You may have heard of the “fur trade,” but perhaps never learned about it much in school or about its significance to the present day. The fur trade was a global industry for centuries, with ships travelling the world buying and selling furs. The North American fur trade was crucial in determining much of the way North America appears today, and is an enormously important part of American history.
In the past, people all over the world used animal furs for warmth and clothing. Europeans had a strong desire for furs and eventually decimated their own supply over several centuries of exploitation. In the 16th century people of Europe began seeking out new sources of fur in North America. Especially active in the North American fur trade were Russia, France, Holland, England, Canada, and America. But Europeans did not invent the fur trade in North America. On the contrary, when they arrived they found an already robust network of trade linking regions across the continent. Long before Europeans showed up, American Indians had in place complex systems for trading with groups far and wide, and were adept at hunting, trapping, and processing animals for food and furs. When Europeans first became involved in the North American fur trade business, American Indians had control over trade and supplied Europeans with furs within the existing framework of trade. Later, while still depending on Native peoples to obtain and process furs, Europeans moved away from the coast to interior lands and, as they came into direct contact with the fur sources (i.e. the animals), they took control of the procurement and transportation of goods. Once American Indians were no longer needed as the main suppliers, the road was paved for organized fur-trading companies to take over the land, and trading posts like Fort Vancouver were established along waterways, the most efficient mode of travel and transport of the time.
Fur trade posts and travel routes often dictated where roads and towns exist today. The founding of Fort Vancouver in 1825 by the Hudson’s Bay Company led directly to the establishment of the City of Vancouver. The layout of the city can be traced back to location of the fort and some roads that were used by the Hudson’s Bay Company are still in use. As with other fur trade posts around North America, many of the roads used by the Hudson’s Bay Company at Fort Vancouver were actually routes established by Native groups. So when you use some roads in Vancouver you are travelling thoroughfares used by people stretching back countless generations.
Not only did the fur trade impact the built environment, it marked a critical change in global economics and culture. The desire for furs drove development in technologies, it forced contact and communication between groups previously unknown to each other, and remnants of fur trade culture continue to be part of North American imagination, identity, and economics. North America is what it is today because of the fur trade.
