The Pacific Fur Company (PFC) was an American fur trade venture wholly owned and funded by John Jacob Astor that functioned from 1810 to 1813. It was based in the Pacific Northwest, an area contested over the decades among the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Spanish Empire, the United States of America and the Russian Empire.
A depiction of North American beaver, the main source of animal pelts collected by the PFC
John Jacob Astor established the Pacific Fur Company as part of his grandiose plans to gain commercial hegemony over major fur producing areas in the North American fur trade against his North West and Hudson's Bay competitors.
Fort Mackinac was a center of the Great Lakes regional fur trade
Fort Astoria two years after its foundation
John Jacob Astor was a German-born American businessman, merchant, real estate mogul, and investor. Astor made his fortune mainly in a fur trade monopoly, by exporting opium into China, and by investing in real estate in or around New York City. He was the first prominent member of the Astor family and the first multi-millionaire in the United States.
John Jacob Astor portrait by John Wesley Jarvis, c. 1825
John Jacob Astor, by Gilbert Stuart, c. 1794
Sarah Cox Todd
