Sunday, July 15, 2018

"He [Henry Kelsey] found [in July or August, 1691] the usual disturbances, following the introduction of European goods and especially guns, and incidental to war on the part of the middlemen (the Crees and the Assiniboines accustomed to canoes), against the more remote and less fortunate Indians of the Plains" (p. 125, Innis, The Fur Trade in Canada).

"Kelsey's task was to check the wars between tribes of the interior in order that they might hunt more beaver. On September 6, 1691, he wrote that he had advised the Indians,

telling ym yt they must employ their time in catching of beaver for yt will be better liked on then their killing their enemies when they come to ye factory neither was I sent there for to kill any Indians but to make peace wth as many as I could but all my arguments prevailed nothing with ym for they told me wt signified a peace with those Indians considering they knew not  ye use of canoes and were resolved to go to wars. So I seeing it in vain I held my peace.

[...]" (p. 125, Innis, The Fur Trade in Canada).

"[...] the problem of getting them to come to Hudson Bay was [...] practically insoluble"  (p. 126, Innis, The Fur Trade in Canada).

"[...] a knowledge of the requirements of the trade was scarcely less important, and in this the services of Radisson and Groseilliers were invaluable"  (p. 127, Innis, The Fur Trade in Canada).

"The reliance [of the Hudson's Bay Company] on French experience was even more in evidence in the purchase of trading goods.

[...] a cargo for the next yeares [1672] expedition for Hudsons Bay, that is to say, two hundred fowleing pieces and foure hundred powder hornes with a proportionable quantity of Shott fitt thereunto first bringeing patternes of the gunns to bee bought, unto the next committee, and more two hundred brasse kettles [akikoons] sizable of from two to sixteene gallons a piece, twelve grosse of french knives and two grosse of arrow heads and about five or six hundred hatchets . . ."  (p. 127, Innis, The Fur Trade in Canada).

"The fur trade to that area began under a monopoly sanctioned by the Crown--The Royal Charter for incorporating the Hudson's Bay Company granted by His Majesty King Charles the Second in the 22nd year of His reign A.D. 1670"  (p. 128, Innis, The Fur Trade in Canada).

"Wage schedules were planned and adopted [...] Young men twenty to thirty and bachelors were preferred. From fifteen to thirty men were needed for each post. In 1710 the policy of introducing Orkneymen was begun at rates for five years of £8, £10, £12, and £14 the last two years"  (p. 130, Innis, The Fur Trade in Canada).

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