Empire of the Bay: The Company of Adventurers That Seized a Continent

Hudson's Bay Company is quite simply the most successful commercial enterprise ever known to capitalism. Imagine a company that controlled one twelfth of the earth's surface, whose domain was 10 times larger than the Holy Roman Empire, a company whose beginnings date from 1682, that developed its own Army, its own Navy and whose stock is still reputed to be owned by Britain's Royal Family. In the forward, the author claims this book is about the impact of Hudson's Bay Company on the development Canada over the past three centuries. But it is really not. The author is being too modest. It is really about the impact of Hudson's Bay Company on the development of North America and how HBC actually was responsible for the formation of Canada and the United States as we know them today. Everything you read in this book is the result of the primary economic force of its time, fur. The fur business was the primary employer for the inhabitants of eighteenth century North America. As such, it was the primary driver for the continuing exploration of the North American continent. This then is not just a book about corporate wealth accumulation but of territorial exploration and definition, of competing, overlapping claims at a time in which there simply was no law. HBC was the fur business in Canada and in a very real sense it was HBC that defined the northern territorial limits of the United States. Read and enjoy this excellently written and well documented book. It is really a treasure. You will learn the amazing history of Canada and an incredible amount about the United States as well.

This is a splendid account of the three hundred and fifty year institution that is Hudson's Bay Company, and even incorporates a number of chapters that chronicle its great rival, the North West Company. Newman traces the origins of the Hudson's Bay Company back to those great explorers Raddison and Groseilliers, Frenchmen sponsored by the English, and then traces it through the many eras of economic and geographic expansion. This was a company that dealt primarily in furs, and as such, Newman begins by paying homage to the Canadian beaver. (If you want to learn a lot of fascinating things about beavers, this is the book for you). The great explorers of Canada's arctic and Western frontiers, Kelsey, Hearne and Fraser, are suitably honored, and the company's great arch-enemy, John Jacob Astor, is suitably reviled. Newman doesn't shy away from pointing out that the HBC was a rather cheap enterprise that kept its best people chronicly underpaid, and occasionally lapses into fond remembrance of the comparatively hedonistic - but less successful - Northwest Company. Ultimately, however, he pays tribute to the long-term impact of the HBC on Canadian culture and values; thrift, modesty, a preference for the collective over the needs of the individual. A masterpiece of narrative history.

This book actually goes far beyond the Hudson Bay Company to tell the history of Western Canada. The real greatness of this book the way the author takes a topic and makes it come alive. For example, when it comes time to discuss pemmicam, the food used by the voyageurs, you get a mini-history of buffalo and how each part of the body is used. These lengthy digressions take away some of the chronological flow of the book, but they are well worth it. If you like to know what it was really like to live in a different place at a different time, this is the book for you.

Newman escapes the traditional trap of history authors, making this book packed with facts and a lively, entertaining read at the same time. Anyone interested in HBC or Canada should read this book, as well as anyone interested in exploration, commercial development or Indian-European relationships. Many of the stories and anecdotes contained here are funny, sad or out-and-out tragic, and anyone familiar with today's corporate world will be amazed at how little things have really changed.

I have waited years for these to be re-issued. This is a collection of two of the author's previous books on the HBC (Hudson's Bay Company): Company of Adventurers and Caesars of the Wilderness. It takes its title from yet another of his books, an illustrated, large format volume published several years ago. This is history told in an enthusiastic, romantic style (as opposed to a fussy, dry, academic one) so the reader is greeted not with sociological studies and boring statistics, but with tales of adventurers and Indians, French trappers tramping through northern forests, crusty Scottish traders manning lonely outposts, and of course scheming English financiers in London. I could go on. The focus is on personalities and characters. This is the way history SHOULD be written. The author shows how the settling of North America was in large part accomplished through the activities of the HBC. It is a story generally ignored by most history books (especially American ones). To my knowledge the author is the only one currently writing about the HBC. I highly recommend this book.