Montreal and the Fur Trade

The author traces the history of the fur trade and the role which Montreal played in it from the first at tempt of Jacques Cartier to navigate the Lachine Rapids to the amalgamation of the Northwest Company with the Hud son's Bay Company in 1820. [...] They offered a closely knit narrative of the role of Montreal in the North American fur trade from the days of Jacques Cartier to those of that James McGill who was the Founder of the Uni versity; and, in particular, they gave a fascinating account of the period between the American War of Independence and the 'coalition' between the North west and the Hudson's Bay Companies; a period during vi [...] To the north lay the Laurentians; to the south and the east, the Adirondacks and the Green Mountains. [...] In alliance with the Dutch, and later with the English, the Iroquois were anxious to break the French fur trade and to lead the furs down the Hudson River to the English and the Dutch settlements. [...] What does matter is that the habitan, the ordinary colonist as an indivi dual, was vindicating his freedom to participate in the fur trade against the monopoly of a privileged company; and that the fur trade and its profits were the mainstay of the life of the colony, upon which the costs of ad ministration were based.