The Fur trade was later developed into the Hudsons Bay Company. The Hudson's Bay Company is the one of the oldest merchandising company in the English speaking world, and played a profound role in the development of Canada. The Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company were the two major fur trading enterprises to open up the wilderness that later become the country of Canada.
At first, fur was not the most important thing that was traded. Then, around the year 1600, something happened: hats made from beaver felt became very fashionable. Everybody wanted one! At the same time, beavers were becoming extinct in Europe.
When a group of merchants from St. Malo, France, heard about the supply of beaver in North America, they sent an expedition to the St. Lawrence River. There they met First Nations people, who arrived by canoe. They brought furs, which they eagerly traded for tools such as knives and iron pots.
Meanwhile, explorers continued to look for the Northwest Passage. In 1576 Martin Frobisher sailed on the first of his three voyages. John Davis continued the search, and Henry Hudson discovered the bay that was named after him.
These men and others began mapping the land and the waterways. This would become important for both the fur trade and the exploration and settlement of Canada
The Russians were the masters of the fur trade until the European beaver went extinct. It was also part of the reason they pushed their empire east - to look for more furs! When they reached the Pacific Ocean, they began to hunt in Alaska. There they tried to stop other nations from trading furs freely. The British and the Americans, though, had more powerful navies and forced the Russians to back down!
The four major "things" brought to the Americas expanding into Canada by early Europeans were disease, alcohol, horses and firearms. Of these three, disease and alcohol had the most devastating affects. The small pox outbreak of 1781-1782 killed over half of the Plains Indians, and the one in 1837 was as bad or worse. Whiskey turned a great many proud, self-reliant Indians into drunken beggars willing to trade anything they had for more of the white man's liquor. The early trade guns were inaccurate and of poor quality; few Indians could repair even minor problems associated with them. It is my feeling that the value of guns to Indians, has been blown all out of proportion. They really didn't hae much value for them. Of all the things that Europeans brought to America, horses had the biggest impact on the Plains Indian culture. In a sense it is ironic that the Indian horse spread across the Plains to the Canadian Indians and along the Rocky Mountains to the North West Indians through Indian to Indian trade, and that, horses were the one thing Indians could produce and trade to the fur traders.
Explorers
During the 1600s, colonization began in Canada. France established a colony along the St.Lawrence River: particularly current day Montreal. It was carried on mainly by the French and Dutch who used the St. Lawrence, Mississippi and Hudson Rivers to penetrate inland. In over a period of 15 years, 4,000 settlers recruited exclusively from among the French Catholic population in France, marginalized people in France, Fille de Rois, Corrieur du bois, and slaves.
Many believe that fishermen and other travelers reached the coast of North America long before Columbus, looking for fish. They may have also traded furs. If so, they kept it a secret so nobody else could profit from their discovery. The fur trade between Europeans and Aboriginals may even have begun before the year 1400 - 100 years before Columbus reached America!
From America to Canada 
Geography
Companies
Transportation
Aboriginal Perspective
