Foundations of the Fur Trade

• Barter involves trading goods/services without money.
• Cause is what makes something happen, effect is the result.
• Coureurs de bois were French traders who traded furs with First Nations in the wilderness.
• Mercantile system is a trade system where colonies send raw materials to their home country and buy finished products.
• Pemmican is a food made from dried buffalo/moose meat, berries, and fat.
• Voyageurs paddled canoes to carry goods from Montreal to trading posts.
• Wampum are strands of shells used to honor new friends and promote peace.

Foundations of the Fur Trade

• First Nations and Europeans collaborated in trade with mutual respect.
• The fur trade was vital for building the Canadian economy.
• Beaver hats became popular in Europe, boosting the Canadian economy.
• First Nations shared survival knowledge with Europeans including how to find food, make medicine and navigate the land.

Roles and Responsibilities

• First Nations men hunted animals.
• First Nations women prepared animal skins, made clothes, and handled tasks at trading posts.
• Merchants managed money and organized trade between Europe and Canada.
• Coureurs de bois and Voyageurs traded with First Nations in wilderness and transported goods.

Trade Dynamics and Customs

• Trading groups took breaks and exchanged gifts to build trust and respect.
• The French adopted First Nations trading habits, including gift-giving.
• First Nations traded corn, tobacco, furs, copper, and pottery with each other.

Economic and Political Impacts

• The fur trade greatly impacted New France's economy.
• The search for beaver led Europeans to explore more of North America.
• Fur trade profits helped develop industries like mills and shipbuilding.

Notable Figures and Groups

• Matonabbee, a Dene explorer, guided Samuel Hearne.
• Jean-Baptiste Colbert planned New France within the mercantile system.
• Jean Talon managed the economy after 1665, attracting settlers and supporting local businesses.
• Frontenac sent coureurs de bois to establish more trading posts.
• La Verendrye claimed land for France and made deals with First Nations.
• Isabel Gunn worked for the Hudson's Bay Company disguised as a man.
• Wendat's network brought furs from various First Nations to Montreal.
• Council of Three Fires included the Potawatomi, Odawa, and Ojibwa nations.

Competition and Conflict

• The French controlled trade on the St. Lawrence River and in the Great Lakes area.
• The Adirondack Mountains hindered English fur traders' westward movement.
• The French searched for a 'great Western Sea' to reach China.
• The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) focused mainly on making profits.

Important Trade Data

• First Nations valued metal items like pots, knives, axes, copper wire, and guns from Europe.
• Furs traded includes fox, marten, otter, bear, lynx, muskrat, wolf, and beaver.
• Hudson Bay blankets used black lines to indicate the beaver pelt value.
• Pemmican was made from dried buffalo/moose meat mixed with berries and fat.

Additional Critical Aspects

• The Great Peace of Montreal (1701) was a treaty with 1300 delegates from 40 First Nations; it established peace with the French and safe trading.
• Canoes were vital for moving goods, birchbark canoes were light, fast, and strong.
• First Nations and Métis women helped as interpreters, negotiators, and guides, sharing duties for survival.
• Making beaver felt hats involves removing hairs from beaver fur, scraping off under-fur, pressing it into felt, and shaping it into hats.

Dates

• 1000 AD: Vikings arrived in North America.
• 1670: The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) was created by a royal charter from King Charles II of England.
• 1672: Governor Frontenac allowed the Coureur de Bois to trade directly with the First Nations.
• 1701: The Great Peace of Montreal was signed by 40 First Nations and the french.
• 1715: Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, Sieur de La Vérendrye, established trading posts near Lake Superior.
• 1732: La Verendrye took his sons and nephew to Le Pays D’en Haut, reached Lake Winnipeg, and found the Saskatchewan River.
• 1743: La Verendrye’s sons traveled to the Rocky Mountains
• 1778: Peter Pond built a trading post along the Athabasca River after spoken with First Nations.
• 1779: The Nor’westers formed the North West Company.
• 1750: The Great Law of Peace treaty ended.
• 1780-1875: Marie-Anne Gaboury, the first Non-Aboriginal to settle in Western Canada and Louis Riel’s grandmother.
• 1789: La Verendrye searched for the Pacific Ocean, but found the Atlantic and called it the River of Disappointment.
• 1793: Alexander Mackenzie reaches the Pacific Ocean.
• 1821: Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company merged.
• 1869: Fort Whoop-Up was a trading post in Alberta where American traders sold whiskey to Indigenous people.