Britain and the Fur Trade: Commerce and Consumers in the North-Atlantic World, 1783-1821
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Citation: Hope, David (2016) Britain and the Fur Trade: Commerce and Consumers in the North-Atlantic World, 1783-1821. Doctoral thesis, Northumbria University. This version was downloaded from Northumbria Research Link: http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/31598/ Northumbria University has developed Northumbria Research Link (NRL) to enable users to access the University’s research output. Copyright © and moral rights for items on NRL are retained by the individual author(s) and/or other copyright owners. Single copies of full items can be reproduced, displayed or performed, and given to third parties in any format or medium for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge, provided the authors, title and full bibliographic details are given, as well as a hyperlink and/or URL to the original metadata page. The content must not be changed in any way. Full items must not be sold commercially in any format or medium without formal permission of the copyright holder. The full policy is available online: http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/policies.html Britain and the Fur Trade: Commerce and Consumers in the North-Atlantic World, 1783-1821 David Hope PhD 2016 Britain and the Fur Trade: Commerce and Consumers in the North-Atlantic World, 1783-1821 David Hope A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Northumbria at Newcastle for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Research undertaken in the Faculty of Arts, Design & Social Sciences September 2016 Abstract This is a study of the mercantile organisation of the British fur trade in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The thesis seeks to answer two over-arching questions. Firstly, why did the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) maintain its Charter and acquire a monopoly of the British fur trade during a period of significant trade liberalisation in British overseas commerce? Secondly, why did London remain the European emporium of the North-Atlantic fur trade despite the rise of the provincial outports in other branches of Britain’s colonial and foreign trades? In seeking to answer these questions, the thesis explores each stage of the British fur trade in order to establish the factors that prolonged the continuation of the London mercantilist system in the trade. Underpinning these explorations is a detailed study of the trade statistics contained within the British customs’ records, as well as, from sale, purchase, and employee ledgers, and correspondence contained within the HBC Archives. The thesis presents the argument that developments occurring on both sides of the North-Atlantic World supported the continuation of the mercantilist system in the fur trade, and that the trade was actually a more robust model of that system in 1821 than it had been in 1783. The factors that led the British government to grant the HBC a de facto monopoly of the British fur trade in 1821 were multifaceted and it was not, as much of the existing literature suggests, a simple business merger. Ecological constraints in North America limited the potential for growth in the trade and made the enterprise ever more specialised, which served to discourage new entrants and to increase pressure on existing participants. Limited prospects for expansion and the presence of the rival North West Company (NWC) restrained the critiques of British manufacturers towards the HBC. From 1815, violent confrontations between the HBC and NWC on the frozen frontiers of the British North American Empire increased political scrutiny of the fur trade and led metropolitan interests to conclude that a single company with a monopoly of the fur trade was preferable to the injurious effects of unrestrained free market competition. The continued importance of the re-export trade and the buying preferences of the consumers who purchased the trade’s high-value products kept the trade centred on the metropolitan economy and restricted its proliferation to other British ports. Finally, the role of Cain and Hopkins’ ‘gentlemanly capitalists’ proved crucial, as the total absence of provincial opposition allowed the future of the fur trade to be solely shaped by the hands of London’s commercial elite. Contents List of Figures ix List of Tables xi Acknowledgements xiii Author’s Declaration xv List of Abbreviations xvi Map of North America xvii Introduction 1 1. A Highly Specialised Trade 12 The Rise of the British Fur Trade 14 The Organisation of the Hudson Bay and Canadian Fur Trades 22 Enticing Aboriginal Peoples to Trade 40 Labour in the British Fur Trade 46 Conclusion 52 2. The View from the Customs’ House: Analysing Britain’s fur imports 53 The British Customs’ Records 55 The Twilight of the Montreal Fur Trade 60 Britain and the US Fur Trade 73 The Hudson’s Bay Fur Trade 81 The Hudson’s Bay Company Prevails: The emergence of monopoly 86 Conclusion 98 3. The Supply of Commodity Exports to the Hudson’s Bay Company 100 The Scale of Commodity Exports 102 The Range of Commodity Exports 107 The Suppliers 124 Conclusion 143 ~vii~ 4. A Metropolitan Monopoly: Auctions and re-exports 145 The Re-Export Trade 147 The Sales 168 The Buyers 185 Conclusion 192 5. Hats, Muffs, and Tippets: The demand for fur-related apparel in Britain and beyond 194 ‘A Trade of Great National Importance’: The manufacture and retail of beaver hats in Britain 195 The Global Trade in British Hats 208 Winter Wardrobes: Furriers and their craft 228 Conclusion 244 6. Consumers on the Frontiers of Empire: The Hudson’s Bay Company’s overseas servants 245 Life and Society in Hudson’s Bay 248 Accessing Imported Goods 252 Uncovering the Cargoes 255 Dress in the Sub-Arctic 269 A Taste of Home 280 Conclusion 285 Conclusion 287 Bibliography 293 ~viii~ List of Figures 1.1 View of Hudson’s Bay House on Fenchurch Street, c.1820 23 1.2 Trading ceremony at York Factory, 1780s 42 2.1 Average annual official value of furs imported into Britain from the Americas by place of origin, 1699-1821 61 2.2 Average annual official value of furs imported into Britain from Canada by type of fur, 1783-1821 72 2.3 Average annual official value of furs imported into Britain from the United States by type of fur, 1783-1821 76 2.4 Average annual official value of furs imported into Britain from Hudson’s Bay by type of fur, 1783-1821 85 3.1 HBC’s annual purchases of trading commodities, provisions, and services for export to Hudson’s Bay, 1783-1821 104 3.2 HBC’s annual purchases of trading commodities, provisions, and services for export to Hudson’s Bay by type, 1783-1821 109 4.1 Annual official value of undressed furs re-exported from Britain to all parts of the world by destination, 1783-1821 148 4.2 Annual official value of undressed furs re-exported from Britain to all parts of the world by fur type, 1783-1821 152 4.3 Annual sale revenue at the HBC’s auctions in London, 1783-1820 171 4.4 Average price of beaver purchased at the HBC’s auctions, 1783-1810 175 4.5 Average price of bear, cat, marten, otter, and wolf purchased at the HBC’s auctions, 1783-1810 175 5.1 Men’s hat styles, c.1780-1820 203 5.2 Women’s hat styles, c.1780-1820 205 5.3 Annual number of hats exported from Britain to all parts of the world by type, 1783-1821 209 5.4 Annual number of beaver and castor hats exported from Britain to the Americas by destination, 1783-1821 214 5.5 Annual number of beaver and castor hats exported from Britain to the United States by destination, 1783-1821 216 5.6 Annual number of beaver and castor hats exported from Britain to South America and the West Indies by destination, 1783-1821 220 5.7 Annual number of beaver and castor hats exported from Britain to Europe by destination 222 ~ix~ 5.8 Caricature of a woman wearing an excessively large muff and tippet, c.1800 234 5.9 Women’s styles of fur apparel, c.1780-1820 235 5.10 Trade cards of John Nicholas Schneider and Peter Raymond Poland, furriers 239 5.11 Trade card of Tobias Kleinert, furrier 240 6.1 Composition of estimated working-class purchases of foodstuffs, 1788-92 251 6.2 Composition of the HBC’s purchases of provisions from London suppliers, 1783-1821 251 6.3 HBC’s servants’ per capita purchases by place of origin, 1787-1813 257 6.4 HBC’s British servants’ per capita purchases by wage, 1787-1813 258 6.5 HBC’s British servants’ per capita purchases by occupation, 1787-1813 259 6.6 HBC’s British servants’ per capita purchases of consumer and producer goods by wage, 1787-1813 265 6.7 HBC’s British servants’ per capita purchases of consumer and producer goods by occupation, 1787-1813 268 6.8 HBC’s British servants’ per capita purchases of items of dress by wage, 1787-1813 278 6.9 HBC’s British servants’ per capita purchases of items of food and drink, 1787-1813 284 ~x~ List of Tables 1.1 Average annual number of servants and officers employed by the HBC in North America by place of origin, 1785-1819 48 2.1 Average annual official value of ‘skins’ imported into Britain, 1783-1821 58 2.2 Official value of furs imported from Canada and Hudson’s Bay as a percentage of their combined total, 1783-1821 66 2.3 Number of beaver furs exported from the United States to Britain and China, 1804-18 74 2.4 Average annual number of deer imported into Britain from Canada, Florida, and the United States, 1783-1821 77 2.5 Overall official value of furs imported into Britain from the United States by State and type of fur, 1783-1821 80 3.1 HBC’s average annual purchases of provisions, trading goods, and services for export to Hudson’s Bay, and the average annual official value