Explorers went to the Pacific Northwest to chart the coast and to look for a Northwest Passage. They were also interested in the trade in furs they could set up. Fur trading had been a driving force in the formation of Canada, which during the 18th century was expanding outward from the Great Lakes region. During the 1700s, trade monopolies across the world’s oceans made free trade (commercial exchanges involving people or companies without charter and therefore without protection) difficult if not dangerous. The fur trade was the backbone of a number of large-scale capitalist enterprises and the reason for the formation of the Hudson’s Bay Company and the Northwest Company. Ventures like the King George’s Sound Company tried to gain a monopoly on trade in the Pacific Northwest. The pelts, including beaver, fox, seal, and deer, had been coming primarily from the east. The fur-bearing animals of the Pacific were not of great interest until traders saw the rich, lustrous softness of the sea otter, known to the Russians as “soft gold.”
The Russians crossed the Pacific looking for these animals when the population in the eastern Pacific began to dwindle. The Spanish, British and American vessels traded coveted materials such as iron and sugar with the local indigenous peoples in exchange for the furs. The First Nations communities along the coast were forever changed as certain villages grew wealthy with the new trade, overthrowing the old leadership structures. Demand for otter fur for the fashions of Europe and China generated a high price for the pelts. In a very short time, trading companies could make their fortune and sailors could make a tidy profit. The consequence, however, was that the sea otter of the Pacific faced extinction by the early 19th century.
