Mackenzir’s Granp Desicn 133

controlled by the East India Company; and
the Company was so jealous of its privileges
that British traders on the coast were actually
forced to sail under a foreign flag, and by 1800
had been driven out by Americans, who had
to endure no such restrictions. The third
monopoly belonged to the South Sea Com-
pany. No British vessel could trade west of
Cape Horn without its permission. Every
British vessel on the coast had to pay toll to
the South Sea Company, while foreigners
were free to trade as they would.

A second set of obstacles lay in the unde-
termined sovereignty of the coast. The
boundary with the United States between
Lake Superior and the Rockies was not
drawn until 1818. Though before then the
territory of the Hudson’s Bay Company was
recognized as British, the vague terms of the
charter had to be defined, and were in fact
incompatible with the treaty of peace with
the United States of 1783. West of the
Rockies the situation was more complex.
Russia was in possession of Alaska; Spain
occupied California and for centuries had