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Before the European colonization of the Americas, Russia was a major supplier of fur pelts to Western Europe and parts of Asia. Its trade developed in the Early Middle Ages (500–1000 AD/CE), first through exchanges at posts around the Baltic and Black seas.
- Introduction
- The Demand For Fur: Hats, Pelts and Prices
- European Intermediaries in The Fur Trade
- The Supply of Furs: The Harvesting of Beaver and Depletion
- The Trade in European Goods
- References
A commercial fur trade in North America grew out of the early contact between Indians and European fisherman who were netting cod on the Grand Banks off Newfoundland and on the Bay of Gaspé near Quebec. Indians would trade the pelts of small animals, such as mink, for knives and other iron-based products, or for textiles. Exchange at first was haph...
However much hats may be considered an accessory today, they were for centuries a mandatory part of everyday dress, for both men and women. Of course styles changed, and, in response to the vagaries of fashion and politics, hats took on various forms and shapes, from the high-crowned, broad-brimmed hat of the first two Stuarts to the conically-shap...
By the eighteenth century, the demand for furs in Europe was being met mainly by exports from North America with intermediaries playing an essential role. The American trade, which moved along the main water systems, was organized largely through chartered companies. At the far north, operating out of Hudson Bay, was the Hudson’s Bay Company, chart...
During the eighteenth century, the changing technology of felt production and the growing demand for felt hats were met by attempts to increase the supply of furs, especially the supply of beaver pelts. Any permanent increase, however, was ultimately dependent on the animal resource base. How that base changed over time must be a matter of speculat...
Indians were the primary agents in the North American commercial fur trade. It was they who hunted the animals, and transported and traded the pelts or skins to European intermediaries. The exchange was a voluntary. In return for their furs, Indians obtained both access to an iron technology to improve production and access to a wide range of new c...
Berkes, Fikret, David Feeny, Bonnie J. McCay, and James M. Acheson. “The Benefits of the Commons.” Nature340 (July 13, 1989): 91-93. Braund, Kathryn E. Holland.Deerskins and Duffels: The Creek Indian Trade with Anglo-America, 1685-1815. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1993. Carlos, Ann M., and Elizabeth Hoffman. “The North American Fur Trade...
Jul 23, 2013 · The fur trade was a vast commercial enterprise across the wild, forested expanse of what is now Canada. It was at its peak for nearly 250 years, from the early 17th to the mid-19th centuries. It was sustained primarily by the trapping of beavers to satisfy the European demand for felt hats.
The fur trade was a thriving industry in North America from the 16th through 19th centuries. When Europeans first settled in North America, they traded with Indigenous peoples (known in different places as First Nations, Native Americans, or American Indians).
Europeans began their participation in the North American fur trade from the initial period of their colonization of the Americas onward, bringing the financial and material gains of the trade to Europe.
Jan 15, 2020 · The fur trade drove European exploration and colonization. It helped to build Canada and make it wealthy. Nations fought each other for this wealth. But in many instances, the fur trade helped foster relatively peaceful relations between Indigenous people and European colonists.
As early as the 17th century, European empires used fur-trade monopolies to establish colonies in North America and later fur trading companies brought imperial trading systems inland, while Indigenous peoples drew Europeans into their own patterns of trade and power.
