The motif has adorned everything from dog apparel to housewares and canoes. This partnership was renewed in for a term ending in In , the company created the HBC Foundation to represent its charitable efforts, which have included the Zellers charity gift box program, cystic fibrosis and the Canadian Cancer Society.
In , the HBC Foundation launched in the United States and announced that its charitable work would focus on mental health programs in both countries. It also supports history projects across Canada. From indigo. From hbcheritage. Search The Canadian Encyclopedia. Remember me. I forgot my password. Why sign up?
Create Account. Suggest an Edit. Enter your suggested edit s to this article in the form field below. Accessed 13 November In The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada. Article published April 02, ; Last Edited October 08, The Canadian Encyclopedia , s.
Thank you for your submission Our team will be reviewing your submission and get back to you with any further questions. Thanks for contributing to The Canadian Encyclopedia. Article by Arthur J. Originally headquartered in London, England, its head offices are located in Brampton, Ontario. Previous Next. The Hudson's Bay Company introduced silver in in regions where competition with the rival North West Company required it.
Johnnie, his wife and child with George Anderson examining white fox pelts at the Hudson's Bay Company store. Photo credit: Arthur H. On 2 August , an imperial act established the mainland colony of BC under the authority of Governor James Douglas. The Hudson's Bay Company is one of the worlds oldest corporation, founded in Photo taken on: September 23, Further Reading E. Arthur J.
As a result, most men returned to Britain. But the company also banned employees from taking Indigenous wives or children with them. Officials adopted this policy in the wake of the tragic story of Chief Factor Robert Pilgrim and his Cree wife, Thu-a-Higon, who retired to London in with their son.
Soon after their return, Pilgrim died. In his will, he stipulated that his son should stay in England, while Thu-a-Higon was to return to her family in Churchill. While Thu-a-Higon likely agonized over the forced separation from her son, HBC officials agonized over the cost of sending her back and caring for the child.
Attitudes toward Indigenous Peoples grew more disdainful by the mids, as HBC officials became more comfortable in the region and relied less on Indigenous knowledge. As Van Kirk notes, the arrival of white women stratified fur trade society and ushered in disrepute of the very Indigenous customs HBC employees had depended on for so long. Back in London, the fur trade was making some men — and a few women who held shares in the company — rich.
As historian David Chan Smith has calculated, from through this translated into more than one million beaver pelts. Things could have gone differently. And some Americans were hoping they would. By the mids, profits from the fur trade had dropped. The settler population of Canada and the United States was growing. Industrialization was spreading. The future was not in fur but in real estate, agriculture, railroads and oil and gas.
Meanwhile in Britain, public opinion was turning against the HBC. Under the leadership of Prime Minister John A. Macdonald, the government aimed to bring Western Canada into its fold and colonize the region.
But Macdonald faced persistent and sustained resistance to this plan from Indigenous nations. And there was another challenge coming from the south. From as early as the American Revolution, the British — and later Canadian — governments feared American encroachment.
Alarm grew after the U. Ramsey hoped to make a deal the HBC and U. American authorities understood that the best policy was to respect earlier agreements on the U. But if shareholders were excited by the prospect of a seven-figure deal for their landholdings, they were less enthusiastic about the proposed deal with Canada. They knew they were sitting on valuable land and the brand-new Canadian government was broke.
If there was any buyer who could pay a good price, it was the United States. But the British and Canadian governments were eager to make the sale happen and keep the territory within the empire. This was a far cry from the millions Ramsey had proposed, but the British and Canadian governments sweetened the pot by promising the company title to some 10 million acres of their choosing.
We want that money. Since its inception, the HBC had helped establish an English presence in the region by founding trading posts, three of which became provincial capitals: Fort Garry in Winnipeg, Fort Edmonton and Fort Victoria. But from the perspective of HBC officials, things were more complicated. The sale ceased their efforts to govern the West and their claims to the region.
It also ended their attempted monopoly of the fur trade. But there were benefits for those looking to make a buck, or two. While the HBC provided urban shoppers with a range of goods, many Indigenous Peoples maintained a different relationship to the company, particularly those in northern communities where the HBC trading post was the only store around.
The history of the HBC is messy and complicated. It has moments of compassion, but also competition and contention. In , U. Everything from coffee mugs to dog collars to those timeless wool blankets is adorned with the iconic green, red, yellow and blue stripes. Canadian Geographic commemorates is a series of articles, funded by the Government of Canada, celebrating milestone anniversaries of significance to the country's history.
See more stories in the series. Our publisher, The Royal Canadian Geographical Society, happily makes this content accessible for free as part of its mission to make Canada better known to Canadians and the world. Henry Hudson sailed from Gravesend on his first voyage for the discovery of a northwest passage to India. Three men were sentenced to grow potatoes at Botany Bay the rest of their lives.
There are two principal bays of vast size, one called the gulf of St. Lawrence, the other French bay. Inland arm of the Atlantic Ocean in east-central Canada. Quebec , Ontario , Manitoba , and the Northwest Territories lie on its shores.
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