Canadian Fur Trade1
The Canadian fur trade, which grew out of the fishing industry, began as a small business, but would expand and become not only the exploiter of a primary Canadian resource, but the industry around which the country of Canada itself developed. The fur trade started shortly after the discovery of the Grand Banks off the coast of Newfoundland. The fishermen who fished there were the first people who traded furs with the Indians; this trade was a secondary means of profit for the fishermen. Later this secondary industry became a profitable big business due to changes in European fashion, and fashion techniques. While the fur trade brought economic growth and land discoveries, it developed its very own complex trading network throughout the wild, which laid the groundwork for a nation both geographically and financially. The Europeans and the Natives were both instrumental participants in the growth of the fur trade, but the fur trade had its ill effects on these two cultures. The fur trade not only negatively affected Native and settler life, but also had negative ecological effects, particularly on the beaver. The beaver flourished until the fur traders came after them. Because of the land discoveries and the profit made
Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1981. It has been estimated that before the fur trade the beaver population increased twenty percent a year . The Europeans introduced the Natives to an large array of luxuries, technologies and traditions that were completely foreign to them. The indiscriminate slaughter of the beaver for its pelts also put a tremendous strain on the beaver population, and soon all the beavers in the area in which the French were trading were gone. Is it more accurate to claim that the fur trade was the destruction of a nation or the birth of one? Although the fur trade is seen as the base upon which Canada was built, it is also seen as an instrument of destruction for the culture of the Canadian Natives and a threat to an ecological balance among the fur-bearing wild life. The early fur trading relationship was one of mutual dependence, or one could even say European dependency because during the early eighteenth century the European market was desperate for furs. The fur trade influenced the early shaping of Canada, for it opened up the country to later European development, and shaped the history of our country. This emerging fur industry would, however, become strained, as the fur supply grew smaller and could no longer meet the needs of the European market. Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited, 1989.
Common topics in this essay:
Natives Canada,
Bay Company,
North America,
Europeans Natives,
Natives Native,
Spanish Portuguese,
Grand Banks,
Native Canadians,
fur trade,
Natives Europeans,
Jacques Cartier,
north america,
hudson's bay,
grand banks,
toronto press,
canadian fur trade,
european market,
trade changed,
beaver population,
canadian fur,
fur trade changed,
brought economic growth,
fur trade brought,
charles ii,
trade brought economic,
|
Acceptance Essays
