FUR TRADE
There were essentially two realms of trade: The Rocky
Mountain Fur Trade and the Upper Missouri. The two
regions had different circumstances and hence very
different methods of operating business. The Upper
Missouri trade relied on the Indian tribes to bring their
buffalo skins to trading posts. There, the robes were
bought and sent to St. Louis via the river.
The Rocky Mountain Trapping system was quite
different. In the Rockies, beaver was the fur of choice. It
was trapped mainly by the Euro-American mountain
men traveling in company groups. The pelts were sold
at a yearly rendezvous where the buyers would travel
overland to the designated site and then haul the furs
via mule train and wagon to the city to be sold. This
system allowed the mountain men to stay in the
wilderness year round, as they did not have to travel to
a trading post to sell their catch. These two systems
were not sealed from one another. Depending on the
terrain, available capital, and the attitude of the nearby
Indian tribes, a fur company would often use both the
rendezvous system and trading posts.
The first of the fur giants was the British Hudson's
Bay Company, chartered in 1670. The Hudson's Bay
Company dominated the trade of Northern Canada and
the Oregon territory well into the 19th Century. The
first substantial American venture was the Pacific Fur
Company started by John Jacob Astor in 1810. Astor's
dream was to create a corporation that covered all of the
West, starting with a fort at the mouth of the Columbia
River.
Both Astor's new American Fur Company and the
Rocky Mountain Fur Company would be successful in
creating the Rocky Mountain trading system. As both
companies branched out, they would eventually compete
for control of the Upper Missouri trade. The stiff
competition ended with the American Company's
collapse in 1834. This was just as well. By 1834, the
decline in demand for beaver hats (the fashion had
turned to silk) combined with an increasing scarcity of
resources (the beaver had been nearly trapped out) to
weaken the market. In the early 1830's, beaver was worth
almost $6/lb in Philadelphia; by 1843 the price was not
even $3/lb.
The fur companies were a central force in the lives of the
mountain men. They provided the economic system and
often the initial capital that was necessary to the
trapper's life. But if the fur giants helped the trapper
operate, they also controlled him. The mountain man
was a slave to the fur market created by the competition
between companies. The amount of control a company
had over a trapper depended on what contract for his
services he was under. "Engages" were men that were
supplied and salaried by the company. The furs which
they collected were all company property. "Skin
Trappers" or "Share Croppers" were outfitted by the
company in exchange for a set share of the pelts at the
end of the season. The "free-trapper" was at the top of
this social pyramid. He was beholden to no company. He
outfitted himself and trapped with whom and where he
pleased.
Mountain Fur Trade and the Upper Missouri. The two
regions had different circumstances and hence very
different methods of operating business. The Upper
Missouri trade relied on the Indian tribes to bring their
buffalo skins to trading posts. There, the robes were
bought and sent to St. Louis via the river.
The Rocky Mountain Trapping system was quite
different. In the Rockies, beaver was the fur of choice. It
was trapped mainly by the Euro-American mountain
men traveling in company groups. The pelts were sold
at a yearly rendezvous where the buyers would travel
overland to the designated site and then haul the furs
via mule train and wagon to the city to be sold. This
system allowed the mountain men to stay in the
wilderness year round, as they did not have to travel to
a trading post to sell their catch. These two systems
were not sealed from one another. Depending on the
terrain, available capital, and the attitude of the nearby
Indian tribes, a fur company would often use both the
rendezvous system and trading posts.
The first of the fur giants was the British Hudson's
Bay Company, chartered in 1670. The Hudson's Bay
Company dominated the trade of Northern Canada and
the Oregon territory well into the 19th Century. The
first substantial American venture was the Pacific Fur
Company started by John Jacob Astor in 1810. Astor's
dream was to create a corporation that covered all of the
West, starting with a fort at the mouth of the Columbia
River.
Both Astor's new American Fur Company and the
Rocky Mountain Fur Company would be successful in
creating the Rocky Mountain trading system. As both
companies branched out, they would eventually compete
for control of the Upper Missouri trade. The stiff
competition ended with the American Company's
collapse in 1834. This was just as well. By 1834, the
decline in demand for beaver hats (the fashion had
turned to silk) combined with an increasing scarcity of
resources (the beaver had been nearly trapped out) to
weaken the market. In the early 1830's, beaver was worth
almost $6/lb in Philadelphia; by 1843 the price was not
even $3/lb.
The fur companies were a central force in the lives of the
mountain men. They provided the economic system and
often the initial capital that was necessary to the
trapper's life. But if the fur giants helped the trapper
operate, they also controlled him. The mountain man
was a slave to the fur market created by the competition
between companies. The amount of control a company
had over a trapper depended on what contract for his
services he was under. "Engages" were men that were
supplied and salaried by the company. The furs which
they collected were all company property. "Skin
Trappers" or "Share Croppers" were outfitted by the
company in exchange for a set share of the pelts at the
end of the season. The "free-trapper" was at the top of
this social pyramid. He was beholden to no company. He
outfitted himself and trapped with whom and where he
pleased.