It might be difficult to make the connection between silks and spices and the icy channels of the Arctic. But it was the rich trade in Asian luxuries, such as cloves and pepper to flavour the decaying meats of pre-refrigeration Europe, that helped generate the obsession in a Northwest Passage. Turmoil along the traditional Silk Road route slowed overland trade out of Venice, Alexandria, and Istanbul. The Dutch and English East India Companies began to ply the Silk Road spices, silks, and tea using the ocean instead of the ancient, overland roads through Central Asia. The Spanish gained control of the South American sea route and the Portuguese increased their interests along the coasts of Africa, but every country and every company sought the benefits of a short route between the Atlantic and the Pacific.
Sebastian Cabot, Venetian son of explorer John Cabot, led an expedition in 1508-09 to what is now the Atlantic coast of Canada. He returned to work for the Muscovy Company of England, which financed other Passage-seeking expeditions in the 16th century. In the late 1500s and early 1600s, the Spanish probed the coast of California for the Passage, while the English East India Company financed searches in the north Atlantic. The Spanish, who had expended little effort in the Pacific north of California, took their exploration increasingly further north in the later 1700s, spurred on by perceived competition from Russian interest in the northern fur trade. The competitive nature of the expanding trade economy made British naval officers into explorers out of necessity. The Royal Navy now joined the private venture capitalists in the search for trade routes and trade goods.
A western entrance to the Passage began to lure overland expeditions. In 1770-72, Samuel Hearn, on behalf of the Hudson’s Bay Company, sought an east-west river network across North America and a source of copper. Alexander Mackenzie voyaged overland with his First Nations guides on behalf of the Northwest Company in 1789 and 1793, and Lewis and Clark did the same from 1804-06 on behalf of the expansionist interests of the east coast American government.
