Trading Beyond the Mountains: The British Fur Trade on the Pacific 1793-1843 [Paperback]

Richard Somerset MacKie (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1997

During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the North West and Hudson’s Bay companies extended their operations beyond the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. There they encountered a mild and forgiving climate and abundant natural resources and, with the aid of Native traders, branched out into farming, fishing, logging, and mining. Following its merger with the North West Company in 1821, the Hudson’s Bay Company set up its headquarters at Fort Vancouver on the lower Columbia River. From there, the company dominated much of the non-Native economy, sending out goods to markets in Hawaii, Sitka, and San Francisco. Trading Beyond the Mountains looks at the years of exploration between 1793 and 1843 leading to the commercial development of the Pacific coast and the Cordilleran interior of western North America. Mackie examines the first stages of economic diversification in this fur trade region and its transformation into a dynamic and distinctive regional economy. He also documents the Hudson’s Bay Company’s employment of Native slaves and labourers in the North West coast region.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Richard Mackie is a freelance historian and lecturer who lives in Courtenay, British Columbia. He is the author of The Wilderness Profound: Victorian Life on the Gulf of Georgia (1995).

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Univ of British Columbia Pr (April 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0774806133
• ISBN-13: 978-0774806138
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,775,934 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well Researched, Well Documented,, and Well Written, October 24, 2010

By 

Duke Smith (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Trading Beyond the Mountains: The British Fur Trade on the Pacific 1793-1843 (Paperback)

An excellent resource for the HBC in the Pacific Northwest. In responding to the first review, Mackie's book focuses on years 1793-1843. His is a history book about what happened during that time frame. Environmental historians are more likely to take their histories to the present, but this book is not about environmental history. Another respected scholarly work on the HBC is James R. Gibson's Farming the Frontier: The Agricultural Opening of the Oregon Country 1786- 1846. His work sticks to the time period also, and, like Mackie, Gibson gives credit to Simpson for the thrust of HBC's role in the Pacific Northwest. Simpson was a brilliant manager, and both of these historians have recognized it.

6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The HBC on the Pacific, 1821-1843., November 16, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Trading Beyond the Mountains: The British Fur Trade on the Pacific 1793-1843 (Paperback)

This scholarly history of the Hudsons' Bay Company focuses on the company in the years 1821-1843, immediately after its merger with the North West Company. Richard Mackie's thorough research attends closely to journals and correspondence of HBC employees. George Simpson, appointed Governor of the Columbia division by the company's London-based directors, is featured. Simpson was a prototype for the CEOs we now take for granted: ruthless, arrogant, at times heartless, he rationalized company operations, reduced labor costs, developed new products and markets, closed unprofitable divisions, and so on. Mackie takes a benign, at times almost adoring, view of Simpson's actions. The book becomes a paean to the "great men" of the HBC. It is more about Simpson and his fellows than about "the fur trade." The book is diligently researched, and noteworthy for Eric Leinberger's splendid cartography. It is written in clear, straightforward prose. Lacking from the book -- and here's where it loses marks for me -- is any reflection on what the HBC's actions during the early part of the nineteenth century mean now, at the end of the twentieth century. Also missing is any sustained attention to how the HBC's expansion in this area affected the Native populations. This is capital "H" history. Trading Beyond the Mountains will appeal to those interested in "Canada's first corporate merger."