In response to some requests, I’m going to be featuring more Canadian history! If you don’t know much about Canada, you will probably know polar bears, cold weather, hockey, and those iconic striped blankets. However, most people don’t really know much about the background behind those striped blankets, or what the Hudson’s Bay Company means in regards to Canada’s early history. So, before you eye up one of those antique blankets on eBay or decide to go stripe spotting yourself, this is a fast Hudson’s Bay Company History (and a primer on the beginning of Canada)!
The Hudson’s Bay Company (aka HBC) was incorporated on 2 May 1670, after 2 years of English exploration of the Hudson’s Bay. If you aren’t intimately familiar with English monarchs, that would be under the Restoration king himself, Charles II. The exploration was started by French explorers who were eventually introduced to Charles by his cousin Prince Rupert, and so a partnership was born! If you are reading any sort of HBC history, you will often see “Rupert’s Land”. Prince Rupert was the first governor of the territory, and so got the name.
(Sidenote: for anyone who doesn’t know Hudson’s Bay is a large saltwater bay covering 1.2 million square kilometres that borders Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, and Nunavut.)
Between the years 1668 and 1717, six different outposts were established. These outposts typically gave the outposts access to interior waterways and trapping lands. It may seem odd if you are from a smaller country, but when you are dealing with a country the size of Canada, water transportation and several outposts are needed. (In medieval England, people used rivers for faster and more comfortable transportation. In this time in Canada, it could mean the difference of months, not hours or days.)
Those striped blankets that you see everywhere actually served a specific purpose! Known as point blankets (the points are the black notches and indicate the size of the blanket), they were used for trading with indigenous people. By the year 1700, those point blankets made up more than 60% of traded goods, meaning that one good sized blanket could fetch you a fair number of pelts. And in the early 19th century, they designed a coat with the same iconic stripes! (You can still find those coats, but they fetch a pretty penny.)
Did you know anything of the Hudson’s Bay Company history? And do you have one of the iconic point blankets?
Cheers,
The Historian
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I am really pleased that you will be doing a series on Canadian history – I know nothing about it whatsoever and hadn’t even heard of the points blanket (will be googling them now ?).
I have a few more posts coming in February- one is another mini post, and the other is a full one! I am so glad that I can be the one to shed some light 🙂 We do have a fascinating history, and it’s so often ignored!!