Fur Trade in North America

Fur trader from Alberta, 1890.

Fur trade in North America is an activity related to the extraction and trade of fur in the North American continent . The indigenous inhabitants of the continent, the Eskimos and Native American peoples from different regions, already traded furs between themselves in the pre-Columbian era , while European colonists began to participate in it almost immediately from the moment they arrived in the New World and began to export furs to Europe. The French entered into trade in the 16th century, the British established trading posts at the Hudson's Bay on the territory of modern Canada, and the Dutch in the 17th. By the nineteenth century, when the rapid development of industry began, a complex trading network of companies engaged in the extraction and sale of furs began to form in North America.

Fur trade has long been one of the main directions of the North American economy, in which French, British, Dutch, Spaniards and Russians competed with each other at different time periods. In the early history of the United States, the development of fur trade and the displacement of the British from their dominant positions in it was an important vector of development. Many Native American tribes across the continent were heavily dependent on the fur trade, which was their sole source of income. In the first half of the 19th century, however, a change in fashion trends in Europe led to a catastrophic drop in the price of furs, as a result of which the American Fur Company and many other large companies involved in their trade could not survive. Many Native American tribes consequently found themselves in distress and, accordingly, lost their former political influence. At the same time, the production and trade of fur remained an important part of the economy of the western part of the United States until the beginning of the 20th century.