The account books of the Hudson’s Bay Company posts reveal that, contrary to popular belief. Native people did not part with their furs frivolously for cheap trinkets. Even as early as the eighteenth century the Native people spent most of their trapping income on firearms, ammunition, metal goods, cloth, blankets, tobacco, and brandy—only the last two articles are clearly luxuries. They were replacing their traditional technology with an exotic one, and they quickly learned to be discriminating consumers. Besides demanding quality merchandise, they had very specific design requirements: hunting and trapping demand lightweight, durable equipment. This proved a real challenge for European manufacturers when it came to making arms and metal goods of all types. Under the extreme winter temperatures of the North, any design deficiencies, casting flaws, or poorly soldered joints caused metal objects to fail. In the case of firearms, such failures unfortunately too often led to death or disabling injury.
Partly for these reasons. Native traders became harsh critics of English and French merchandise. The Governor and Committee directed their men in the bay to monitor Native reactions to the company’s goods closely, and, when asked, the Native people only too willingly gave them an earful of complaints. The Native people also learned the advantages of comparison shopping as a trading ploy. In 1728 the chief factor at York Factory, Thomas McCliesh, wrote the Governor and Committee complaining bitterly:
Never was any man so upbraided with our powder, kettles and hatchets, than we have been
This summer by all the natives, especially by those that borders near the French____The
Natives are grown so politic in their way in trade, so as they are not to be dealt by as formerly... now is the time to oblige the natives, before the French draws them to their settlement... for here came at least forty canoes of Indians this summer, most of them clothed in French clothing that they traded with the French last summer. They likewise brought several strong French kettles and some French powder in their horns, with which they upbraided us with, by comparing with ours.
By taking advantage of competitive situations, Aboriginal traders played a critical role in forcing Europeans to adapt their technology to the climate and environment of northern Canada. All the same, in the late nineteenth century Native consumers still routinely complained about the quality of trading goods, hbc trader Walter Trail, who was stationed in Manitoba in the 1860s, makes this clear in a humorous account of how he passed long winter evenings with local people:
I have great fun with some of the old Indians when I get them telling yarns. They firmly believe that Queen Victoria selects for them, and personally supervises, the sending out of all the Company’s goods. Nor do they doubt that all the shirts, trousers, capotes and other articles are made by her own hands. Many a rough blessing she gets from being a bad seamstress. Were she to know how bravely I fight her battles she would certainly raise me to peerage.
The trade goods clearly benefited Native women as much as the men—and the kettle probably had the greatest impact on their daily lives. For the first time they had a durable, transportable vessel that could be used over an open fire; no longer did they have to resort to the arduous procedure of boiling water by placing heated stones in
It, and stews and soups became central to their diet. Although it was not until much later that men and women bought European clothing in large quantities, blankets and cotton and woollen yard goods were in demand early on. Woven cloth was not as warm as fur but it dried more quickly, and wool provided warmth even when wet.
Nicholas Vincent Isawanhoni. This Huron chief, shown wearing the regimental coat commonly awarded to Native “trading captains” and their “lieutenants,” holds a wampum belt on which is marked the tomahawk given to him by King George ill. Lithograph (1825) after a painting by Edward Chatfield.
And for fashioning hides, pelts, and yard goods into clothing, metal awls, knives, needles, and scissors made women’s tasks much easier. Although the Aboriginal consumers spent a relatively small portion of their total incomes on European trade beads, the fact that these could be obtained cheaply encouraged the use of ornamented beadwork on clothing, and in time trade beads largely replaced traditional quill and shell work on Native garments.
Undoubtedly firearms had the most impact on the lives of woodland men. Traditionally they stalked and killed game at close range with bows and arrows or lances. The problem was that often the animals did not die immediately, and they might move considerable distances before bleeding to death. With firearms death was usually instantaneous, and so the hunters found they could be far more efficient using the smooth-bore flintlock musket, however inferior it was to the repeating rifle of the late nineteenth century.
In the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, the Assiniboine and Cree used the arms they obtained from the hbc not only to hunt, but also to cordon off Hudson Bay and James Bay from rival trading groups, and expand their spheres of influence to the west and north-west. Considerable bloodshed was the result in some areas, and was one of the primary causes of the major population upheaval that took place in the heart of the continent just before European explorers arrived there. Most notably, the Chipewyan were displaced to the north, the Beaver and Sekani to the west, and the Gros Ventre to the south.
In the early days, European hatchets and ice chisels quickly became invaluable. Native trappers used these tools in the winter to open frozen beaver lodges, and they were essential components of a hunter’s equipment until baited steel-spring traps became the usual method of taking beaver in the late eighteenth century. After that, traps and traplines became crucial. Men, like the women, quickly adopted the European metal knife too. One of the more interesting knives was the canoe knife, or crooked knife, that was used in canoe construction or in any operation where paring of complex wooden shapes was required.
Of all the commodities that the Native people obtained in trade, none was more disruptive to the fabric of their societies than alcohol. James Isham, who was favourably impressed by the kindness and generosity Aboriginal people commonly showed towards close friends and kin, pointed out that they often behaved in a very hostile manner when drinking liquor:
These Natives are given very much to Quarrellg. when in liquor having Known two Brothers when in liquor to Quarrell after such a manner, that they have Bitt one anothr. nose, Ears, and finger’s off. Biting being common with them when in Liquor.—they also are Very Sulky and sullen, and if at any time one has a Resentment against another, they never show itt, till the Spiritious Liquor’s work’s in their Brains, then they Speak their mind freely.
This kind of behaviour undoubtedly reflected the fact that Native people had no prior experience with drugs as powerful as brandy or rum. Also, living most of the year in small, closely knit groups where survival depended on conformity and co-operative behaviour, they had few outlets for the personal resentments that inevitably arose. Alcohol reduced their good judgement and facilitated the expression of these feelings.
Unfortunately, the manner in which Aboriginal people and Europeans interacted in the fur trade encouraged the widespread use of alcohol. Under competitive circumstances, rival traders attempted to woo Native people to their side by being more generous with their gifts. This set off an upward spiral in gift-giving expenses—and one way to offset this trend was to give away larger quantities of relatively cheap, watered-down rum or brandy. That Native producers tended to harvest only enough furs for their immediate short-term needs was another problem; there was a limit to how much barter they could carry away, particularly when the posts were distant. So during highly competitive periods, when their furs fetched a higher price, they naturally curtailed their efforts. Since alcohol was cheap to obtain, could be consumed on the spot, and was addictive, the European traders had very strong economic incentives to trade and give away large quantities of liquor. In fact, the only thing that prevented widespread consumption of alcohol before 1763 was the fact that most Native consumers visited a trading post only once a year. Between 1763 and 1821, when competition reached a fever pitch and posts were built throughout the northern forest, the Europeans’ abusive use of alcohol in trade led to the widespread demoralization of the Native peoples of central Canada.
World History
