2 May 1670 A.D. LONDON: Charles II Charters Hudson Bay Company
2 May 1670 A.D. LONDON: Charles II Charters Hudson Bay Company
Editors. “1670 –
King Charles II of England grants a
permanent charter to the Hudson’s Bay Company, made up of the group of French
explorers who opened the lucrative North American fur trade to London
merchants.” This Day in U.S. Military History. N.d. https://thisdayinusmilhist.wordpress.com/2014/05/02/may-2/. Accessed 1 May 2015.
1670 – King Charles
II of England grants a permanent charter to the Hudson’s Bay Company, made up
of the group of French explorers who opened the lucrative North American fur
trade to London merchants. The charter conferred on them not only a trading
monopoly but also effective control over the vast region surrounding North
America’s Hudson Bay. Although contested by other English traders and the
French in the region, the Hudson’s Bay Company was highly successful in
exploiting what would become eastern Canada. During the 18th century, the
company gained an advantage over the French in the area but was also strongly
criticized in Britain for its repeated failures to find a northwest passage out
of Hudson Bay. After France’s loss of Canada at the end of the French and
Indian Wars, new competition developed with the establishment of the North West
Company by Montreal merchants and Scottish traders. As both companies attempted
to dominate fur potentials in central and western Canada, violence sometimes
erupted, and in 1821 the two companies were amalgamated under the name of the
Hudson’s Bay Company. The united company ruled a vast territory extending from
the Atlantic to the Pacific, and under the governorship of Sir George Simpson
from 1821 to 1856, reached the peak of its fortunes. After Canada was granted
dominion status in 1867, the company lost its monopoly on the fur trade, but it
had diversified its business ventures and remained Canada’s largest corporation
through the 1920s.
My ancestor was a shareholder in the Hudson Bay Company, my grandfather ran a HudsonBay Trading post on the north shore of the Saskatchewan River in Manitoba but was never paid their shares in the Company, I would negotiate a fair settlement. My ancestor had 3 of 20/100 shares in the Company since 1821.
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