No. 67.
Extract from a letter of Sir J. Pelly, Governor of the Hudson’s Bay Company, to the Lords of the Committee of Privy Council for Trade.
My Lords: For many years previous to the grant of exclusive trade to the Hudson’s Bay Company, the trade of that coast was engrossed by the subjects of the United States of America and Russia, the only establishment occupied by British traders being “Astoria,” afterward named “Fort George,” at the mouth of the Columbia River, while no attempt was made, through the means of shipping, to obtain any part of the trade of the coast; and so unprofitable was it in the years 1818, 1819, 1820, 1821, and 1822, and so difficult of management, that several of the leading and most intelligent persons *in the country strongly recommended that the Company should abandon it altogether. The Company, however, felt that the honor of the concern would, in a certain degree, be compromised were they to adopt that recommendation; holding as they did under Government the License in question, and with a degree of energy and enterprise which I feel assured your Lordships will admit reflects much credit on themselves and on their officers and servants in the country, they directed their efforts so vigorously to that branch of the business, that they compelled the American adventurers, one by one, to withdraw from the contest.The Hudson’s Bay Company expel Americans from the fur-trade.[105]
The outlay and expense attending this competition in trade are so heavy that the profits are yet but in perspective, none worthy of notice having been realized, the result showing some years a trifling loss, and in others a small gain, fluctuating according to the degree of activity with which the contest is maintained.