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Hudson's Bay Company
Some spell it Hudson Bay Company.
The Hudson's Bay Company, or if you are
French, the Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson, in short
HBC, was incorporated by royal charter in England on May 2, 1670.
King Charles II was ruling at
the time.
The company's task was to find a northwest passage
to the Pacific and to make a healthy buck off of the land flanking
the Hudson Bay.
The company's original name was
The
Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading into Hudson's
Bay.
The Hudson's Bay Company owned all the land in the Hudson's Bay
watershed, an area more than one-third the size of Canada today. It
had a monopoly on all trade there and concentrated on the fur trade.
It merged with rival North West Company in 1821, further expanding
its territory to include northern Alberta and B.C., the Northwest
Territories and the Yukon.
Its trade monopoly was abolished in 1870 and its land sold to the
government of Canada.
The Hudson's Bay Company withdrew from
the fur trade in 1991.
With headquarters in Toronto, the Hudson's Bay Company still exists
today and you can buy its shares at the stock market. The modern
company runs three main retail divisions: the Bay, Zellers, and Home
Outfitters. It has 70,000 employees and is Canada's oldest company.
And here are the maps
1623-1905
Canada and Newfoundland
North
America to 1763
1763-1775 British Colonies in North America
1790-1900 United States
1840-1867 British
North America
More History
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