A Brief History Of The Fur Trade Part 2

 This post first appeared on March 10, 2021

 The 17th Century and The Opening of the North American Fur Trade

The Fur Trade in North America:   Fortunately, although perhaps not for the  American beaver, the depletion of European  beaver  populations coincided with the  establishment of European colonies in North  America.  England,  France, and the Netherlands  had all established  North American colonies by  the early-to-mid 17^th  century.  Although beaver populations could be found all  over North America,  beaver in the northern parts of  the continent contained the fuller coats that were more desirable in the fur trade.  As a result, French Canada, British holdings in the Hudson Bay, and the Dutch New Netherlands (later, the English colony of New York) played key roles in establishing the North American fur trade. Because there were no physical differences between the north American beaver (Castor canadensis) and the European beaver (Castor fiber), the American beaver was an easy substitute for the near-extinct European beaver. 

In North America, French, Dutch, and English, all found ways of working with Native Americans to expand their access to beaver sources.  Both the superior ecological familiarity, and well-developed hunting and trapping skill sets of native hunters were essential to providing a steady supply of beaver from North America. Within the colony itself, trade functioned as both an economic exchange and a means of establishing alliances between Europeans and their Native American neighbors.

The exchange of goods inhabited a realm that tied two cultures together economically, symbolically and politically.  An open market for European goods in the colonies, and the supply of raw material from the colonies to Europe, helped drive the colonial economy.  The introduction of steel tools and gun powder weaponry transformed indigenous American society.  The Europeans, on the other hand, heavily relied upon their Native American neighbors for access to American resources, such as the beaver.  


Along with textiles, cooking pots, and guns, the European item that proved to be most influential on indigenous populations was the spread of their diseases.  Bacterial isolation from the Eurasian continent rendered Native Americans' immune systems defenseless to common Europeans diseases such as small pox and chicken pox, the bubonic plague, influenza, malaria, diphtheria, as well as venereal diseases. The spread of disease precipitated the Great Dying and decimated indigenous populations across North and South America.

The political alliances and economic forces that resulted from this trade proved to have lasting environmental and social impacts on the land and peoples of North America.  Competition for access to beaver lead to warfare between nations, such as in the case of the Iroquois defeat of the Huron in 1649.  Similarly, indigenous-European alliances entangled native American populations in a number European affairs and conflicts, including Leisler's Rebellion, the Seven Years War (French and Indian War), and the American Revolution.

To be continued...

Feinstein, Kelly. Fashionable Felted Fur: The Beaver Hat in 17th Century English Society. 

A Brief History of the Fur Trade Part 1

 This post first appeared on March 6, 2021

The Role of Beaver in the European Fur Trade

Prized for their warmth, luxurious  texture, and  the  longevity of fur as a material, furs have played a large role  in clothing people since the beginning of  human  history.  For everyday use or costume and decoration, furs  have been used for the  production of outterware such as  coats and cape, garment and shoe lining, a variety of head  coverings, and ornamental trim and trappings. 

European and Asian trade in felts and fur stretched back centuries, if not millennium.  Depending on the supply of animals, Russian, Northern Scandinavia, and Central Asia were the major supplies of this trade through the 15^th  century. Furs were supplied to the Mediterranean and Middle East through Constantinople.  This trade can be traced back to the Classical Greek and Roman periods, and through to the modern era.  In the ninth and tenth centuries, Scandinavian and Viking Rus traders traded to Northern and central Europe a variety of furs including: marten, reindeer, bear, otter, sable, ermine, black and white fox, and beaver.^[1]  There was a substantial population of the European Beaver throughout northern Europe and Siberia, until they became severely depleted in the 17^th century due to over-hunting.  

From fur pelts three primary materials used in clothing production can be derived:  the full pelt (fur and skin), leather or suede (the skin with all fur removed, and felts (removing the fur  from the pelt, and processing it with heat and pressure to  form a piece of pliable material).  Due to the strength and  malleable quality of felts, they were used extensively in hat making.  The physical structure of beaver fur predisposes it to the felting process, making it a highly desirable fur for felt production. Wool felting was known "as early as Homer and as late as Caesar, felt was used for cheap protection against arrows and as padding under heavy metal armour."^[2] It has been suggested that it was in Constantinople that wool felting techniques were first applied to beaver fur.^[3]  From there, knowledge of felting spread north, to Russia, along trade routes.  J. F. Crean suggests that wool felting likely spread to western Europe after the sack of Kiev by the Tarters in 1240, when artisans fled west.  However, beaver felting  techniques did not diffuse westward, and the beaver felting industry  remained centralized in Russia until the late 17^th century. With a monopoly on both supply and industry, the Russians developed and refined techniques for processing beaver fur.  Essential to the felting process was a step known as combing, which separated the beaver's guard hairs from the downy under wool that was desired for felts.  The careful guarding of this trade secret helped to maintain the Russian  monopoly. 

Beaver pelts could be made into either full-fur or felted-fur  hats. Evidence of felted beaver hats in western Europe can be  found in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, written in the late 14^th  century: "A MERCHANT was there with a forked beard / In motley, and high on his horse he sat, / Upon his head a Flandrish beaver hat."^[4]  Beaver hats were imported into England from Holland and Spain until the 15^th century, after which England was able to obtain beaver felts from Russia, via Holland, and manufacture the actual hats within the British Isles.

Nonetheless, George Stubbes reported in his Anatomie of  Abuses that beaver hats were sold at 40 shillings a piece  and were "fetched from beyond the sea,"^[5]  indicating that the British industry was not, or was not able, to  completely control the domestic market.

Unfortunately, due to population depletion of the European beaver, by 1600 nearly all exports of beaver fur and felts from Russia stopped.

To be continued...

Feinstein, Kelly. Fashionable Felted Fur: The Beaver Hat in 17th Century English Society.