Hudson's Bay Company

Trade in Age of Intrigue
Travel Travel Times East India Company Hudson's Bay Company West Indies Navigation Acts Alcohol Chocolate Coffee Cotton Exotic Fruit Opium Slaves Spices Sugar Tea Tobacco

Prince Rupert acquired a Royal Charter from his cousin for the vast lands surrounding the Hudson's Bay, in what would later become Canada. The charter, granted in May of 1670, gave the land to "the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson's Bay." Building forts and outposts along the shores of Hudson and James Bays, agents and explorers of the company traded with the native peoples, buying furs in exchange for metal work items (such as knives and cooking pots) and blankets. Rupert's Land was (for some time) the largest singly owned expanse of land in the New World comprising 1.5 million square miles (3.9 million km²), and, from Fort Nelson and York Factory, it controlled the fur trade throughout most of the lands under English control.