North West Company

North West Company

The North West Company (NWC) was a fur-trading enterprise based in Montreal and active in the Canadian West from the 1770s until 1821. The company was run mainly by Scots immigrants who came to Montreal after 1760. They relied for their workforce on French-Canadian voyageurs who had been trading in the fur country for years.

Nor'Westers, as the company men were called, were among the most daring adventurers and skilled traders in the Northwest. The era of the North West Company was one of the most colourful in Canadian history.

Partnership

The company began as a partnership of fur-trade merchants in the 1770s. These traders were finding it expensive to compete against each other so they decided to pool their resources in 1783-84. Some of the leading partners were Simon McTavish, Joseph and Thomas Frobisher, James McGill, and Isaac Todd. Simon McTavish was the leading partner until his death in 1804, when he was followed by William McGillivray.

Because of the great distance between the western fur posts and Montreal, the NWC worked out a unique transportation system. Each summer canoes from the St Lawrence River carried supplies to the head of Lake Superior where they met the canoes laden with furs from the interior. Originally this rendezvous took place at Grand Portage. Later, the site moved to Fort William. After exchanging their goods, and having a grand celebration, the two sets of canoes returned back in the direction they had come for another season.

The NWC soon emerged as the dominant fur-trade enterprise in Montreal and the trade became a rivalry between the Nor'Westers and the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), based to the north in Hudson Bay. This rivalry lasted many years and was very bitter. The two companies built posts next to each other and fought for furs and food supplies. Indians were bribed to bring in their trade and several people were killed during the conflict.

The need to find new supplies of furs led the traders deeper into the north and west. The Nor'Westers were noted especially for their skills as explorers. Men like Alexander Mackenzie, Simon Fraser, and David Thompson carried the fur trade all the way across the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean.

Coalition

The violent competition between the NWC and the HBC came to a head with the creation of the Red River Colony in 1812. The Nor'Westers saw this colony as a plot by the HBC to ruin their trade. The local Metis sided with the NWC and together they decided to drive the colony from the country. All this bad feeling resulted in the violent meeting at Seven Oaks in 1816, where 21 colonists died.

Finally the two companies called a truce. The Nor'Westers were divided among themselves, and the British government wanted peace in the fur country. In 1821 the NWC was absorbed into the HBC. Many of the Nor'Westers went to work for their old rival and the HBC gained control of the fur trade in the west.

Suggested Reading Marjorie Wilkins Campbell, Northwest Company (1988); Jean Morrison editor, The Northwest Company in Rebellion (1988); R. Neering, Fur Trade (1974); Keith Wilson The Fur Trade in Canada (1980).