The lack of demand for furs in Europe was impacting on the fur trade. However a more fundamental factor in the decline of the industry was the fact that the new demands were being made on the vast Hudson's Bay Company land. The area that then constituted Canada (present day Southern Ontario and Southern Quebec) was quickly being settled. The appeal to settle the virtually empty Northwest grew. In 1857 a Gold Rush on the Thompson river drew tens of thousands of fortune seekers to central British Columbia, and led to the establishment of a select committee of the British House of Commons to assess how Hudson's Bay Company land was being used; they recommended that the land be opened for settlement. The Gladman, Palliser and Hines expeditions were sent out to report on the export potential of the area. Vancouver Island and British Columbia were made crown colonies. The Hudson's Bay Company's exclusive trade license was not renewed, though the Company maintained its chartered rights until the liquidation was negotiated.

George Simpson died in 1860 and in the same year negotiations for the transfer of the Hudson's Bay Company land to Canada began. The negotiations took ten years; the transfer was completed in 1870. It was during this period of time that the Metis took a stand. Louis Riel formed a Provisio government that claimed ownership of most of the territory of current day Manitoba as the lands of the Metis Nation. This totally legal Provisio government was not recognized by Canada and a rebellion in the Northwest occurred. Canada finally received title to the vast Hudson's Bay Company land which became its Northwest Territories.

Thus was the fur trade in Canada, between two rival companies working from much different perspectives and plans. The Hudson's Bay Company imported their bulk of their labour from Britain, forcing the men to terms of 7 to 9 years in the new land. While the Metis NorthWest Company employed the new world people of the Metis Nation. The English Hudson's Bay Company tried desperately to restrict their men from associating with the Indians (especially the women); however, this was later encouraged so the men would be happy in the new world. The English cohabitated around the forts with Indian women: who were called Country Wives and in most instances these men abandoned their country family when their tenure in the new world was up and they returned to Britain. These mixed blood families were quickly adopted into the Metis communities. The Metis on the other hand had established their lives in the new world and began to form communities throughout the Northwest travelling to Ontario and Quebec with their furs in the spring runs and returning to their Metis communities in the fall.

The Hudson's Bay Company survived the fall in the fur trade by transforming itself into a retail store, offering its goods to settlers for money instead of to the Indians for furs, and by selling its extensive land holdings. On the Canadian Shield and in the Arctic the fur trade continued, gradually evolving into the modern day trapping industry. But the focus had shifted; the Northwest was no longer the land of the fur trade. The coming of the NorthWest Mounted Police in 1874, treaties with the Cree in 1876 and Blackfoot in 1877, the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1885, and the flood of homesteaders and settlers from 1891 to 1914 transformed the landscape completely and the new nation of Canada was born

Of interest is the    Beaver ... Exploring Canada's History : an historical magazine published for Hudson's Bay employees and an archive of Canadian history.

On to the Metis involvement