The maritime fur trade (historically called the North West trade), a ship-based fur trade system, focused largely on acquiring furs of sea otters and other animals from the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast and Alaska Natives. Entrepreneurs also exploited fur-bearing skins from the wider Pacific and the Southern Ocean. The trade mostly serviced the market in Qing China, which imported furs and exported tea, silks, porcelain, and other Chinese goods to Europe and the United States.
The trade was pioneered by the Russians. Through the Siberian fur trade, they reached the Pacific in the 17th century, then moved eastward, reaching the Alaska Peninsula by the 1760s. The Spanish began trading in 1774, the British in 1778, and the Americans in 1788. Russians controlled the Alaskan coast during this era. The coast further south saw fierce competition between British and American traders. The British were the first to operate in the southern sector, but the Americans dominated from the 1790s to the 1830s. Once the British Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) entered the trade in the 1820s, they outcompeted the Americans by about 1840. Thereafter, the HBC and the Russian-American Company (RAC) dominated operations. The trade in fur-seal skins from the Southern Ocean peaked in the 1810s and was unprofitable due to overexploitation by 1863.
The trade linked the Pacific Northwest coast to China, Hawaii, Britain, and the United States. A rapid increase of wealth occurred among the indigenous population, along with increased warfare, potlatching, slaving, and depopulation due to epidemic disease. The importance of totems and traditional nobility crests increased, and the Chinook Jargon was developed. In the Southern Hemisphere, expeditions of sealers led Europeans to settle in the previously ignored Tasmania and New Zealand. Profits from the trade helped revitalize New England through industrial development, especially textile manufacturing, which contributed to its transformation from an agrarian to an industrial society.
The most profitable furs came from sea otter pelts, which were fashionable in China, Europe and America. Aleut hunters supplied Russians sea-otter skins as tribute or ransom.Arthur Woodward. "Sea Otter Hunting on the Pacific Coast". Publ. University of California Press on behalf of the Historical Society of Southern California. The Quarterly: Historical Society of Southern California, Vol. 20, No. 3 (September, 1938).P.120 Despite an estimated population of 150,000-300,000 and a range from Japan to Mexico in the pre-trade years, sea otters' slow breeding made them vulnerable to excessive hunting,Arthur Woodward. Sea Otter Hunting on the Pacific Coast. Publ. University of California Press on behalf of the Historical Society of Southern California. The Quarterly: Historical Society of Southern California, Vol. 20, No. 3 (SEPTEMBER,1938).P.129 which almost caused their extinction. The sea otter remains endangered today.
While Russians focused on sea otter pelts, societies from eastern North America gradually moved their largely beaver-based fur-harvesting enterprises further westward. From 1792 onwards, the beaver trade began to tap into the Chinese market in addition to their Atlantic markets. The fur trade's killing of beavers proved devastating. Populations took centuries to recover in some areas, while others never recovered. Ecosystems that relied on beavers for dams, water and other vital needs faced ecological destruction, environmental change, and drought. This affected many species living in the Pacific Northwest, including otters, fish, and bears.Riparian Research and Management, Chapter 7. Euro-American Beaver Trapping and Its long-term Impact on Drainage Network Form and Function, Water Abundance, Delivery, and System Stability via U. S. Department of Agriculture
Origins
The Pacific Northwest was one of the last significant nonpolar regions in the world to be explored by Europeans. Centuries of reconnaissance and conquest had brought the rest of North America within the claims of imperial powers. During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, a number of empires and commercial systems converged upon the Northwest Coast, by sea as well as by land across the continent. The Russian and Spanish empires were extended into the region simultaneously, from opposite directions. Russian fur companies expanded into North America along the Aleutian Islands, reaching the Fox Islands and the Alaska Peninsula in the early 1760s. Stepan Glotov encountered Kodiak Island in 1763. In 1768, an expedition was carried out by the Russian Navy, under Pyotr Krenitsyn and Mikhail Levashev. Two ships sailed from Kamchatka to the Alaska Peninsula for the purpose of assessing the existing Russian activity and the possibilities of future development.Haycox, pp. 58–62 Reports about the voyage, meant to be kept secret, spread through Europe and caused alarm in Spain. The Spanish government, already concerned about Russian activity in Alaska, decided to colonize Alta California and sent exploratory voyages to Alaska to assess the threat and strengthen Spanish claims of sovereignty on the coast north of Mexico.
The province of Alta California was established by José de Gálvez in 1769, just as the Krenitsyn-Levashev expedition was concluding. Five separate expeditions were dispatched to Alta California in 1769. By 1782, presidios had been established at San Diego, Monterey, San Francisco and Santa Barbara, linked by a series of mission stations along the coast. Spanish exploration voyages to the far north were launched in 1774, 1775, and 1779. In 1784, the center of Russian activity shifted east to Kodiak Island and hunting operations were extended into Cook Inlet. The two empires seemed destined to clash, but before direct Russian-Spanish contact was made new powers appeared on the Northwest Coast—Britain and the United States. When the clash came, at Nootka Sound in 1789, it was not between Spain and Russia but between Spain and Britain. The British first reached the region by sea in 1778, during James Cook's third voyage, and by land in 1793, when Alexander Mackenzie's transcontinental explorations reached the Pacific. The first British maritime fur trader, James Hanna, arrived on the Northwest Coast in 1785. The first American traders, John Kendrick and Robert Gray, arrived by sea in 1788.Laut, pp. 55–58 The Lewis and Clark Expedition arrived overland in 1805.Lewis and Clark Timeline 1805 , LewisAndClarkTrail.com
The early maritime fur traders were explorers, as well as traders. The Northwest Coast is very complex — a "labyrinth of waters", according to George Simpson— with thousands of islands, numerous straits and fjords, and a mountainous, rocky, and often very steep shoreline. Navigational hazards included persistent rain, high winds, thick fogs, strong currents, and tides, and hidden rocks. Wind patterns were often contrary, variable, and baffling, especially within the coastal straits and archipelagoes, which makes sailing dangerous. Early explorations before the maritime fur trade era—by Juan Pérez, Bruno de Heceta, Bogeda y Quadra, and James Cook—produced only rough surveys of the coast's general features. Detailed surveys were undertaken in only a few relatively small areas, such as Nootka Sound, Bucareli Bay, and Cook Inlet.Hayes (1999), pp. 35–45 Russian exploration before 1785 had produced mainly rough surveys, largely restricted to the Aleutian Islands and mainland Alaska west of Cape Saint Elias.Hayes (1999), pp. 29–32, 52–53, 63, 66 British and American maritime fur traders began visiting the Northwest Coast in 1785, at which time it was mostly unexplored. Although noncommercial exploration voyages continued, especially by the Spanish Navy,Hayes (1999), pp. 67–81 the maritime fur traders made a number of significant discoveries. Notable examples include the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Clayoquot Sound, and Barkley Sound, all found by Charles William Barkley, Queen Charlotte Strait by James Strange, Fitz Hugh Sound by James Hanna, Grays Harbor and the Columbia River by Robert Gray. George Dixon explored the Dixon Entrance and was the first to realize that Haida Gwaii was not part of the mainland.Hayes (1999), pp. 55–58, 62, 82
Russia
Russian maritime fur trading in the northern Pacific began after the exploration voyages of Vitus Bering and Aleksei Chirikov in 1741 and 1742. Their voyages demonstrated that Asia and North America were not connected but that sea voyages were feasible, and that the region was rich in furs. Private fur traders, mostly promyshlenniki, launched fur trading expeditions from Kamchatka, at first focusing on nearby islands such as the Commander Islands. Unlike fur trading ventures in Siberia, these maritime expeditions required more capital than most promyshlenniki could obtain. Merchants from cities such as Irkutsk, Tobolsk, and others in European Russia, became the principal investors.
An early trader, Emilian Basov, traded at Bering Island in 1743, collecting a large number of sea otter, fur seal, and blue Arctic fox furs. Basov made four trips to Bering Island and nearby Medny Island and made a fortune, inspiring many other traders. From 1743 to the founding of the Russian-American Company in 1799, over 100 private fur-trading and hunting voyages sailed from Kamchatka to North America. In total, these voyages garnered over eight million silver rubles. During the early part of this era, the ships would typically stop at the Commander Islands to slaughter and preserve the meat of Steller's sea cows, a defenseless sea mammal whose range was limited to those islands. They were hunted not only for food, but also for their skins, used to make boats, and their subcutaneous fat, used for oil lamps. By 1768, Steller's sea cow was extinct. As furs were depleted on nearby islands, Russian traders sailed farther east along the Aleutian chain. By the 1760s, they were regularly sailing to Kodiak Island. Notable Russian traders in the early years of the trade include Nikifor Trapeznikov (who financed and participated in 10 voyages between 1743 and 1768), Maksimovich Solov'ev, Stepan Glotov, and Grigory Shelikhov.Oleksa, pp. 84–89
As traders sailed farther east, the voyages became longer and more expensive. Smaller enterprises were merged into larger ones. During the 1780s, Grigory Shelikhov began to stand out as one of the most important traders through the Shelikhov-Golikov Company. In 1784, Shelikhov founded the first permanent Russian settlement in North America, at Three Saints Bay on Kodiak Island. Shelikhov envisioned a continual extension of the Russian maritime fur trade, with trading posts being set up farther and farther along the coast all the way to California. He sought exclusive control of the trade, and in 1788 Empress Catherine II decided to grant his company a monopoly only over the area it already occupied. Other traders were free to compete elsewhere. Catherine's decision was issued as the imperial ukase (proclamation) of 28 September 1788.