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America, by reason only of its power to
exclude competitors.

This was the famous North West Com-
pany. Its position was never unchallenged;
to the Hudson’s Bay Company it was an
intruder in territories to which it had no
claim, and powerful rival companies from
Canada more than once entered the field
against it. Though the powers it assumed
were often grossly abused, it nevertheless
proved itself to be one of the most remarkable
commercial organizations in the history of the
British Empire. Operating’ in an area as
large as western Europe, made up to-day of
north-western Ontario, the prairie provinces,
the North-West Territories, and a great sec-
tion of the United States, with the addition
later on of British Columbia, it pushed stead-
ily forward into new regions, and stocked the
fur-markets of Europe, America, and China
with supplies carried to tide-water for thou-
sands of miles in canoes and on men’s backs.
The rivers were its highways, the canoe was
its means of transport. It was organized like
an army; the French-Canadian voyageurs

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