Indian trader

“ Where now intelligent and wealthy merchants walk erect, in conscious substantiality of purse and credit, and direct the commerce of a vast and numerously-populated region, but the other day stalked, in dress of buckskin, the Indian trader of the west; and all the evidences of life, mayhap, consisted of the eccentric vagaries of the different bands of trappers and hardy mountaineers, who accompanied, some for pleasure and some as escort, the periodically arriving bateaux, laden with the beaver skins and buffalo robes collected during the season at the different trading posts in the Far West. ”

“ Moreover, the European trader, no matter in however small a way, will not hawk his goods about. Perhaps the strongest proof of the trading capabilities of the Indian and, generally speaking, of his integrity, is to be found in the fact that the great houses will give him credit, and, in fact, many of them do the bulk of their trade through his agency. It is no secret that the opposition to the Indian in Natal is but partial, and by no means represents the real feelings of a good portion of the European community. ”

“ The independent trader makes money, sometimes makes large money, and makes it fairly easily, but the calling seems to appeal mainly, if not wholly, to men of low character and no conscience. There are few things that would redound more to the benefit of the Indian than a great improvement in the character of the men with whom he is compelled to do business.
The wind had subsided by the next morning and had been of benefit rather than injury to us, for it had blown the accumulated new snow off the old trail so that it was possible to perceive and follow it. ”

“ In a benevolent spirit, the United States enacted that certain stores should be conveniently placed within the Indian territory, where factors, having a salary and no interest in the trade, were to keep on hand a constant supply of articles suitable for the Indians, which were to be exchanged with them for peltries, the articles bearing only a fair cost, all expenses included, and the peltries being received at a fair rate. Government thus, out of kindness to the Indians, became a trader, and a competitor with individual traders. ”

“ One would, indeed, like to belong to such a blessed class of traders, especially in the present critical condition of the trade all the world over.
It seems, on the whole, that their simplicity, their total abstinence from intoxicants, their peaceful and, above all, their businesslike and frugal habits, which should serve as a recommendation, are really at the bottom of all this contempt and hatred of the poor Indian traders. And they are British subjects. Is this Christian-like, is this fair play, is this justice, is this civilization? ”

“ If the Indian would part with it at all, he must receive the price or the article they chose to give him, not as an equivalent for his article, but as a condescension on the part of the trader, in allowing him the honor of making the exchange. ”

“ The tariff of exchanges is made with the double view of securing the profit of the trader and encouraging the Indians to hunt. Were a gun, an ax, or a kettle, for instance, rated at too high a price, then one of these articles would be made to serve the purposes of several lodges by turns, or should ammunition be sold too dear only as many animals would be killed as would be sufficient to feed their families, and no more skins traded than sufficient to meet their most pressing necessities. ”

“ The Indian traders act as middlemen. They begin where the Europeans leave. It is not to be denied that they can live cheaper than Europeans; but that is a benefit to the Colony. They buy wholesale from European stores, and can sell with a trifling addition to the wholesale prices, and are thus a benefit to the poor Europeans. It might be said in answer to this that the work now done by the Indian storekeepers could be done by Europeans. ”

“ So far as concerns free Indian traders, their competition and the consequent lowering of the price of articles of consumption by which the public benefits (and yet, strange to say, of which it complains) , it is clearly shown that these Indian shops have been and are most exclusively supported by the larger firms of white merchants who thus, practically employ these men to dispose of their goods. ”

“ Indian has done his trading the trader has most of his money back again.
A half-breed Indian.
The news that an Indian has caught a black fox, the most exciting item of news that ever flies around a native village, does not give any great pleasure to one who is acquainted with native conditions, because he knows that it will bring little real benefit to the Indian. There will be keen competition, within limits, of course, amongst the traders for it ”

“ But as our Indian Traders not only have a double Price for their Indian Goods, but likewise buy the Goods they sell to the Indians, at half the Price the French Indian Traders do, the French Traders must be ruin'd by carrying on this Trade, in Competition with the English of New-York. And the French Indian Traders had been ruin'd before now, if they had not found means to carry their Beaver to Albany, where they got double the Price they must have sold for in Canada. ”

“ The Indian slowly looks up and down the room, and then proceeds to price every object within his vision, no matter whether he has the least idea of purchasing or not; this is the prelude and invariable habit of a Sitkan Indian, and it arouses an immense amount of suppressed profanity on the part of the outwardly courteous trader. But our savage has come in this time bent upon buying, and selling also ”

“ Report of the Superintendent of Indian Trade, January 16, 1809, American State Papers, Indian Affairs, I, 756; for the act of 1806 see Annals of Congress, 9th Congress, 1st session, 1287-90.
Another group of restrictions worked injury to the factory system through their failure to accommodate the habits and desires of the Indian. To trade with the government the Indian must come to the factory. The private trader took his goods to the Indian. The red man was notably lacking in prudence and thrift, and was careless and heedless of the future. ”

“ What few houses there are are of the simplest kind, and belong chiefly to the Indian traders, who buy skins and furs of the Indians, and sell them flour, blankets, or anything they require, frequently taking, in default of money, from those who are hard up, even pipes and personal ornaments, which they make a profit of, either by reselling to their former owners when flush of cash, or to any stray traveller curious in such matters, who, like ourselves, might chance to visit the Reservation. ”

“ As to the competition between the Indian and European traders, it has been well said, in some of the extracts quoted above, that, if there is any competition, it is rendered possible by the large support given by the European merchants. But the very fact that the European merchants are willing, nay anxious, to support Indian traders, shows that they do not compete with them to any appreciable extent. ”

“ Some measure of protection, one thinks, must also be afforded against a predatory class of Indian traders, the back rooms of whose stores are often barrooms, gambling-dens, and houses of assignation, and headquarters and harbourage for the white degenerates—even if the government go the length of setting up co-operative Indian stores in the interior, as has been done in some places on the coast. ”

“ Toronto, Hunter, Rose and Co., 1877, 8vo, pp. 318-323.
[VI-2] The Indian trade is not among the least of the vexed questions which the United States has sought to answer in the natural and necessary process of causing the Indians to make their exeunt from the world's stage. The prices at which goods were sold by private individuals, whether French, English, or American, seem exorbitant, extortionate—in a word, monstrous! But trade is a thing that seems to regulate itself, without regard to theory or sentiment; the Indian trade certainly did. ”

“ The Indian is scrupulously exact in the performance of his engagements, and this the traders know so well, that they feel no apprehension, when, having delivered their goods to their Indian customer, they see him plunge into his trackless wilderness with his purchase, and disappear amid wilds into which no civilized foot could follow him. ”

“ On the former system they are liable to constant imposition, and the very articles which the traders carry among them, are worthless in kind and poor in quality; but if the Indians traded with us, within the limits of the United States, they would have the competition arising from a number of buyers and sellers, they would obtain better prices for their furs and procure more valuable articles, upon fairer terms, in exchange. ”

“ The severe axioms of commerce had, from the first, caused the Indians to be regarded merely as the medium of a peculiar branch of trade, which was pursued at great hazards, excited deep animosity in the breasts of the respective commercial factors, and gave an absorbing interest to all that took place in the Indian country for two centuries. ”

“ The very Europeans who are now wholesale dealers would be retail dealers but for the presence of the Indian storekeepers, except in isolated instances. The Indian storekeepers have, therefore, raised the Europeans a stage higher. It has, further, been said that, in time to come, Indians may usurp the wholesale trade also from the Europeans. ”

“ These Indians are shut in on these reservations, kept from all civilizing and Christianizing influences, kept from trade and commerce. A trader is appointed over them, from whom they must buy everything they need, paying whatever he may ask, to whom they must sell everything that they would sell, taking what he may choose to give. ”

“ That by a more plentiful supply, to the great advantage and conveniency of the public, it must have reduced very much the price of India goods in the English market, cannot well be doubted; but that it should have raised very much their price in the Indian market, seems not very probable, as all the extraordinary demand which that competition could occasion must have been but as a drop of water in the immense ocean of Indian commerce. ”

“ The matter of their traders alone is enough to drive the Indians hostile. It would drive a white man hostile to be treated as we are treated, and to be charged prices as our traders charge us for goods. If an Indian succeeds [Pg 151] in getting a dollar he takes it to the store to trade, and what he receives in return for it amounts to probably half a dime. We want the monopoly of trading stores stopped. The work, the labor, everything is monopolized by white men, who have everything their own way. It is hard to be an Indian chief. Our young men do not listen to us—they will not mind us. ”

“ From these forts or depots the merchandise is carried into the interior in different ways, to wherever the Indians request trading houses to be established.
The traders generally bear the character of trustworthy men and the nature of the barter for robes and other skins is such that the Indian receives what he considers an equivalent for his labor or he would not hunt. There is no way in the nature of the business by which an Indian can be made to hunt, nor any means of getting his skins without paying a fair price. ”

“ No important business was ever intrusted to an inexperienced person, a policy which almost certainly prevented any serious errors. A regular tariff was established on the Company's goods, comprising all the articles used in their trade with the Indians; nor was the quality of their goods ever allowed to deteriorate. A price was also fixed upon furs according to their market value, and an Indian knowing this, knew exactly what he could purchase. ”

“ The Office is not so inexperienced as to suppose that traders open stores among Indians from philanthropic motive's. Nevertheless a trader has a great influence among the Indians with whom he has constant dealings and who are often dependent upon him, and there are not a few instances in which the trader has exerted this influence for the welfare of his customers as well as for his own profit. ”

“ The traders that occupy the largest and most important space in the Indian country are the agents and engagees of the American Fur Trade Company. They entertain, as I know to be the fact, no sort of respect for our citizens, agents, officers or the Government, or its laws or general policy.
After describing the "baneful influence of these persons," Hughes went on:
The capital employed in the Indian trade must be very large, especially that portion which is employed in the annual purchase of whisky and alcohol into the Indian country for the purpose of trade with the Indians. ”

“ They would also be benefitted by observing our manners and customs, adopting our style of dress, learning the value of property, and gaining some knowledge of agriculture and the use of mechanical tools, and implements of husbandry. But the most important advantage to be gained by their trading within the United States, would be in their protection from imposition. It has been truly and forcibly remarked,
"Humanity shudders at the recital of the nefarious acts practised by the white traders upon the Indians. Yet not half of them are known or dreamed of by the American people. ”