It continued for more than 250 years. Europeans traded with Indigenous people for beaver pelts. The demand for felt hats in Europe drove this business. The fur trade was one of the main reasons that Europeans explored and colonized Canada.
Fur Trade in Canada (Plain-Language Summary)
| Published Online | January 15, 2020 |
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| Last Edited | January 15, 2020 |
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What were the benefits of the fur trade?
The fur trade provided Indigenous peoples with European goods that they could use for gift-giving ceremonies, to improve their social status and to go to war. The French forged military alliances with their Indigenous allies in order to maintain good trade and social relations.
Who did the fur trade impact?
The fur trade resulted in many long term effects that negatively impacted Native people throughout North America, such as starvation due to severely depleted food resources, dependence on European and Anglo-American goods, and negative impacts from the introduction of alcohol-which was often exchanged for furs.
What animals were most valued in the fur trade?
Beaver pelts were in the greatest demand, but other animals such as mink, muskrat, fox and sable marten were also trapped. In the 1830s, when beaver lost its value as a staple fur, HBC maintained a profitable trade emphasizing fancy fur.
How did the fur trade benefit the First Nations?
The fur trade was based on good relationships between the First Nations peoples and the European traders. First Nations people gathered furs and brought them to posts to trade for textiles, tools, guns, and other goods. This exchange of goods for other items is called the barter system.
Which group of settlers were most interested in the fur trade?
The most important players in the early fur trade were Indigenous peoples and the French. The French gave European goods to Indigenous people in exchange for beaver pelts. The fur trade was the most important industry in New France. With the money they made from furs, the French sent settlers to Canada.
Does the fur trade still exist today?
The fur trade lives in the 21st Century. Trappers still trap, businesses continue to profit, humans continue to wear fur for both style and warmth.
How did the fur trade impact the economy?
The fur trade fell throughout the 19th century. With that came an economic decline for an Indigenous population that had lost much of its traditional economy. This pressed communities into signing many treaties that, in the end, assured the expansion of the new nation westward across the Prairies.
How did the fur trade affect France?
The fur trade helped create and maintain alliances and social relations between Europeans and Native groups. Native groups linked buying and selling with other social relations. They viewed exchanges as gifts rather than trade. Gifts created special bonds between societies and reinforced social alliances.
How did women’s lives change because of the fur trade?
How did women’s roles change as a result of the fur trade? Substantial number of Native American women married European traders providing traders with grids, interpreters, and negotiators, Some were left abandoned when husbands returned to Europe.
Are beavers killed for fur?
Historically, beavers have been hunted for their fur, meat and castoreum. Castoreum has been used in medicine, perfume and food flavoring, while beaver pelts have been a major driver of the fur trade.
What is a beaver pelt worth?
Pelt prices for beaver should be about what they have been in the last few years: $10 to $15 for a good prime blanket. Raccoon – Like beaver, they take more effort to prepare than other pelts. Expect the usual $10 to $15 for a good, big, heavy pelt.
Why is beaver fur so valuable?
Mammal winter pelts were prized for warmth, particularly animal pelts for beaver wool felt hats, which were an expensive status symbol in Europe. The demand for beaver wool felt hats was such that the beaver in Europe and European Russia had largely disappeared through exploitation.
How many animals were killed in the fur trade?
Each year, around one hundred million animals are bred and killed on intensive fur farms specifically to supply the fashion industry with not only traditional fur coats but, increasingly, real fur trim for hooded jackets, and real fur pompoms used on hats, gloves, shoes and a range of other clothing and accessories.
How many beavers were killed in the fur trade?
Two hundred plus years of the fur trade killed off beaver populations—40 to 60 million beavers basked in North America in the 19th century before hunters massacred them for hats and perfume.
What did Canada do to the natives?
For more than 100 years, Canadian authorities forcibly separated thousands of Indigenous children from their families and made them attend residential schools, which aimed to sever Indigenous family and cultural ties and assimilate the children into white Canadian society.
What country made economic profit by trading for furs?
The first firms to participate in the fur trade were French, and under French rule the trade spread along the St. Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers, and down the Mississippi. In the seventeenth century, following the Dutch, the English developed a trade through Albany.
Who were the first fur traders in Canada?
Montreal-based trader Thomas Frobisher built the first fur trade post in the area of Île-à-la-Crosse in 1776. Competing posts were set up by Alexander Mackenzie in 1785 and the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1799.
What were the French fur traders called?
Voyageurs (travelers in French) were men hired to work for the fur trade companies to transport trade goods throughout the vast territory to rendezvous posts.
Is it OK to wear fur in New York?
Many people wear fur coats in NYC, especially in this arctic weather we’ve been “enjoying”. I wouldn’t worry about it…. The anti-fur movement seems to have quieted down in recent years. I no longer see the sidewalk protests in front of stores as I once did.
What furs are illegal in the US?
The U.S. has a Fur Products Labeling Act, which mandates that garments containing fur be properly labeled, and it has a Dog and Cat Fur Protection Act, which prohibits dog and cat fur trade in the U.S. This is due, in large part, to the alleged killing of dogs and cats in China for their fur.