RISE and FALL of the FRENCH FUR TRADE in NORTH AMERICA

Ever since mankind reached the lands that would become the Americas, it has engaged in one sort of trade or another. Since the dawn of time man worked in cooperation with his fellows to ensure the success and survival of the tribe. Often would an individual or a group find they had a need they could not fulfill and they would endeavor to satisfy it any way they could. If the survival of the group depended upon it they might risk all in a fight with a rival to secure the needed goods. But they learned their needs could be satisfied by trading for what they wanted. No one would die or suffer injury, and all participants would come away happy knowing they had gotten the best of each other in the new surrogate to battle: business.

The French had a way of managing colonies and their economies that caused much infighting and eventually led to the collapse of the French colonial system and fur trade in North America. While the governor tried to promote expansion, other officials often acted to counter his influence. Rarely did the government of New France act in concert with itself to reach a common goal. Because of this, business rivals outflanked the French, and in America that meant the failure of the entire colony. Though they had a leg up on the competition from the beginning, the French squandered the advantage and disappeared from the American scene.

FIRST CONTACT

With the coming of the European to the New World, trading would take on a whole new visage. For the first time, the aboriginal American would face a people who had untold riches in vast variety-and a thirst for land. The desire to exploit all they could see or dream drove the Europeans deeper into a country teeming with treasures fit for a King.

Early-on, the Spanish searched for the riches of Cibola. Later, the same greed drove French, English and Dutch onward to the interior. There they would find wealth that would cause men to lie, cheat, steal and start wars that eventually led to the downfall of colonies and the native peoples of the new land.