Fur trade
The fur trade is a worldwide industry involving capturing of animals for their fur.
Encyclopedia
The
fur trade is a worldwide industry involving capturing of animals for their fur.
North American fur trade
The North American fur trade was a huge part of the early
history of contact in
The New World between
European-Americans and
American Indians . French explorers, originally seeking routes through the continent, established relationships with
Amerindians and found they were willing to trade
fur pelts for items considered 'common' by the Europeans.
Fur was prized and very expensive in
European markets. In the southern colonies, based on the export hub of
Charleston, South Carolina, the system was mainly one of deerskin trade. Word spread amongst Native hunters that the Europeans would exchange pelts for European-manufactured goods that were highly desired in native communities. Axe heads, knives, awls, fish hooks, cloth of various type and color, woolen blankets, linen shirts, kettles, jewelry, glass beads,
muskets, ammunition and powder were some of the major items exchanged on a 'per pelt' basis. The trading posts also introduced many types of alcohol for trade. European traders flocked to the contenent and made huge profits off the exchange. A metal axe head, for example, was exchanged for one beaver pelt . The same pelt could fetch enough to buy a dozens of axe heads in England, making the fur trade extremely profitable for the European nations.
Often, the political benefits of the fur trade became more important than the economic aspects. Trade was a way to forge alliances and maintain good relations between different cultures. Consequently, there was much rivalry between different European-American governments for control of the fur trade with the various native societies.
Native Americans sometimes based decisions of which side to support in time of war upon which side provided them with the best trade goods in an honest manner. Because trade was so politically important, it was often heavily regulated in hopes of preventing abuse. Unscrupulous traders sometimes cheated natives by plying them with alcohol during the transaction, which subsequently aroused resentment and often resulted in violence.
The fur trade came to a close as game was depleted by overhunting.
John Jacob Astor recognized that all fur-bearing animals were becoming scarce and retired in 1834. Expanding European settlement displaced native communities from the best hunting grounds, and demand for furs subsided as European fashion trends shifted. The
Native American's lifestyle was forever altered by the trade, in order to continue obtaining European goods on which they had become dependent and to pay off their debts, they often resorted to selling land to the European settlers, which caused resentment on the side of the aboriginals , which would help ignite future wars.
After the
United States became independent, trading with Native Americans in the U.S. was nominally regulated by the Indian Intercourse Act, first passed on July 22, 1790. The
Bureau of Indian Affairs issued licenses to trade in the
Indian Territory, which in 1834 consisted of most of the United States west of the
Mississippi River, where
mountain men and traders from
Mexico freely operated.
Russian fur trade
Before the colonization of the Americas,
Russia was a major fur supplier of
Western Europe and parts of
Asia. Fur was a major Russian export since the early middle-ages. Originally the majority of furs exported from Russia were pelts of
martens,
beavers,
wolves,
foxes,
squirrels and
hares. Between the
16th and
18th centuries Russians tamed
Siberia — a region rich with various valuable kinds of fur-bearing animals such as
arctic fox,
sable,
sea otter and
stoat. In search of sea otter the
Russian Empire expanded into the Americas, notably
Alaska. Between the
17th and second half of the
19th century, Russia was the biggest supplier of fur in the world until the U.S. and
Canada joined the fur market. Fur trade played a vital role in the development of Siberia, the
Russian Far East and the Russian colonization of the Americas. To this day sable is a regional symbol of Ural
Sverdlovsk oblast and Siberian
Novosibirsk,
Tyumen and
Irkutsk oblasts of Russia.
See also
...
References
- Bernard DeVoto Across the Wide Missouri.
- Barbara Huck
-
Footnotes
External links
