ocean, in rivers that flow into the north Atlantic and, due to human introduction, the Atlantic salmon was given its scientific binomial name by zoologist and taxonomist Carl Linnaeus in 1758. The name, Salmo salar, derives from the Latin salmo, meaning salmon, and salar, meaning leaper, according to M. Barton, lewis and Shorts Latin Dictionary translates salar as a kind of trout from its use in the Idylls of the poet Ausonius. Later, the differently coloured smolts were found to be the same species, other names used to reference Atlantic salmon are, bay salmon, black salmon, caplin-scull salmon, Sebago salmon, silver salmon, fiddler, or outside salmon. At different points in their maturation and life cycle, they are known as parr, smolt, grilse, grilt, kelt, slink, Atlantic salmon that do not journey to sea are known as landlocked salmon or ouananiche. The species is the longest and heaviest in genus Salmo, after two years at sea, the fish average 71 to 76 cm in length and 3.6 to 5.4 kg in weight. But specimens that spend four or more winters feeding at sea can be much larger. An Atlantic salmon netted in 1960 in Scotland, in the estuary of the river Hope, was weighed in at 49.44 kg, the colouration of young Atlantic salmon does not resemble the adult stage. While they live in water, they have blue and red spots. At maturity, they take on a silver-blue sheen, the easiest way of identifying them as an adult is by the black spots predominantly above the lateral line, though the caudal fin is usually unspotted. When they reproduce, males take on a green or red colouration. The salmon has a body, and well-developed teeth. All fins, save the adipose, are bordered with black, the distribution of Atlantic salmon depends on water temperature. Because of climate change, some of the southern populations, in Spain. Before human influence, the breeding grounds of Atlantic salmon were rivers in Europe. When North America was settled by Europeans, eggs were brought on trains to the west coast, other attempts to bring Atlantic salmon to new settlements were made, e. g. But since there are no suitable ocean currents on New Zealand, there is at least one landlocked population of Atlantic salmon on New Zealand, where the fish never go out to sea. Young salmon spend one to four years in their natal river, when they are large enough, they smoltify, changing camouflage from stream-adapted with large, gray spots to sea-adapted with shiny sides
9.
Canoe camping
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Canoe camping is a combination of canoeing, long-distance travel, and camping. Like backpacking, canoe campers carry enough with them to travel and camp for several days, Canoe camping is primarily practiced in North America. A canoeist can transport significantly heavier and bulkier loads than a backpacker or kayaker, portaging by foot is sometimes necessary to pass between water bodies or around hazardous obstacles such as rapids or waterfalls, but most of the time canoe campers travel on water. Because they usually dont continuously carry their gear on their backs, canoe campers can bring more food and gear and undertake longer trips. This is especially the case with food which, unlike gear where the weight is fixed regardless of the trip duration. Trips may need to have extra days built into the schedule in case of weather delays, although most experienced canoeists feel comfortable paddling straight through large bodies of water, most typically stay within a few hundred meters of shore. Since a fully loaded canoe only draws 12 to 16 cm and this proximity lets the canoeist observe aquatic and near-shore plants and wildlife from a perspective that walking on solid ground does not allow. Many people engage in fishing while canoe camping, compared to backpacking, canoeing produces less noise, with no crunching boots and bouncing packs, and a lower level of exertion. The versatility of canoe tripping allows canoeists to go places and see things that otherwise could not. Many canoeists use specialized Duluth packs designed for both easy portaging and loading into canoes, waterproof dry bags are frequently used to keep important items dry in case of inclement weather or capsizing. Native Americans of many different tribes who used canoes for transportation, the canoe was perfect for this purpose - light and relatively easy to carry, fast, able to traverse a wide variety of different water ways, and able to carry large loads. It was for all reasons that the early French explorers of North America, such as Louis Jolliet. With them came Jesuit missionaries, coureurs des bois, and voyageurs, once trading posts were established in the interior, the canoe continued to be the primary transportation method, supplying such posts with regular canoe brigades. In northern Quebec, this continued until the middle of the 20th century. As the wilderness of the Americas was tamed by the construction of the railroad and later roads and it turned into a recreational sport, a way for Americans and others to experience the pre-European America, and have a glimpse of a formerly never-ending wilderness. The history of the Grand Portage, MN is an excellent metaphorical microcosm for the larger change, an early proponent and popularizer of canoe camping was George W. He was 64 years old and in health at the time. The adventure memoir Canoeing with the Cree relates Eric Sevareids youthful journey with a companion from Minnesota to Hudson Bay in 1930, calvin Rutstrum was a wilderness canoeist and author, whom Bill Mason said totally influenced me and he became my hero
10.
Log driving
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Log driving is a means of moving logs from a forest to sawmills and pulp mills downstream using the current of a river. It was the transportation method of the early logging industry in Europe. Later, bigger circular sawmills were developed in the reaches of a river. In the broader, slower stretches of a river, the logs might be bound together into timber rafts, in the smaller, wilder stretches of a river, rafts couldnt get through, so masses of individual logs were driven down the river like huge herds of cattle. The log drive was one step in a process of lumber-making in remote places. There the logs were decked onto rollways, in the spring when snow thawed and water levels rose, the logs were rolled into the river, and the drive commenced. To ensure that logs drifted freely along the river, men called log drivers or river pigs were needed to guide the logs, the drivers typically divided into two groups. The more experienced and nimble men comprised the jam crew or beat crew and they watched the spots where logs were likely to jam, and when a jam started, tried to get to it quickly and dislodge the key logs before many logs stacked up. If they didnt, the river would keep piling on more logs, millions of board feet of lumber could back up for miles upriver, requiring weeks to break up, with some lumber possibly lost if it was shoved far enough into the shallows. So when the jam crew saw a jam start, they rushed to it and tried to break it up, using peaveys and this job required some understanding of physics, strong muscles, and extreme agility. The jam crew was a dangerous occupation, with the drivers standing on the moving logs. Many drivers lost their lives by falling and being crushed by the logs, each crew was accompanied by an experienced boss often selected for his fighting skills to control the strong and reckless men of his team. The overall drive was controlled by the boss who moved from place to place to coordinate the various teams to keep logs moving past problem spots. Stalling a drive near a saloon often created a cascade of drunken personnel problems, a larger group of less experienced men brought up the rear, pushing along the straggler logs that were stuck on the banks and in trees. They spent more time wading in icy water than balancing on moving logs and they were called the rear crew. Other men worked with them from the bank, pushing logs away with pike poles, others worked with horses and oxen to pull in the logs that had strayed furthest out into the flats. Bateaux ferried log drivers using pike poles to dislodge stranded logs while maneuvering with the log drive, a wannigan was a kitchen built on a raft which followed the drivers down the river. The wannigan served four meals a day to fuel the men working in cold water and it also provided tents and blankets for the night if no better accommodations were available
11.
Hudson Bay
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Hudson Bay is a large body of saltwater in northeastern Canada with a surface area of 1,230,000 square kilometres. Hudson Bays southern arm is called James Bay, the Eastern Cree name for Hudson and James Bay is Wînipekw or Wînipâkw, meaning muddy or brackish water. Lake Winnipeg is similarly named by the local Cree, as is the location for the city of Winnipeg, Hudson Bay encompasses 1,230,000 square kilometres, making it the second-largest bay in the world. The bay is shallow and is considered an epicontinental sea. It is about 1,370 km long and 1,050 km wide, on the east it is connected with the Atlantic Ocean by Hudson Strait, on the north, with the Arctic Ocean by Foxe Basin, and Fury and Hecla Strait. Geographic coordinates, 78° to 95° W, 51° to 70° N. Hudson Bay is part of the North Atlantic Ocean, sometimes the Hudson Bay and Hudson Strait basins are considered part of the Arctic Ocean even though their waters flow predominantly to the Atlantic. Some sources describe Hudson Bay as a sea of the Atlantic Ocean. English explorers and colonists named Hudson Bay after Sir Henry Hudson who explored the bay beginning August 2,1610 on his ship Discovery. On his fourth voyage to North America, Hudson worked his way around Greenlands west coast and into the bay, Discovery became trapped in the ice over the winter, and the crew survived onshore at the southern tip of James Bay. When the ice cleared in the spring, Hudson wanted to explore the rest of the area and they left Hudson and others adrift in a small boat. No one knows the fate of Hudson or the crew members stranded with him, in 1668, Nonsuch reached the bay and traded for beaver pelts, leading to the creation of the Hudsons Bay Company which still bears the historic name. The HBC negotiated a trading monopoly from the British crown for the Hudson Bay watershed, called Ruperts Land, france contested this grant by sending several military expeditions to the region, but abandoned its claim in the Treaty of Utrecht. See Anglo-French conflicts on Hudson Bay, during this period, the Hudsons Bay Company built several forts and trading posts along the coast at the mouth of the major rivers. The strategic locations were bases for inland exploration, more importantly, they were trading posts with the indigenous peoples who came to them with furs from their trapping season. The HBC shipped the furs to Europe and continued to use these posts until the beginning of the 20th century, the port of Churchill is still an important shipping link for trade with Europe and Russia. HBCs trade monopoly was abolished in 1870, and it ceded Ruperts Land to Canada, starting in 1913, the Bay was extensively charted by the Canadian Governments CSS Acadia to develop it for navigation. This mapping progress led to the establishment of Churchill, Manitoba as a port for wheat exports in 1929. Due to a change in naming conventions, Hudsons Bay is now called Hudson Bay, as a result, the names of the body of water and the company are often mistaken for one another
12.
North West Company
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The North West Company was a fur trading business headquartered in Montreal from 1779 to 1821. It competed with increasing success against the Hudsons Bay Company in what is present-day Western Canada, with great wealth at stake, tensions between the companies increased to the point where several minor armed skirmishes broke out, and the two companies were forced to merge. In 1987, the trading posts of the Hudsons Bay Company were sold to an employee consortium that revived the name The North West Company in 1990. After the French landed in Quebec in 1608, coureurs des bois spread out, the French competed with the Dutch and English in New York and the English in Hudson Bay. Unlike the French who travelled into the interior, the English were based at trading posts on Hudson Bay. After 1731, La Vérendrye pushed trade west beyond Lake Winnipeg, after the British conquest in 1763, management of the fur trading posts was taken over by English-speakers. These so-called pedlars began to merge because competition cost them money, in the winter of 1783-84, the North West Company was officially created on a long-term basis, with its corporate offices on Vaudreuil Street in Montreal. The wintering partners and the Montreal agents met each July at the Companys depot at Grand Portage on Lake Superior, later moved to Fort William, also under the auspices of the Company, Alexander Mackenzie conducted two important expeditions of exploration. These men pushed into the territories of the Rocky Mountains. The death of Benjamin Frobisher opened the door to a takeover of the North West Company by Simon McTavish, the firm of McTavish, Frobisher and Company, founded in November 1787, effectively controlled eleven of the company’s twenty outstanding shares. At the time the company consisted of 23 partners, but its staff of Agents, factors, clerks, guides, interpreters, in addition to Alexander Mackenzie, this group included Americans Peter Pond and Alexander Henry the elder. Further reorganizations of the partnership occurred in 1795 and 1802, the shares being subdivided each time to provide for more and more wintering partners. Vertical integration of the business was completed in 1792, when Simon McTavish and John Fraser formed a London house to supply goods and market the furs, McTavish, Fraser. While the organization and capitalization of the North West Company came from Anglo-Quebecers, in the northwest, the Company expanded its operations as far north as Great Bear Lake, and westwards beyond the Rocky Mountains. For several years, they tried to sell directly to China, using American ships to avoid the British East India Companys monopoly. The company also expanded into the United States Northwest Territory, in 1796, to better position themselves in the increasingly global market, where politics played a major role, the North West Company briefly established an agency in New York City. The company tried to persuade the British Parliament to change arrangements and it is said that Simon McTavish made a personal petition to Prime Minister William Pitt, but all requests were refused. A few years later, with no relief to the Hudsons Bay Companys stranglehold, McTavish and they organized an overland expedition from Montreal to James Bay and a second expedition by sea
