Pedlar is a term used in Canadian history to refer to English-speaking independent fur traders from Montreal who competed with the Hudson's Bay Company in western Canada from about 1770 to 1803.
The name was first used by the Hudson's Bay Company to refer to French coureurs des bois, who travelled inland to trade with the Indians in their villages and camps.
This was in contrast to the HBC policy of building posts on Hudson Bay, to where the Indians would bring furs to trade with them.
The pedlars were important for three reasons: they helped transfer woodland skills from French-Canadians to the English-speakers who dominated the trade in the nineteenth century.
Although English and Scots men had the capital to become traders for the HBC, most of the voyageurs, guides, and interpreters were French-Canadian or Métis people.
By the time the Canadian trade approached the Rocky Mountains, most pedlars had been absorbed into the North West Company.
After the British conquest of New France, the Royal Proclamation of 1763 attempted to regulate the fur trade, but there was no practical way to control the western traders.
In 1774 Samuel Hearne built Cumberland House, Saskatchewan, the "first" interior post of the Hudson's Bay Company.
In the spring of 1775 Primeau and Joseph Frobisher went north from Cumberland Lake to Frog Portage, where they intercepted a large number of furs destined for Hudson Bay.