132, Sir ALEXANDER MACKENZIE

his way, of all of which he does not seem to
have been aware in 1794. In the first place
there were three commercial monopolies of
long standing, granted by the British govern-
ment to chartered companies. The Hudson’s
Bay Company, however indolently it pro-
tected its rights, possessed by its charter
exclusive powers of trade and government
not merely on the Bay itself, but over all the
enormous territory which drained into the
Bay, an area extending west to the Rockies
and south far into what is now the United
States. Though it could not prevent com-
petition in the interior, it could and did con-
fine to its own servants the use of the shores
of the Bay. The second monopoly was that
of the East India Company; by charter it
possessed the exclusive right of British trade
in China. It may seem strange that this
right hindered the development of the far
West, yet that was the case. China absorbed
each year a large quantity of the finest furs,
and for furs from the Pacific coast Canton
was the nearest and best market. But the
trade of British subjects to Canton was wholly