The history of the Hudson's Bay Company is integral to the the history of North America.
It's easy to assume that the Hudson's Bay Company has always been a long established Canadian based business specialising in iconic blankets and blanket coats, inspired by the indigenous Indian population.
But there's much more to the story of HBC than that.
It was only when I found this beautiful HBC catalogue from the 40's that I began to realise this.
The seal was the trigger. Although I have blankets and garms by HBC, I'd never noticed until then that it said Made In England.
After a little research, it wasn't long before the whole story unravelled like a piece of loose thread; an epic and sometimes sordid tale.
Here's a few of the facts.
The Hudson's Bay Company is the oldest corporation in America and one of the oldest in the world.
It was founded by Prince Rupert of the Rhine a first cousin of King Charles II of England and a group of associates, and was Incorporated by British Royal Charter in 1670, as the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading into Hudson's Bay.
In short they were granted a trade monopoly over the whole region.
Before recognised nation states were established in what became North America, this band of adventures were via definition the areas governing body - at one point the largest land owner in the world.
For a while it's major focus was the fur trade, which it controlled throughout the area in part by forging alliances with some of the indigenous peoples there.
It was the original nations who did most of the hunting and trapping.
In return for their pelts they were at times paid with blankets.
Known as Hudson's Bay Point Blankets the company started marketing them in 1779, altho' they'd been offering unpointed versions since 1670.
Indian trade with the Hudson's Bay Company and their bitter European rivals (notably the North West Company which was formed by a group of speculators in 1783) meant that by the 19th century virtually all the Indian groups in the region possessed modern firearms.
Eventually the HBC and North West Company merged in 1821.
Many of HBC's European employee's came from Scotland and Ireland.
From the very earliest days, the company's ships would stop off for supplies and to recruit labour. By the late 18th Century three-quarters of the HBC workforce of around 500 men were indentured workers from the Orkney's.
The role played by the indigenous women was essential to the survival and success of these men and the HBC itself. They were strong - in many instances it's said they had the strength of two men. They knew how to cope with the often adverse conditions of the country.
They knew the customs and the lay of the land. They made shoes for the employees - leather moccasins; ideal for the terrain, they allowed the employees to continues working.
They were potential peace-keepers between the indigenous people and the HBC employees.
Many of them co-habited or formally married and became what was known as country women, their children known as half-breeds.
By the late 19th Century, HBC had become the largest private owner of Canadian soil, which acquired Dominion status from Britain in 1867. HBC later received £300,000 in return for relinquishing their monopoly over the region.
From this point in time focus shifted more and more towards steamships and the development of department stores.
The Point Blanket is still made in England - currently manufactured by John Atkinson & Sons in Leeds.
Woolrich is the exclusive distributor of the blanket in the US.
As for the colours of the classic Point Blanket, their significance has been attributed to the original peoples they first traded with: green, relating to new life, red for battle or hunt, yellow for harvest and blue for water.
From blankets, jackets, overcoats and caps, like so many things we love about America, within each Hudson's Bay item are traces of the blood, sweat, tears and dreams that lie at the complex root of the country's modern history.
There's more info, including stuff about the British conflict with the French at:
wikipedia.org/wiki/Hudson's_Bay_point_blanket
www.geocitites.comsoHo/Atrium/4832/hudson2.html
www.hbc.com/hbcheritage/history/blanket
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