Canada Vignettes - Trading Post

[BrassSnacks]

Exploitative?!? The average return on the HBC's investment was 2%! Most years they didn't even make a profit. The HBC was selling luxury goods that were nice but not needed, the natives sold food and furs which kept company men alive and in business. This is insulting not only to the HBC but to the natives to imply that they were incapable of negotiating good trade (which they did). Do you know how much it costs to send luxury goods halfway across the world paying/feeding all men involved?

[deino117]

What good stuff the NFB has done over the years. I suppose our current a-hole guvmint, who no doubt would like to sell off the NFB if they could, would see that last statement about remembering who drove our economy for 200 years as "politically biased." Likewise the word "exploiters."

[ROCKYBLUEDOGS]

BAN THE FUR TRADE.

[shitbasterd]

@ROCKYBLUEDOGS The fur trade is dead. Furbearing animals are in abundance & now the species that they feed on ie: upland game birds, burrowing owls etc are threatened. An ecosystem had found balance with humans being a part of it. We changed our behaviour to protect furberaing animals, now the next species suffers but they are not as cute or symbolic as furbeareres so there are no activists stepping up to protect them. I really wish people would think about the consequences of their actions.

[thexxit]

@shitbasterd You really do live under a rock if you think the fur trade is dead. It may have changed, but it certainly not dead. The world's ecosystem survived a long time before "people" got here, it will do the same without our needing to step in and kill. Do you realize how many "cute" fur-bearing animals are extinct or near extinction because of the direct action of humans? Now what other relatively recent animal species is in jeopardy not because of human interference?

[shitbasterd]

@thexxit I think you missed the point, & no I don't live under a rock, I have live in western Canada mostly in the outdoors. Over the past 30 years I have watched the fur protests change not only the lifestyles of a lot of Canadians but also the ecosystem. The key was conservation management, not slowing the fur trade to what it is now. The result is too many fur bearing predators killing off rabbits, upland game etc. to a fraction of what they were. Whats the solution for that?

[ericjaydolin]

Great video! If you are interested in the fur trade, you will probably like FUR, FORTUNE, AND EMPIRE: THE EPIC HISTORY OF THE FUR TRADE IN AMERICA (W. W. NORTON, JULY 2010). To see a book trailer for this book, search fur trade history on youtube, or search the title. The book is available in bookstores, online and in stores.

[BrassSnacks]

@ericjaydolin

That's about the American fur trade, not the British (or French Canadian). Completely different worlds.

[iorixs]

the traders were exploited too, even those who accumulated all the wealth were exploited because "you can't take it with you, no matter what you do" all that you have on your dying hour is the record of your deeds. all of humanity is sucked down into the quagmire of satanic mutual degradation. pointing fingers just contributes to this. how many europeans were slaughtered in ww2 probly about as many as indians were murdered

[PurpleRainDrops5]

Epic win.

[neonight]

"perhaps.. we should remember." Cryptic, but powerful.

[Trund27]

@neonight Totally.