Fur trading emerged in the second half of the 16th century in eastern Canada as a means for fisherman to diversify their income. When they began salting and drying their cod on the Newfoundland coast they came in increasing contact with the local Indigenous People. The fisherman began trading metal objects for robes made of native-tanned beaver pelts, called castor gras by the French. Initially, the fisherman used the robes for warmth on the cold Atlantic crossings, but in the second half of the 16th century, it was discovered that these pelts could be converted into felt to make hats. A new industry was born when beaver-felt hats became the rage in Europe.
Fishermen from the Province of Normandy, in northwestern France, were the first to take up trading in North America. Notarial records show the first outfitting for the fur trade after 1550. These traders were bound for what was referred to as “Florida”, which then constituted all of eastern North America from Florida to Cape Breton Island. Cod fishermen plied the coast from Newfoundland to Cape Cod, the southern boundary of the cod fisheries.
Basque whalers soon followed the Norman fishermen into fur trading, with 15 ships being outfitted annually in the 1580s. They combined whaling with trading near the mouth of the Saguenay River. Brittany fishermen joined the Basques as fur traders in the late 16th century.
Fur trading in the mid-1580s was stimulated by a general expansion in the market for fur, but specifically, the beaver had become the rage due to the popularity of the broad-brimmed felt hat. The downy portion of beaver pelts is far superior to other furs for making felt. The depletion of fur-bearing animals in Western Europe had forced hat makers to look to Atlantic America to supply their needs.
The Estuary of the St. Lawrence River became a hotbed of French trading activity as it could support both whaling and fur trading. Whales migrated here: “in large numbers, feeding on the phytoplankton and zooplankton that abounded in its waters” and traders “could draw from the south shore of the St. Lawrence for substantial fur resources, from the northern regions via the vast Saguenay-Lac Saint-Jean hydrographic system, and from the Great Lakes region via the St. Lawrence” (Turgeon, 1998).
The St. Lawrence fisheries became: “a powerful pole of attraction for European commerce, mobilizing hundreds of ships annually from midcentury. The fur trade developed concomitantly, amplifying contacts between Europeans and Amerindians. Three French groups were trading in two different regions: Basques and. to a lesser extent. Breton seamen from St. Malo shared the gulf and estuary of St. Lawrence. and Normans plied the waters off Cape Breton and the Florida coast. Norman trade began earlier. probably around 1560, but was less intense than the Basque. which started in earnest in 1580s. The French traded copper goods (kettles, harness bells, pendants, and the like), axes, knives, swords, beads, haberdashery, and fabric for beaver, marten, and otter fur and moose hides.“
The traders of the St. Lawrence Valley
By 1600, the once populous St. Lawrence Iroquoians discovered by Jacquez Cartier in the 1530s were now gone. They were extinct. It is unclear what happened to them. As Gagné (2015) describes: “In the late 16th century the St Lawrence Iroquoians mysteriously disappeared, abandoning their former territories sometime between the last voyage of the French explorer Jacques Cartier in 1541, and the subsequent expedition of Samuel de Champlain in 1603. In fact, except for a few pieces of scattered information, very little is known about the fate of the St Lawrence Iroquoians. Researchers have different theories or use a combination of factors to explain the departure of these groups from the St Lawrence Valley. The main causes were likely the impact of diseases transmitted by Europeans, wars of conquest initiated by outside groups (the Huron or Five Nations Iroquois: Mohawk, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, and Seneca), and the control of trade routes with Europeans. To this day, however, none of these hypotheses has been truly validated”
It was now the Innu (Montagnais) who had for centuries migrated in the summer to the St. Lawrence Valley that had become the middleman in the lucrative fur trade. This trade became “their leading source of income, and they did not permit any other traders – Indian or European – to go up the Saguenay at the pain of death. Control of this artery was vital to their prosperity “ (Fisher, 2008: 137).
Over time vast trade networks would develop between the tribes across Ontario and beyond, each protecting their part of the trade routes from outsiders. Champlain would describe two major trading networks, one operating on the Saguenay and the other on the Ottawa River. Each of the Algonquian tribes along these rivers strove to control the trade coming from upriver and to prevent the French from making direct contact with the tribes of that region. The first half of the 17th century would become a period of constant conflict over the control of fur supplies.
Illustration: The American beaver
Bibliography:
Fisher, D.H. (2008) Champlain’s dream. Simon and Schuster, New York.
Gagné, M. (2015). St Lawrence Iroquoians. The Canadian Encyclopedia. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/st-lawrence-iroquoians
Turgeon, L. (1998) French Fishers, Fur Traders, and Amerindians during the Sixteenth Century: History and Archaeology. The William and Mary Quarterly 55:585-610
Catalysts of trade and exploration 