Fur trading company

“ If we ask for the Hudson’s Bay Company, we are directed to a modern department store; yet, on investigation, we discover the old fur-trading Edmonton still busy behind the scenes. A million dollars’ worth of furs pour in every year from a multitude of outposts in the north, to be sorted and packed for the markets of the world. ”

“ With these posts, the factors, trading clerks, and men were, as a matter of course, cast on the patronage and employment of that eminent German furrier. That he might cover their employment, he sent an agent from Montreal into Vermont to engage enterprising young men, in whose names the licenses could be taken out. He furnished the entire capital for the trade, and sent agents, in the persons of two enterprising young Scotch gentlemen, from Montreal and New York to Michilimackinack, to manage the business. This new arrangement took the popular name of the American Fur Company. ”

“ In this same year the Company, at the suggestion of Chief Factor McLaughlin, demanded and obtained of the Russian Fur Company a ten years' lease for trading purposes of a strip of land ten leagues wide, extending north from latitude 50° 40', and lying between British territory and the ocean, paying therefor two thousand east side land otter, worth thirty-two shillings and sixpence each. ”

“ With Fort Smith as a centre, there remains an unmarred fur-preserve and a race of hardy trappers. Is the fur-trade diminishing? Statistics are extremely difficult to get, dealers do not publish dividend-sheets, the stockholders of the Mother-Lodge of the H.B. Company do not advertise. There is no import duty on raw skins into the United States, and so no means of keeping tally on the large shipments of fur which yearly find their way south from Canada. ”

“ The Aleuts obtain from thirty to fifty dollars in goods or money, an alternative not due to the fact that the goods are sold for their money value, but to the fact that the traders sooner or later receive back whatever money they pay out instead of goods. Unlimited competition would, of course, run the price much higher, as, for example, it has done in south eastern Alaska. Here the only competition lies between the Western Fur and Trading Company and the Alaska Commercial Company. ”

“ On the part of the United States, the fur trade is chiefly prosecuted by the North American Fur Company, whose principal establishment is at Michillimakinac, where it receives324 skins from the posts depending on that station and from those on the Mississippi, Missouri and Yellowstone rivers, and the great range of country extending thence to the Rocky Mountains. ”

“ It is getting better every issue. We would like to see more news of the fur trade, in this section of the magazine, as this news is of great interest to all in the fur trade department of the Company; so all members of it should get busy and gather up all the news they can. ”

“ Being thus few in kind, and limited in quantity, one might fear the extinction of the several choice varieties through the persistent energy of the trapper. But here the fickleness of fashion steps in, and does for the fur trade what the law of supply and demand does for the more staple articles of commerce. Fashion, fastidious and fickle, neglects the use of certain kinds for a season; the market price of the pelt no longer repays the outfit of the trapper ”

“ Summing together the total amount of the Russian fur-trade, Von Baer estimates the value of the skins annually brought to the market by the Russian American Fur Company at half a million of silver roubles, the produce of European Russia at a million and a half, and that of Siberia at three millions. As agriculture decreases on advancing to the north, the chase of the fur-bearing animals increases in importance. Thus, in the most northern governments of European Russia—Wjatka, Wologda, Olonez, and Archangel—it is one of the chief occupations of the inhabitants. ”

“ The first man to take up the work begun by the heroes we have been noticing was John Jacob Astor, who, after long negotiations with the various companies struggling for the monopoly of the fur-trade of the North, succeeded in founding yet another association, under the name of the Pacific Fur Company. ”

“ I’m a fur-trader, my boy. Have joined a small company, and up to this time have made a good thing of it. You know something of the fur trade, if I mistake not. Do come and join us; we want such a man as you at a new post we have established on the coast of Labrador. Shooting, fishing, hunting, ad libitum. Eating, drinking, sleeping, ad infinitum. What would you more? Come, like a good fellow, and be happy!
“Ever thine, J. Murray.”
“I’ll sell the farm,” said Jack Robinson, folding the letter. ”

“ Until recently, many dealers and manufacturers believed that the supply of wild fur-bearing animals was practically inexhaustible—that when wanted, trappers would go out into the "wilds," catch, skin and send the pelts to market. These people are beginning to awaken to the true situation and while they send out price lists, circulars, and traveling buyers after raw furs, they say it is much harder to secure the goods wanted than formerly. ”

“ What a pitiful business is the fur trade, which has been pursued now for so many ages, for so many years, by famous companies, which enjoy a profitable monopoly, and control a large part of the earth's surface. Unweariedly they pursue and ferret out small animals by the aid of all the loafing class, tempted by rum and money, that they may rob some little fellow-creature of its coat to adorn or thicken their own, that they may get a fashionable covering in which, to hide their heads, or a suitable robe in which to dispense justice to their fellow-men! ”

“ The dyer and his art have greatly changed the fur trade. It is he who enables the salesgirl to wear furs that look like those of her customers. For example, here is a coat made of the best beaver. Its price is four hundred dollars, and beside it is another made of dyed rabbit fur, marked one hundred and fifty dollars. It is hard for a novice to tell which is the better. All sorts of new names have been devised by the furriers to popularize dyed skins of humble animals, from house cats to skunks, in order to increase the supply of good-looking and durable furs. ”

“ The skunk, mink and muskrat do well in settled sections. There is always a cash market for raw furs and since the discovery of America, raw furs have been an important article of commerce. An industry paying the hunter and trapper probably $15,000,000 yearly is one that should receive attention. The demand for furs is increasing as the population of the world is becoming more and more. ”

“ More money goes to the trapper to-day for such common skins as red-fox and skunk and muskrat than was ever paid to the fur-hunter for beaver, seal, and sea-otter in the old days. Six million dollars worth of raw furs are sold annually by auction in London, and Canada is the Mother Country's chief feeder. Included in these London sales are some hundred thousand martens, or Hudson Bay sables, and probably four times that number of mink. ”

“ CHAPTER V. TRADING-POSTS AND THEIR STORIES. As early as the first decade of the present century, the great fur companies sent out expeditions up the valley of the Platte in the charge of their agents, to trap the beaver and other animals valuable for their beautiful skins. The hardships of these pioneers in the beginning of a trade which in a short time assumed gigantic proportions are a story of suffering and privation which has few parallels in the history of the development of our mid-continent region. ”

“ The world needs millions of these skins each year, and the market is not so limited as with the high priced furs. Looks like a great future for the raiser of these animals. There is no denying the fact that the supply of wild fur bearers is gradually becoming less, not only in America, but throughout the entire world, while the demand for furs is constantly increasing. ”

“ The Alaska Commercial Company, now about ten years old, enjoys some special privilege for the taking of seal skins on the Pribiloff Islands, and some peculiar restrictions exist in Russia in relation to certain peltries, but beyond this, the trade in furs is a free one the world over. Individual enterprise, skill, forecast, and capital, have an open field. ”

“ When a hunter brings in his bales of fur, he takes them to the warehouse, where they are assorted and appraised by the chief trader, after much haggling. When the value is determined, the trader pushes over the counter as many “beaver” (lead pellets) , as the furs are worth. The hunter takes these to the store, and, after much travail and advice, exchanges them for winter supplies and gewgaws that strike his fancy. In this primitive way is wrought the gigantic trade that covers woman with fur, from queens with their ermine to the shop-girl with her scraggly muskrat or rabbit. ”

“ Bison-furs are now the medium of trade. When an Indian presents himself at the fort, the agents of the Company give him as many pieces of wood as he brings skins, and he exchanges these pieces of wood for manufactured articles on the premises; and as the Company fix the price of the articles they buy and sell, they cannot fail to realise large profits. ”

“ In selling breeding stock, be fair and square. We have already referred to the dishonest tactics of many dealers and hucksters, who merely buy up rabbits from here, there and everywhere, and sell them out again at a good profit. Too often these gentlemen are willing to stretch the truth a point or two in order to make a sale. They have worked a great injury to the industry by their ability to "gather in the suckers" and have disgusted many budding fanciers with the whole rabbit business. ”

“ These announcements are continually calling for unlimited quantities of raw furs; they are ever urging men and boys to push their trapping operations to the utmost. These concerns are giving free advice to beginners; they offer free instructions in the art of trapping the fur bearers. All this has had but one result: The fabulous prices paid for raw furs and the extensive advertising in recent years have kindled a crusade on our fur bearers which has developed a crisis. ”

“ But of all these fur marts that of London is the chief, for thither tend by the laws of trade, not only much of the produce of Asia and Europe, but also the fine peltries of Chili and Peru, the nutria from Buenos Ayres, the fur seal of Cape Horn and South Shetland, the hair seal from Newfoundland, as well as the inferior peltries of Africa. To prepare fur skins in a way to endure this long transportation is a simple and easy matter. When stripped from the animal the flesh and fat are carefully removed, and the pelts hung in a cool place to dry and harden; nothing is added to protect them. ”

“ Frequently the other fur companies, (for there were other companies formed on the heels of Ashley's enterprise,) learning of the place appointed for the yearly rendezvous, brought their goods to the same resort, when an intense rivalry was exhibited by the several traders as to which company should soonest dispose of its goods, getting, of course, the largest amount of furs from the trappers and Indians. ”

“ Skunk farms have been started in various parts of the United States within the past few years and are proving paying enterprises.
"It is no vague dream that prompts one to speak of fur farming. The signs of the times point that way, indisputably. Every year the price of raw furs bounds up to hitherto unknown levels, the demand is constantly increasing almost as fast as the supply diminishes, and with it having been demonstrated that fur-bearing animals can be raised, men are not going to let such chances slip by." ”

“ The trade is at present pursued by the export of furs, gunpowder, shot, woollens, hardware and other articles, which together with large supplies of provisions for the factories, constitute an annual outfit consisting wholly of British manufactures and British produce of from £40,000 to £50,000, in return for which we receive the furs of bears, wolves, foxes, otters, martens, beaver and other animals, together with some oil and articles of inferior value. ”

“ The trapper, the dig 'em-out and the dog-hunter are all money-mad, made so by the high prices of fur. But unlike our ancestors, the trapper, dig'em-out and dog-hunter should be able to see the folly in taking the furbearers when in an unprime condition, because we all know the difference in the value of a fox, a skunk, a mink, or the skin of any other fur-bearing animal taken in September or late in the spring when unprime, than the same skins would be worth if taken in November or any month during the winter. ”

“ Where are they to come from, if not from fur farming?
A well known fur dealer in Minneapolis sizes up the situation in a nut-shell:
"Under proper conditions, with intelligent care, raising fur animals can be made to pay. The raiser starting on a small scale and increasing as their knowledge increases. Most all successful business is built up by starting small."
Conda J. Ham, in the Hunter-Trader-Trapper Magazine, says:
"Did you ever stop to seriously think where your furs and your fur coats would come from twenty or thirty years from now? ”

“ As it is natural to prefer articles that are rare and far-fetched, and as furs can be easily carried to any part of the world, most prefer foreign to domestic furs of the same quality. Thus we export much of our fox, marten, fisher, otter, beaver, and muskrat fur, while we import Astrakhan, Russian sable, ermine, Siberian squirrel, French rabbit, or cony, chinchilla, and nutria fur. ”