Hudson's Bay 1670 Royal Charter on public display
Winnipeg - For the first time in its history, Hudson's Bay Company will put the Royal Charter on public display at the Manitoba Museum in Winnipeg. You could say this 350-year-old artifact has played a pivotal role in what is now known as Canada.
by Karen Graham
According to the news release, the historical artifact went on display Saturday, September 12 and is expected to remain on display through to early 2021. It is hoped that seeing the charter will get people talking and thinking about land claims and land rights and how deeply seeded they are in Canada's history.
"As stewards of a history that began 350 years ago, we take great responsibility in acknowledging, preserving and sharing the history of HBC and Canada," said Richard Baker, Governor and Executive Chairman of HBC. "The Royal Charter is foundational to understanding not only our company, but also modern-day Canada."
Jennifer Moore Rattray, a member of the Manitoba Museum Foundation Board notes that "the history of HBC is the story of my family, and of many others descended from both First Nation and settler peoples. Over centuries, my Cree and Scottish ancestors trapped, hunted, and worked for HBC. The HBC Museum Collection is an important resource that can connect us to those family histories, while it helps to illuminate Canada's complicated colonial history."
"At this time of truth and reconciliation, we have an opportunity to move forward together in a new way, and to create the country our ancestors dreamed of with equity and opportunity for all."
Acknowledging a country's history, including the good and the bad, is sometimes very difficult, as has been seen in the United States while its citizens try to absorb and understand its history steeped in slavery and racism. The same - basically- holds true for Canada.
Many of the documents and artifacts in the HBC Museum reflect outdated ideas, yet the legacies of the implementation of those ideas are still felt today - "particularly surrounding land claims and rights within First Nations, Inuit, and Métis communities," says Dr. Amelia Fay, Curator of the HBC Museum Collection.
History tells a remarkable story
The history of the Hudson's Bay Company is truly a fascinating journey back in time, and it all started because two men wanted a chance at some prime furs found around the Hudson Bay. Two French traders, Pierre-Esprit Radisson, and Medard Chouart were traveling north when they met Cree Indians carrying a large quantity of unusually rich pelts. When questioned, the Cree spoke of a vast inland sea which the Frenchmen figured was Hudson Bay.
After the French governor of Quebec refused to sponsor a trading expedition to the Hudson Bay region, the two traders traveled to Boston in search of financing, and there they met a well-connected Englishman who invited them to London and presented them to King Charles II.
The king's cousin, Prince Rupert of Batavia, sponsored an exploratory trading mission in 1668, which proved to be highly successful - so much so that the prince formed a group of 18 investors to form the Hudson's Bay Company, also known as The Governor and Adventurers of England Trading into Hudson's Bay.
The Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading into Hudson's Bay was incorporated on 2 May 1670, with a royal charter from King Charles II. The charter granted the company a monopoly over the region drained by all rivers and streams flowing into Hudson Bay in northern Canada.
The area was named "Rupert's Land" after Prince Rupert, the first governor of the company appointed by the King. The area was quite large, representing at least one-third of what is modern day Canada.
Most of us remember learning about the French and Indian Wars, or the Seven Years War as school children. Well, that war was the result of the French traders and British traders squabbling over their quest for the thick beaver pelts. Both sides, along with the indigenous tribes they were allied with allowed their differences to finally break out into a war that lasted from 1756 until 1763.
The British won, and the French surrendered all claims to New France in 1763. However, the Hudson's Bay Company continued to grow and prosper. In 1870 the company’s remaining territories, which comprised virtually all of present-day Canada except for the Maritime Provinces and part of Ontario and Quebec, were sold to the Canadian government in exchange for £300,000, blocks of territory around its posts, and title to one-twentieth of the lands in the “fertile belt,” or habitable portion of western Canada, with mineral rights on all these lands.
Additionally, HBC was governed entirely from England until 1931, when a Canadian committee was given exclusive authority in Canada - but still answered to the governing body in England.
HBC dropped out of the fur trading business in 1991, but it is still the largest business in Canada, and is also the longest-operating company in North America. That is quite a feather in the company's beaver pelt hat.