Archives West Finding Aid

General Notes: This ledger with Importation of Furs notices from the Hudson’s Bay Company, which formed in 1670, was preserved and annotated by J. M. Oppenheim & Co. In the mid-1800s, J. M. Oppenheim & Co. had a monopoly contract on Alaskan fur-seal trade with the Russian-American Company which delivered the entire yearly catch of sealskins to London at a fixed price. It later became C. W. Martin & Sons after its dissolution in 1873. Through a Royal monopoly, the Hudson's Bay Company processed and delivered tens of thousands of bales of furs to their warehouses in London for annual auctions. These fur Importation bulletins record anticipated amounts of furs collected annually by the Hudson's Bay Company from their fur trapping districts with prices and auction announcements. Most of the documents are annotated with realized amounts actually delivered and many with prices paid by the J. M. Oppenheim & Co.

The initial documents, from 1830-1839, list the number of furs and skins imported by the Hudson’s Bay Company from the Pacific Northwest and Northwest Territories. From 1840 through the 1850s, the forms focus on Hudson’s Bay Company furs from the Columbia River extending from headwaters down to Astoria, often with manuscript annotations on versos addressing the documents to the J.M. Oppenheim & Co.

In 1846, with the Oregon Treaty and establishment of the 49th parallel, the Hudson’s Bay Company’s southern domain was acquired by the United States. While the Hudson’s Bay Company could freely navigate the Columbia River and was granted trading rights, the increase in settlers and hostilities with local indigenous tribes severely curtailed the fur trade. In 1860, Fort Vancouver closed and moved to Fort Victoria on Vancouver Island as, in the north, the fur trade still dominated commerce.

As indicated on the notices, the districts from which furs originated include York Fort & Mackenzie River; Moose River and East Main; King’s Post, Canada; and Columbia River district which reported separately until 1850. These fur trade areas encompassed present day Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Northern California, and British Columbia.

Prior to 1860, the ledger also includes manuscript and annotated printed documents from a couple of Hudson’s Bay competitors in the fur trade business, including auction notices from Henry Lee & Sons in the 1840s, Humphreys & Sons, and William Kugler-Zinn at Offenbach near Frankfurt am Main.

Once the furs had been delivered to the Hudson’s Bay House warehouse in London, the annual fur auctions were organized first with beaver, muskrat, and American rabbit auctioned in January, followed by other fur auctions for bear, badger, fox, lynx, sea otter, wolves, and others in March, and finally, shipments of whalebone, narwhal tusks, salted salmon, deer skins, elder down, quills, and more in December.

Hudson’s Bay Company furs were a dominant economic force in the Victorian economy supplying the popular beaver which was used in coats, hats, muffs, and linings, but also rabbit and muskrat furs for top hats, ermine, mink, fox, lynx, and others which were necessary for trims and linings in women’s cloaks and fur muffs for the hands. Furs from North America were also popular through the Edwardian and post-World War I era.

Source: HistoryLink