After the French landed in Quebec in 1608, independent French-Canadian traders commonly known as coureurs des bois spread out and built a fur trade empire in the St. Lawrence basin.

[3] In the winter of 1783–1784, the North West Company was officially created on a long-term basis, with its corporate offices on Vaudreuil Street in Montreal.

It was led by businessmen Benjamin Frobisher, his brother, Joseph, and McTavish, along with investor-partners who included the Ellices, Robert Grant, Nicholas Montour, Patrick Small, William Holmes, and George McBeath.

The wintering partners and the Montreal agents met each July at the company's depot at Grand Portage on Lake Superior, later moved to Fort William.

These men pushed into the wilderness territories of the Rocky Mountains and Interior Plateau and all the way to the Strait of Georgia on the Pacific Coast.

At the time the company consisted of 23 partners, but "its staff of Agents, factors, clerks, guides, interpreters, more commonly known today as voyageurs amounted to 2000 people.

While the organization and capitalization of the North West Company came from Anglo-Quebecers, both Simon McTavish and Joseph Frobisher married French Canadians.

For several years, they tried to sell furs directly to China, using American ships to avoid the British East India Company's monopoly, but little profit was made there.

The company also expanded into the United States' Northwest Territory (today's Midwest of Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Wisconsin).

In 1796, to better position themselves in the increasingly global market, where politics played a major role, the North West Company briefly established an agency in New York City.

In September 1803, the overland party met at Charlton Island, in what is now Nunavut Territory, the Eddystone, a ship that Fraser acquired.

At Charlton Island, they laid claim to the region inhabited by the Inuit, in the name of the North West Company, and were able to capitalize on the rich furs of the area.

Simon McTavish was an aggressive businessman who understood that powerful forces in the business world were always ready to pounce on any weakness.

Their cause was greatly strengthened in 1799, when the North West Company's hero explorer, Alexander Mackenzie, quit his old partnership and soon after joined them.

Cargo ships owned by the North West Company conveniently sailed under the American flag, and doing so meant continued collaboration with John Jacob Astor.

An intense rivalry soon developed between him and William McGillivray over the Oriental market and westerly expansion to unclaimed territory in what is now the Columbia River basin, in the present-day states of Washington and Oregon.

A collapse in the sea otter population and the imminent possibility of British seizure of Astoria during the War of 1812 led to its sale to the North West Company in 1813.

[11] The Canadian fur trade began to change in 1806, after Napoleon Bonaparte ordered the blockade of the Baltic Sea as part of the ongoing struggle between France and Britain for world dominance.

Britain was dependent for almost all of her timber on the Baltic countries and on the U.S. states of New Hampshire and Massachusetts (which at that time included the large territory of Maine).

Britain became totally dependent on her Canadian colony for her timber needs, especially the great white pine used for ships' masts.

In an economy short of ready money, fur was routinely used by Canadian merchants to remit value to their London creditors.

In addition, the company was hurt by the refusal after the war with the United States to let Canadian traders freely cross its northern border.

The Pemmican Proclamation, the ensuing Battle of Seven Oaks in 1816, and its violence, resulted in Lord Selkirk arresting William McGillivray and several North West Company proprietors.

Although this matter was resolved by the authorities in Montreal, over the next few years some of the wealthiest and most capable partners began to leave the North West Company, fearful of its future viability.

The form of nepotism within the company too had changed, from the strict values of Simon McTavish to something that was harming the business in both its costs and morale of others.

When the competition between both companies came to an end, new board of directors wanted two field governors to oversee the newly defined territory, and George Simpson was appointed to the Northern Department.

[15] George Simpson (1787–1860), the Hudson's Bay Company Governor-in-Chief of Rupert's Land, who became the Canadian head of the northern division of the greatly enlarged business, made his headquarters in the Montreal suburb of Lachine.

The masters or the bourgeois of the North West Company were most often of Scottish descent, whether born in Canada or Scotland, and brought capital to the enterprise.

They were responsible for hiring staff, exporting furs, acquiring supplies, merchandise and provisions, and organizing their shipment to the inland trading posts.

[19] Beyond the non-operating investors, these were some of the post proprietors, clerks, interpreters, explorers and others of the nearly 2,500 persons employed by the North West Company in 1799:[20] The history of the partnership is complex, but it is necessary to keep track of who was competing with whom.