The Northwest Fur Trade

THE Northwest Fur Trade, in which our citizens largely participated, and at one period nearly monopolized, was principally limited to the sea-coast between the mouth of the Columbia river, in latitude 46°, to the numerous islands bordering this whole extent of coast, and the sounds, bays, and inlets, within these limits. Trade was always carried on alongside, or on board the ship, usually anchored near the shore, the Indians coming off in their canoes. It was seldom safe to admit many of the natives into the ship at the same time, and a departure from this prudent course, has, in numerous instances, been followed by the most disastrous and tragic results.

The vessels usually employed were from one hundred to two hundred and fifty tons burthen, each. The time occupied for a voyage by vessels that remained upon the coast only a single season, was from twenty-two months to two years, but they generally remained out two seasons, and were absent from home nearly three years. The principal object of the voyages was to procure the skins of the sea-otter, which were obtained from the natives by barter, carried to Canton, and there exchanged for the productions of the Celestial Empire, to be brought home or taken to Europe, thus completing what may be called a trading voyage.

Beaver and common otter skins, and other small furs, were occasionally procured in considerable quantities, but in the early period of the trade they were deemed unimportant, and little attention was given to collecting them. The sea-otter skins have ever been held in high estimation by the Chinese and Russians, as an ornamental fur; but its great scarcity and consequent cost, limits the wear to the wealthy and higher classes only. A full-grown prime skin, which has been stretched before drying, is about five feet long, and twenty-four to thirty inches wide, covered with very fine fur, about three-fourths of an inch in length, having a rich jet black, glossy surface, and exhibiting a silver color when blown open. Those are esteemed the finest skins which have some white hairs interspersed and scattered over the whole surface, and a perfectly white head….

After the expedition of Bering and Co., in 1741, these excursions were slowly extended to other groups between the two continents, and when Cook, in 1778, explored these northern regions, he met with Russian adventurers upon several of the islands in proximity with the American shore. It was, however, the publication of Cook’s northern voyages, in 1785, that gave the great impulse to the Northwest Fur Trade, and drew adventurers from several nations to that quarter.

The published journal of Captain King, who succeeded to the command of one of the ships after the death of Captains Cook and Clark, and his remarks, setting forth the favorable prospects for this trade, doubtless roused the spirit of adventure. Between the time of the publication referred to, in 1785, and the close of 1787, expeditions were fitted out from Canton, Macao, Calcutta, and Bombay, in the East; London and Ostend in Europe; and from Boston in the United States. In 1787, the first American expedition was fitted out, and sailed from Boston. It consisted of the ship Columbia, of two hundred and twenty, and the sloop Washington, of ninety tons burthen-the former commanded by John Kendrick, the latter by Robert Gray.

It is scarcely possible, in the present age, when the departure or return of ships engaged in distant voyages is an every-day occurrence, to appreciate the magnitude of this undertaking, of the obstacles and difficulties that had to be surmounted in carrying it out….

The project of engaging in the fur trade of the North Pacific, from this country, was first brought forward by the celebrated American traveler, Ledyard. In his erratic wanderings, he entered on board the ship Resolution, as corporal of marines, with Captain Cook, upon his last voyage….

Bering, a Danish navigator in the service of Russia, who commanded the expedition just mentioned, was wrecked in 1741, upon an island that bears his name, and perished miserably in the course of the winter. He was the first navigator known to have passed through the strait that separates Asia from America; and Cook, who was the next to sail through it, in a commendable spirit of justice, gave to this strait the name of the unfortunate Bering. The fate of Cook is well known. He was killed by the natives of the Sandwich Islands, of which group he was the discoverer….

Kendrick was fated never to return. After remaining with both vessels two seasons on the northwest coast, he sent the Columbia home, in charge of Captain Gray, and remained himself in the sloop Washington. He continued in her several years, trading on the coast and at the Sandwich Islands.

In 1792, while lying in the harbor of Honolulu, at one of these islands, and receiving, upon his birthday, a complimentary salute from the captain of an English trading vessel anchored near, he was instantly killed by a shot carelessly left in one of the guns fired on the occasion.

Captain Gray reached home in the Columbia, in the summer of 1790, and thus completed the first circumnavigation of the globe under the American flag. He was immediately fitted out for a second voyage in the same ship, and it was during this voyage that he discovered, entered, and gave the name to the Columbia river, a circumstance now relied upon as one of the strongest grounds to maintain our claim to the Oregon Territory. He died abroad some years ago.

The voyage of the Columbia was not profitable to her owners, in a pecuniary view, but it opened the way for other adventures, which were commenced on her return. In 1791, there were seven vessels from the United States in the North Pacific in pursuit of furs. For various reasons, the American traders so far gained the ascendency, that at the close of the eighteenth century, with the exception of the Russian establishment on the northern part of the coast, the whole trade was in our hands; and so remained until the close of the war with Great Britain, in 1815. This trade was confined almost exclusively to Boston. It was attempted, unsuccessfully, from Philadelphia and New York, and from Providence and Bristol, in Rhode Island. Even the intelligent and enterprising merchants of Salem, failed of success; some of them, however, were interested in several of the most successful northwestern voyages carried on from Boston. So many of the vessels engaged in this trade belonged here, the Indians had the impression that Boston was our whole country. Had any one spoken to them of American ships, or American people, he would not have been understood. We were only known as Boston ships, and Boston people.

Subsequently, the war with Great Britain interrupted the trade for a time; but after the peace of 1815, it was resumed, and flourished for some years. The difficulties and uncertainty in procuring furs became so serious, that in 1829 the business north of California was abandoned.

The narrative of Cook’s voyage shows the value of a prime skin to have been, at the time of that voyage, $ 120. In 1802, when the largest collection was made, the average price of large and small skins, at Canton, was only about $20 each. At the present time, those of first quality would sell readily at $ 150. Some seventy or eighty ordinary California skins, brought home a few months ago, were sold here at nearly $60 each, to send to the north of Europe.

The trade on the coast was altogether a barter trade. It consisted in part of blankets, coarse cloths, greatcoats, fire-arms and ammunition, rice, molasses, and biscuit, coarse cottons, cutlery, and hard-ware, a great variety of trinkets, &c.; in fact, everything that one can imagine. Copper has long been known, and highly prized by the Indians. It was put to no use, but was considered very valuable, and a person having a few pieces was deemed a wealthy man.

The natives had no currency. But the skin of the ermine, found in limited numbers upon the northern part of the continent, was held in such universal estimation, and of such uniform value, among many tribes, that it in a measure supplied the place of currency. The skin of this little slender animal is from eight to twelve inches in length, perfectly white, except the tip of the tail, which is jet black.

[Urged by some Indian friends, in 1802, Mr. Sturgis obtained and sent home a fine specimen, with a request that a quantity should be ordered at the annual Leipsic fair, where he supposed they might be obtained. About 5,000 were procured, which he took out with him on the next voyage, and arrived at Kigarnee, one of the principal trading places on the coast, early 1804. Having previously encouraged the Indians to expect them, the first question was, if he had "clicks" (the Indian name for the ermine skin) for sale, and being answered in the affirmative, great earnestness was manifested to obtain them, and it was on that occasion that he purchased 560 prime sea-otter skins, at that time worth $50 apiece at Canton, in a single forenoon, giving for each five ermine skins, that cost less than thirty cents each in Boston. He succeeded in disposing of all his ermines at the same rate, before others carried them out—but in less than two years from that time, one hundred of them would not bring a sea-otter skin].

Among a portion of the Indians, the management of trade was entrusted to the women. The reason given by the men was, that women could talk with the white men better than they could, and were willing to talk more.

When the natives had a number of skins for sale, it was usual to fix a price for those of the first quality as a standard, which required a great deal of haggling. In addition to the staple articles of blankets, or cloth, or muskets, &c., that constituted this price, several smaller articles were given as presents, nominally, but in reality formed part of the price. Of these articles, different individuals would require a different assortment: a system of equivalents was accordingly established. For instance, an iron pot and an ax were held to be of equal value—so of a knife and a file, a pocket looking-glass and a pair of scissors.

Various efforts were made by the Indians to obtain a more valuable article than the established equivalent. To avoid trouble, which would certainly follow if the trader yielded in a single instance, he often found it necessary to waste hours in a contest with a woman about articles of no greater value than a skein of thread or a sewing-needle. From various causes, the northwest trade was liable to great fluctuations. The laws of supply and demand were frequently disregarded, and prices consequently often unsettled. Prime sea-otter skins were obtained for articles that did not cost fifty cents at home. . .

While most of those who have rushed into this trade without knowledge, experience, or sufficient capital to carry it on, have been subjected to such serious losses, they were compelled to abandon it; to all who pursued it systematically and perseveringly, for a series of years, it proved highly lucrative. Among those who were the most successful in this trade, were the late firm of J. & T. H. Perkins, J. & Thos. Lamb, Edward Dorr & Sons, Boardman & Pope, Geo. W. Lyman, Wm. H. Boardman, the late Theodore Lyman, and several others, each of whom acquired a very ample fortune.

These fortunes were not acquired, as individual wealth not unfrequently is, at the expense of our own community, by a tax upon the whole body of consumers, in the form of enhanced prices, often from adventitious causes. They were obtained abroad by giving to the Indians articles which they valued more than their furs, and then selling those furs to the Chinese for such prices as they are willing to pay; thus adding to the wealth of the country at the expense of foreigners, all that was acquired by individuals beyond the usual return for the use of capital, and suitable compensation for the services of those employed. This excess was sometimes very large. More than once a capital of $40,000, employed in a northwest voyage, yielded a return exceeding $150,000. In one instance, an outfit not exceeding $50,000, gave a gross return of $284,000. The individual who conducted the voyage is now a prominent merchant of Boston.

(In conclusion, the lecturer gave a brief account of the two great fur companies.) In 1785 an association of merchants was formed in Siberia for the purpose of collecting furs in the North Pacific. In 1799 they were chartered under the name of the Russian American Company, with the exclusive privilege of procuring furs within the Russian limits, (540 40’) for a period of twenty years, which has since been extended.

The British Hudson Bay Company was chartered by Charles II., in 1669, with the grant of the exclusive use and control of a very extensive though not well-defined country, north and west of Canada. This uncertainty as to limits, led to the formation of an association of merchants in Canada in 1787, called the Northwest Company, for carrying on the fur trade without the supposed boundaries of the Hudson Bay Company.

Those in the service of these concerns soon came in collision. Disputes and personal violence followed. At length, in June, 1816, a pitched battle was fought near a settlement that had been made by Lord Selkirk, upon the Red River, under a grant from the Hudson Bay Company, between the settlers and a party in the service of the Northwest Company, in which Governor Semple and seventeen of his men were killed. This roused the attention of the British government, and in 1821, the two companies were united, or rather, the Northwest Company was merged into the Hudson Bay Company. Previous to this, however, the Northwest Company had, in 1806, established trading posts beyond the Rocky Mountains. During the last war with Great Britain, they got possession of Mr. Astor’s settlement at the mouth of the Columbia, and extended their posts on several branches of that river. These establishments being united, it infused new life, and their operations have since been conducted with increased vigor. They have now, practically, a monopoly of the fur trade, from 42° to 54° 40’, on the western sea-board, and from 49° to the Northern Ocean, upon the rest of the American continent.

With the exception of the British East India Company, the Hudson Bay Company is the most extensive and powerful association of individuals for private emolument now in existence, and their influence has hitherto prevented an adjustment of the Oregon question…. The whole business of collecting furs upon our western continent, without the acknowledged limits of the United States, is now monopolized by two great corporations, the Russian and British Fur Companies.

After the peace in 1815, the British Northwest Company—partly in consequence of the monopoly of the East India Company—were compelled to seek the aid of American merchants and American vessels, in carrying on an important branch of their business. For a number of years, all the supplies for British establishments, west of the Rocky Mountains, were brought from London to Boston, and carried hence to the mouth of the Columbia in American ships, and all their collections of furs sent to Canton, consigned to an American house, and the proceeds shipped to England or the United States, in the same vessels; a fact which speaks loudly in favor of the freedom of our institutions and the enterprise of our merchants. Our respected fellow citizens, Messrs. Perkins & Co., furnished the ships, and transacted the business.