A history of the world's most famous trading company based on Peter Newman's history. In 1838 Sir George Simpson, the governor of the HBC, was toasted at a dinner as the "Head of the most extended dominion in the known world - the Emperor of Russia, the Queen of England and the President of the United States excepted". It was an astonishing but appropriate tribute to a commercial enterprise of unique scope and character, with trading houses that once stretched from the Arctic Ocean to Hawaii. Yet the history of the HBC is less the story of a company than of a people - its self-proclaimed gentlemen-adventurers mapped a continent and built a nation. The exciting story of the company and the people is told in this book.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
This fact-packed volume chronicles the colorful 319-year history of the Hudson's Bay Company whose mercantile empire at one time extended from the Arctic Sea to Hawaii. With verve and seeming omniscience, Newman ( Company of Adventurers ) tells outsize tales of the remarkable characters who manned the lonely outposts, Montreal mansions and London boardrooms of the HBC. He writes of the adventurers who explored the wilderness for the company; the internecine wars of fur traders; the establishment of forts and settlements; the parliamentary squabbles and backroom deals manipulated by HBC to retain its monopoly; and the present-day department-store chain, The Bay. Historical illustrations and National Geographic photographer Fleming's documentary shots decorate this sprawling, exciting, illuminating story.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent history of how the HBC shaped Canada into a country,
By Windwolfess (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Empire of the Bay: An Illustrated History of the Hudson's Bay Company (Hardcover)
I have read all three of Newman's Hudson's Bay Trilogy, and enjoyed all three. This, the first volume, has the best illustrations but is more of a summary overview of the other two books. I do not know the history of how the three were written, but this first book seems like it was originally intended to be a coffee table book on the HBC. It has nowhere the depth that the other two have. If you want an overview of how the HBC began and how its actions and its competition with the Northwest Company shaped much of the essence of modern Canada, read this volume. If you want to read a truly extraordinary book, read the second volume entitled "Caesars of the Wilderness", which focuses on the fur trade period of the HBC's history. I gave this latter volume as a Christmas present to my mother's companion of 27 years who was dying of lung cancer. It kept him company in the weeks leading up to his death.
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