That He Should Not Choose To Subscribe Again
Upon The Same Terms; That He Cannot Pretend To Say Whether There Is
Such A Passage Or Not, Or Whether, If Found, It Could Be Ever Rendered
Useful To Navigation."
The merchant witnesses were in favour of throwing open the trade of
Hudson's Bay; and this Mr. Tomlinson said more ships would be sent, and
more people brought down to trade.
"This is confirmed," he said, "by
the experience of the Guinea trade, which, when confined to a company,
employed not above ten ships, and now employs 150;" and "that the case
of the Guinea trade was exactly similar (to the Hudson's Bay), where
the ships near one another, and each endeavours to get the trade; and
the more ships lie there, the higher the price of negroes."
The capital of the Hudson's Bay Company, increased by doublings and
treblings of its nominal amount, was, in 1748, 103,950l., held
by eighty-six proprietors.
The trade between London and Hudson's Bay was carried on in 1748, and
for some previous years, by four ships. The cost of the exports was in
1748 5,102l. 12s. 3d., and the value of the sales
of furs and other imports in that year amounted to 30,160l.
5s. 11dd. The "charge attending the carrying on the
Hudson's Bay trade, and maintaining their factories," in 1748, is
stated at 17,352l. 4s. 10d. The original cash
capital was 10,500l. That capital was "trebled" in 1690, making
the nominal capital 31,500l.; in August, 1720, it was proposed
to augment the cash capital, and to make the nominal total
378,000l. But at a "General Court," held on the 23rd December,
1720, it was resolved to "vacate" the subscription "by reason of the
present scarcity of moneys, and the deadness of credit." And it was
further "Resolved, that in the opinion of this Committee, that each
subscriber shall have 30l. stock for each 10l. by him
paid in," "which resolutions were agreed to by this Court." Anyhow, the
capital in 1748 is stated at 103,950l. A trade which, by sending
out about 5,000l. a year, brought back a return of
30,000l., was no doubt worth preserving; and even taking the
outlay for working and maintenance of forts and establishments, there
was over 8 per cent, on the nominal capital left, or probably 40 per
cent on all the cash actually paid in; not too great a reward for the
benefits gained by the country from this trade.
Some particulars of the regulation of exchange of commodities may here
be interesting.
The system of trade was simple barter. The equivalent of value was
beaver skins; while skins of less value were again calculated as so
much of each for one beaver. A kettle was exchanged for one beaver. A
pound and a half of gunpowder, one beaver. One blanket, six beavers.
Two bayonets, one beaver. Four fire-steels, one beaver. One pistol,
four beavers.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 107 of 259
Words from 56121 to 56620
of 136421
