Talk:North West Company

Untitled

An historic recreation of the North West Companys' entire route, from their farthest post west (Rocky Mountain House, Alberta) to their Headquarters (in Lachine, QC, now part of Montreal) was carried out in the summer of 1980 by Gerry Windle and Warren Clark, 2 residents of Alberta. The trip was canoed and portaged the entire way (approx. 4000 miles) by the 2 men, and both still reside in Alberta. Warren Clark currently resides in Edmonton, Alberta (email address is warrencla@gmail.com), and Gerry Windle was last heard of in Calgary, Alberta. The 2 men canoed the entire trip in a 17' Mad River Canoe kevlar Explorer canoe, carrying all necessary items with them, and occasionally stopping for food and other necessities, as the voyageurs' did back in the late 1700's before them. Gerry and Warren still have all of the articles, pictures, and items that they picked up and kept from the canoe trip. To this day, this is still the only known recreation of the entire trip that was ever done. Warren Clark 23/11/2004

This page is an unhistorical mess. The grocery chain has nothing to do with the NWC historically. I'm going to work on cleaning this up and citing the appropriate sources. --Eileen R 22:34, 23 November 2006 (UTC)

Foundation

I seriously think that the real date of foundation is 1682, when Pierre-Esprit Radisson and Médard des Groseilliers decided to quit the Hudson bay Company they had founded because they cannot get any profit and most of the money was sent to england and new-england, not to the trappers.

Also, since this company always been an "entrepreneurs and trappers union against the HBC monopoly", this union could really had started in 1682 just after war restarted between new-France and new-England.207.253.109.82 16:25, 20 October 2007 (UTC)

The official agreements where signed in 1780's when several independent traders decided that combining resources would allow venture into northwestern Canada . — Preceding unsigned comment added by 142.140.166.72 (talk) 19:38, 30 August 2011 (UTC)

Rating

Needs referencing to make it to B class. Aboutmovies

WPCANADA agrees. Cheers, CP 05:57, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Forts Nez Percés and Okanogan

the Nor'Westers came to terms with the chief traders at Astoria (mostly former Nor'Westers)) and built their first post in the region far upstream, at Fort Nez Percés,

I just looked over the Fort Okanogan article and while it was apparently founded by the PFC it quickly became (in 1813) part of the NWC holdings; long before Nez Percés was founded in 1818. In one of the readings I've been over lately, also, I'm pretty sure it said that Okanogan was chosen by the NWC as its first Interior post (rather than being PFC founded....) in terms of a cooperative deal with the Astorians (in 1811)....I'll try and find that passage again. Also my expansion of this section seems to have created a chronological-order problem with the contents of the next section; a re-ordering/alignment of section headings and content may be necessary, I think.....Skookum1 (talk) 14:50, 2 August 2008 (UTC)

My understanding is that Thompson planted a big British flag at the Columbia-Snake confluence (where Fort Nez Perces was built) and a letter saying the NWC intended to establish a post there. The local native chief told the PFC Astorians, when they arrived, to go down the Snake and not up the Columbia. The Astorians apparently satisfied the chief and then went up to the Okanogan River and founded their first inland post there. Thompson's flag couldn't have actually prevented the Astorians from building a post, but it may have influenced them. In any case, even if Nez Perces wasn't founded until 1818, Thompson had clearly stated in 1811, to the PFC, that it would be built. Also the NWC already had a number of interior posts by the time Okanogan was established, including Spokane, Kullyspell, Saleesh, and Kootenae. Also, as far as I know, no non-native had even been to the Okanogan-Columbia confluence until Thompson paddled by in 1811. The next to visit were the Astorians who set up the post. The Nisbet book makes it pretty clear that Thompson thought the Columbia-Snake confluence the best place for the post in the region. Anyway, this is just me recalling. I can check the books later when I've more time. Pfly (talk) 22:09, 2 August 2008 (UTC)

Perhaps naively I was going by what the Fort Nez Perces article said about its founding....and I'll dig out the passage about the NWC deciding to set up shop inland instead of in the Lower Columbia - which may have been Thompson's decision/advice, and probably was; again Begg or Scholefield&Howay....Skookum1 (talk) 22:34, 2 August 2008 (UTC)

Thompson clearly thought the Columbia-Snake junction was a strategic and key spot, but after the NWC took over the PFC the whole situation changes and it took some years to sort it out and try to make a functional system, I think. In any case, Meinig is quite vocal on the vital role of Fort Nez Perces in the whole fur trading network. The precise location sucked (dusty, hot, desolate, etc), but it occupied a pivot point of several diverse regions and waterways. Meinig makes it out to be the most important interior post of the post-PFC NWC and the later HBC. I think Thompson had divined this to some degree when he passed by, even if it took the NWC a number of years to build the fort. Apparently the native peoples around there had turned hostile in the mid to late 1810s. It's also possible that Thompson was merely trying to thwart the PFC. Even so, he was right about the importance of the site. Perhaps something about this ought to be added to the Fort Nez Perces page. Perhaps I'll get around to it myself. Perhaps.

In any case this article could be improved. A quick look reveals: an intense rivalry soon developed between [[the PFC and NWC] over the Oriental market and westerly expansion to unclaimed territory in what is now the Columbia River basin in what is now the states of Washington and Oregon. If nothing else the Columbia River basin includes more than just WA or OR last I checked; and the PFC worked beyond WA and OR not least with the Kamloops post. Pfly (talk) 09:28, 3 August 2008 (UTC)

Beaver Club

is a important subject --178.197.232.96 (talk) 23:45, 28 January 2015 (UTC)

Minor Improvements

The introductory paragraph needs to include more information, it looks thin. There are some inconsistencies with formatting, specifically the use of lists in the "Personnel" and "Organizational History". The section, "Before the Company" and "Beginnings" should be merged into one article, as the first section is really small and applies to the second section. The article also downplays the success of the North West Company and the rivalry between it and the Hudsons Bay Company. In The Canadian Prairies it mentions that the company was able to take vast amounts of profit away from the HBO. For example, HBO made only £38,000 in trade compared to the North West Company's £144,000 in 1800. Rpypker (talk) 21:48, 2 February 2015 (UTC)

Suggestions for Improvement

Introduction The information presented in the introduction is a little scattered. It jumps from the creation of the North West Company, to competition with the Hudson Bay company, and then all the way to its revival in 1990. There is very little explanation of the connections between these events (especially the final sentence about its revival). This makes the introduction more confusing than anything. I suggest that either the introduction be extended in order to create a thought-process that is easier to follow, or eliminate the final sentence entirely since it doesn't really relate to the rest of the paragraph.

Before the Company An explanation of "the conquest of 1763" would be very useful. it should not be assumed that someone looking up the North West Company is familiar with other events in Canadian history. Even making it a link to another page would suffice. Additionally, a more detailed explanation of English and French expansion into western Canada would be beneficial.

Citations Even though there is a large amount of detailed information here, there are very little footnotes to back up the information. This is a problem that I noticed throughout the article. At times, there are entire sections that have no citations whatsoever. This damages the credibility of the information presented and the page as a whole.

Megan.R.Mc (talk) 00:40, 3 February 2015 (UTC)

Flag

We need to show the Company's flag (a red ensign with "NWCo" in white). There's nothing on Commons, unfortunately. The flag can be seen in several places, such as this one. Urhixidur (talk) 00:43, 24 December 2017 (UTC)

Capitalization Consistency

The article has issues with capitalization of headings. The pattern is inconsistent. --Littlefluff82 (talk) 03:22, 19 January 2018 (UTC)