Ottawa History Hub
This podcast looks at the history of the city of Ottawa Ontario, since the last ice age to modern day! Visit our website at ottawahistoryhub.com.
Ottawa History Hub
The Fur Trade Continues
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The episode examines the fur trade’s continued role in the early 19th‑century Ottawa Valley. Though dominated by lumber, the region still relied on furs as a seasonal income source for settlers and Indigenous hunters. After the fall of New France, the Hudson Bay Company held a monopoly, challenged by the North West Company until their forced 1821 merger. Bytown’s rise during the Rideau Canal project created a new hub for independent and Indigenous traders. American traders, bringing cash and alcohol, further weakened HBC influence. By the 1830s–40s, Bytown had become a competitive centre for small‑scale fur trading, sustaining local economic diversity.