The early history of the Canadian west is basically a history of the fur trade. The general tendency was to reap the resources of the region using primarily native or Metis labour, and then transport the goods to the market centres of Europe, specifically London. The original participants in this very lucrative trade were the Hudson's Bay Company, the North West Company, and the XY Company. 130 In 1804, the XY Company was absorbed by the North West Company, and in 1821, the latter also lost its identity through amalgamation with the Hudson's Bay Company. As the sole organized concern involved in the Canadian fur trade, it was the H.B.C. which in 1864 opened a trading post near the Victoria mission site. The post was named Fort Victoria.

While a detailed analysis of Hudson's Bay Company activity at Fort Victoria will undoubtedly familiarize the reader with the Company's mode of operation, it is important that the post's niche in the organizational hierarchy also be noted. Accordingly, a few pages will be devoted to a brief history of the Company and its penetration and exploitation of the Canadian west. Abbreviated though this history will necessarily be, it should help to place the Victoria outpost in proper perspective. That is to say, one will come to view Fort Victoria as a typical western Canadian fur trade outpost.

When "The Governor and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson's Bay" were incorporated on May 2, 1670, their primary objective was to engage in any form of commerce with those lands adjacent to the Bay. Not unexpectedly, the fur trade was the sole commercial enterprise that initially proved profitable. Competition from rival French traders during the late 17th and early 18th centuries checked, temporarily, the growth of the English company, but by the mid-19th century the firm had extended its claim across the Canadian prairies to the shores of the Pacific slope.

As with any organization involved in a monopoly trade, 131 challenges to that monopoly were frequently put forward. In the late 1840s,

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the natives of the Red River territory questioned the Company's authority, and in the 1850s. newcomers from Canada did the same. On the west coast, British Columbia ceased to be governed by the Company when in 1858 it was made a crown colony. The beginning of the end for the H.B.C.'s unquestionable domination of the Canadian hinterland came in 1859 when its license for exclusive trade was not renewed. Ten years of legal and financial bickering followed before the Company finally succumbed to the pressures of Canadian expansion. On December 1, 1869, the H.B.C. transferred its territories to the Dominion of Canada for f:300,000 plus considerations. 132

For those interested in the history of the Canadian west, the circumstances surrounding the H.B.C.'s gradual decline are well worth study. However, for the purposes of this chapter, a discussion of the Company's transportation routes and its personnel classification will be of greater relevance. The transportation costs of the water and land routes seriously affected the operation of Fort Victoria, and the status of the people employed there is an excellent indicator of the value the Company placed on the outpost.

When the Hudson's Bay Company first began to trade extensively the Canadian northwest, York Factory on Hudson's Bay was the most important Company post. Conveniently located at the mouth of the Hay River, the post served as the docking point for ships arriving from England and the distribution centre for the northwest. Its importance was enhanced in that many goods for the inland trade were also manufactured at the fort. Axes, chisels, and cups and bowls were but a few of the articles made by local artisans for shipment to the northwest.

Once the goods arrived at York Factory, transportation to the interior was facilitated through the use of York boats. These large4lal., bottomed vessels were ideally suited for the treacherous waterways over which they plied. Thirty-five feet long, they could carry  up to five tons of freight and were normally manned by nine men, one being the steersman. The boats were seldom sent out singly, rather, they 4 organized into brigades. In the early days the brigades were usually composed of four to five boats, although by the mid-1850s they had increased to six or seven. 133

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To the chagrin of those involved in transporting Hudson's Bay Company goods from York Factory to the interior, the water route was both lengthy and difficult to navigate. From the mouth of the Hayes, the brigades were forced to travel upstream to the Nelson and from there, upstream once again, until they reached Norway House near the outlet of Lake Winnipeg. If the merchandise was destined for the Mackenzie River slopes, the brigades were subsequently routed across the northern shore of Lake Winnipeg to the mouth of the Saskatchewan River and on to Cumberland House. The final leg of the journey took them up the Sturgeon river, across Frog Portage to the Churchill River and on to Methye Portage (Portage la Loche). If, however, the goods were to be distributed in the Saskatchewan, the route was far less circuitous. From Cumberland House the boats navigated up the Saskatchewan River to either Chesterfield House on the southern branch, or Edmonton House (Fort Edmonton) on the northern branch.

For two hundred years after the Hudson's Bay Company was first granted its charter, the waterways of the northwest were the sole avenue whereby the Company transported goods for the inland trade. In the 1860s, however, a considerable overland trade developed between American traders based in St. Paul and the Red River settlement. As the intensity of the trade increased, Fort Garry, located as it was at the junction of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers, gradually took on the appearance of a sizable distribution centre. By the turn of the decade, few, if any, of the trading districts sent their boat brigades to York Factory for supplies. Rather, Fort Garry had now become the new headquarters for the western trade and the famous Red River carts the new mode of transportation.

Once the overland route to the western outposts had displaced the more arduous water route, the Red River cart brigades became a very familiar site on the Canadian prairies. The hardy carts were a two wheeled affairs, constructed entirely of wood, and had a reputation for being able to go anywhere, over anything. Ten carts normally made up a brigade, although it was not unusual for upwards of eight or nine brigades to join in one train when setting out for the west. 134 In 1876 alone, it was estimated that between four and five thousand carts were loaded at Winnipeg to cross the plains. 135 The most commonly used trail ran from Fort Garry to Carlton House, via Fort Ellice. An extension of that trail continued on to Fort Edmonton whence the goods were distributed to the several lesser outposts on the shores of the Saskatchewan, Athabasca, and Peace Rivers.

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In the mid-1870s, the Hudson's Bay Company introduced yet another element into its transportation system. Shallow-draft steamboats began operation on both the North -and South Saskatchewan. On the southern branch, supplies were carried to the Medicine Hat area, and by 1875 service on the northern branch had been extended as far west as Edmonton. Originally intended to offset the heavy transportation costs of the Red River carts, the Saskatchewan steamers had themselves but a brief, albeit colourful, history. The advance of the railway and the resultant growth of the railway communities argued against extensive use of the river boats. In 1886, the long trip from Grand Rapids to Edmonton was abandoned,136 and by the turn of the century, all but the most limited river boat service had been suspended.

The method by which the Hudson's Bay Company administered its territories involved an appreciable dependence on trusted employees. While in theory the organization may have been oligarchic, in reality, staff members were frequently called upon to exercise initiative. It was an arrangement unique to the fur trade, and it was the logistics of the trade that made it necessary. Trade carried over extended areas under conditions of limited transportation made close control of individual staff members all but impossible. Fortunately, it was a system rarely abused and both employee and employer partook of its benefits.