History of the Fur Trade Timeline

King Charles II granted a royal charter creating the Hudson's Bay Company on May 2, 1670, giving it exclusive rights to trade in the vast watershed draining into Hudson Bay. It became one of the world's oldest corporations and dominated the northern fur trade for centuries.

Image source: Hudson's Bay Company

The Nine Years' War spilled into North America as King William's War (1688–1697), during which French and English forces raided each other's settlements and trading posts. Hostilities repeatedly disrupted fur shipments and forced traders to shift routes and alliances.

Image source: Nine Years' War

In August 1701, French officials brokered peace between the Iroquois Confederacy and dozens of allied nations at Montreal. The agreement reduced warfare in the Great Lakes, allowing safer travel for fur traders and expanding French commercial reach.

Image source: Great Peace of Montreal

During Queen Anne's War (1702–1713), Britain captured key French posts including Port Royal. The Treaty of Utrecht ceded Hudson Bay, Newfoundland, and Acadia to Britain, granting English traders like the Hudson's Bay Company firmer control over lucrative fur grounds.

Image source: Queen Anne's War

John Law's Company of the West (later Companie d'Occident) received the Louisiana monopoly in 1717 and promoted fur trading ventures amid the Mississippi Bubble. Although the financial scheme collapsed by 1720, it briefly stimulated expansion of trading posts.

Image source: John Law's Company

King George's War (1740–1748) saw British and French colonial forces clash in North America, including the siege of Louisbourg. Naval warfare disrupted transatlantic shipments of furs to European markets, squeezing profits for companies on both sides.

Image source: King George's War

The Seven Years' War in North America culminated in Britain's conquest of New France. Under the Treaty of Paris in 1763, France ceded Canada, transferring its former fur territories to British control and opening them to English-speaking merchants.

Image source: French and Indian War

Following the French defeat, an Indigenous confederacy led by Pontiac attacked British forts across the Great Lakes region in 1763. The uprising halted trade at many posts and prompted the British Proclamation of 1763, which restricted settlement and regulated commerce with Native nations.

Image source: Pontiac's War

Fur traders based in Montreal organized the North West Company in 1779 to challenge the Hudson's Bay Company's monopoly. Its aggressive canoe-based brigades pushed trade far west and north, reaching the Athabasca country and the Pacific slopes.

Image source: North West Company

Founded in 1808, John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company grew into the dominant fur enterprise in the United States, controlling trade on the Great Lakes and upper Missouri. Astor sold his interests in 1834 as profits declined and public criticism mounted.

Image source: American Fur Company

John Jacob Astor established the Pacific Fur Company and built Fort Astoria at the mouth of the Columbia River in 1811. During the War of 1812, the post was sold to British interests in 1813, ending Astor's first attempt at a transcontinental fur empire.

Image source: Pacific Fur Company

Violent competition between the Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company culminated in their merger in 1821 under the HBC name. The consolidated company held a virtual monopoly over the fur trade across northern North America for decades.

Between the 1830s and 1850s, silk hats came into fashion in Europe and North America, sharply reducing demand for beaver felt. The collapse in pelt prices devastated trapping enterprises and accelerated the economic decline of the classic fur trade.

Decades of intensive trapping and hide hunting drastically reduced beaver across much of the continent and nearly annihilated the bison herds of the Great Plains by the 1880s. The ecological toll exposed the unsustainability of unregulated commercial harvesting.

Image source: Bison hunting

By the Deed of Surrender finalized in 1869–1870, the Hudson's Bay Company transferred Rupert's Land to Canada for £300,000 while retaining trading rights and land grants. The transaction ended the company's quasi-governmental authority and opened the West to settlement.

Image source: Rupert's Land and North-Western Territory Order

The North Pacific Fur Seal Convention of 1911, signed by the United States, Britain, Japan, and Russia, banned pelagic sealing and regulated the harvest of fur seals. It was one of the first international wildlife conservation treaties, born from the near-destruction of Pribilof seal herds.

Image source: North Pacific Fur Seal Convention of 1911