What was a fur traders job?
Métis fur traders operated over a vast expanse of territory, taking in furs from trappers in exchange for goods they received from the trade posts. In order to make a profit, the traders greatly inflated the price of the goods.
What were fur traders called?
Unlicensed independent traders, known as coureurs des bois (or “runners of the woods”), began to do business in the late 17th and early 18th century. Over time, many Métis were drawn to the independent trade; they were the descendants of French trappers and native women.
Why did fur traders move west?
Many American Indians became dependent upon European-American trade goods, while others fought with each other for control of the hunting grounds. By the end of the fur trade era, the American population was ready to move west in search of new opportunities.
Who were skilled fur traders?
The fur trade started because of a fashion craze in Europe during the 17th century. Europeans wanted to wear felt hats made of beaver fur. 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.
What role did the fur trade play in the expansion of Russia?
Fur trading allowed Russia to purchase from Europe goods that it lacked, like lead, tin, precious metals, textiles, firearms, and sulphur. Russia also traded furs with Ottoman Turkey and other countries in the Middle East in exchange for silk, textiles, spices, and dried fruit.
What did the Ojibwe trade?
The Dakota and Ojibwe were the primary trappers of fur-bearing animals in the Northwest Territory. In exchange for these furs, French, British, and US traders provided goods such as blankets, firearms and ammunition, cloth, metal tools, and brass kettles.
Who did the Ojibwe trade with?
Like other Indian tribes, the Ojibwe allied themselves to the French militarily and economically. They traded with the French who entered the Great Lakes in the 1660s, and their desire to obtain European trade goods drove the Ojibwe to expand westward into Lake Superior to find richer fur-bearing lands.
Who started the fur trade?
The earliest fur traders in North America were French explorers and fishermen who arrived in what is now Eastern Canada during the early 1500’s. Trade started after the French offered the Indians kettles, knives, and other gifts as a means to establish friendly relations. The Indians, in turn, gave pelts to the French.
What caused the American fur trade to move westward in the early 1800s?
The American fur trade moved westward in the early 1800s because fur companies wiped out the beaver population in the East in their effort to meet Europeans demand for the “high hat.” The transcontinental railroad contributed to California’s population explosion by bringing settlers to the West in the mid-1850s.
How did the fur trade change the Northwest?
Furs from the entire Far West of North America made their way to Asian and European markets by way of the Columbia River and the Pacific Northwest. Reinforcing the pattern established by the maritime fur trade, the land-based fur trade linked the Pacific Northwest as a resource hinterland to markets across the globe.
What was the Metis role in the fur trade?
The Métis began making a living as trappers by the end of the 1700s. They sold furs to three fur trade companies: Hudson’s Bay Company, the North West Company, and the American Fur Company. Their work was vitally important, as they provided food such as garden produce, berries, fish and game to the fur trade posts.
Who established the fur trade in Canada?
Most of the English fur trade was run by the Hudson’s Bay Company, established in 1670. By the 18th century, a rival large trading company, the North West Company (or Nor’Westers) out of Montreal, was competing with the HBC and their rivalry opened up much of the west to European development.
Who are the people in the fur trade?
The fur trade also attracted a cosmopolitan mix of ethnic and cultural groups—French-Canadian, American Indian, African American, Hispanic, British, Irish, German, and Russian trappers and traders all worked side by side with Missourians, Ohioans, Pennsylvanians, and Virginians.
Who was involved in the fur trade after the American Revolution?
Following the American Revolution, the US competed fiercely with Great Britain for control of the North American fur trade. After the War of 1812 there were three main parties involved in the Upper Mississippi fur trade: Native Americans (primarily the Dakota and Ojibwe), the fur trading companies, and the US government.
What did the fur trappers trade with the Indians?
Exchanged at the trade fairs were garden products (beans, squash, corn, etc.) raised at the Missouri River villages, horses, furs, and hides from the Plains Indians, and whiskey, guns, iron goods, trade beads, and a few beaver traps from the North West traders. The North West trader François-Antoine Larocque took beaver traps to the Crow in 1805.
What did the Europeans use the fur trade for?
Despite the European fur trade encompassing a wide variety of fur bearing animals, mountain men and the mountain man rendezvous are virtually synonymous with beaver. The vast majority of the beaver pelts were sent to England for making hats. For well over two centuries in Britain and Western Europe the beaver hat defined style.