The Hudson's Bay Company, one of the oldest, still active companies in the world, was almost 200 years old when Canada was created in 1867. Since its inception in 1670, the Company controlled fully one-third of present-day Canadian territory. That area, designated Rupert's Land, encompassed most of Northern Ontario and Northern Québec, all of Manitoba, most of Saskatchewan, the southern half of Alberta and a large part of the Northwest Territories.
Control over this enormous domain was granted by Royal Charter following the successful voyage of the Nonsuch to trade for beaver pelts with the Cree near James Bay.
What began as a simple fur-trading enterprise evolved into a trading and exploration company that reached to the west coast of Canada and the United States, south to Oregon, north to the Arctic and east to Ungava Bay, with agents in Chile, Hawaii, California, and Siberia; a land development company with vast holdings in the prairie provinces; a merchandising, natural resources and real estate development company and, today, Canada's oldest corporation and one of its largest retailers.
It was not an uneventful progression.
First, the French wanted the Company out. During its first decades, French and English warships battled for possession of Company trading posts, The rivalry was finally settled, in the Company's favour, by the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713.
Powerful rivals emerged. The North West Company, principally Scottish-Canadian traders from Montréal, was the most formidable. The Nor'Westers, particularly under Alexander Mackenzie, in defiance of the Charter, pushed north to the Arctic and in 1793, west to the Pacific.
In 1821, the North West Company was merged unto the Hudson's Bay Company and the Company's title to the land was recognized by all parties.
Further benefits were to come. In 1821, Parliament expanded the Company's monopoly trading area, under license, so that it stretched from the boundary of Labrador to the Pacific and from the lower reaches of the Mackenzie River to the U.S. passes over the Rocky Mountains.
The next half century or so were some of the Company's best years. Under Governor Sir George Simpson, Company officers explored and traded vigorously throughout the west and north and pushed south in a wide area from the sources of the Missouri to San Francisco Bay.
However, not everyone liked the idea of a monopoly. The main criticisms were alleged misuse of monopoly power and opposition to settlement. The Parliamentary Inquiry of 1857 found that what is now southern Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, and known as the fertile belt, were suitable for settlement, and should be ceded to Canada. It was the beginning of the end for the Company's monopoly.
By the Deed of Surrender of 1869, the Company retained its Charter but surrendered ownership of its Rupert's Land territory. In return, it received cash and seven million acres in the fertile belt which it gradually sold during the next 85 years.
By 1912, the Company recognized that it needed a new approach to retailing and planned a chain of department stores in western Canada. In so doing, it laid the foundation for its emergence as one of Canada's leading retail organizations.
Interrupted by the First World War, the Company's expansion program was resumed in 1923. By 1970, downtown department stores had been built in each of the major cities of western Canada. The Company then moved into eastern Canada through acquisitions and launched an ambitious expansion program into the suburbs of major Canadian cities. This was followed by the acquisition of Zellers in 1978 and The Robert Simpson Co. in 1979.
During this period, the Company held major investments in Hudson's Bay Oil and Gas, Siebens and Roxy Petroleum and, in 1973, acquired control of Markborough Properties.
The Company's rapid expansion during the 1970s, however, added heavily to its debt. This, combined with rising interest rates and the economic recession of the 1980s, strained its resources severely.
In response, the Company concentrated its energies on its retail businesses. Consequently, it divested itself of businesses and investments including its Wholesale department, Northern Stores and Fur divisions and Markborough, which it considered peripheral to its central interests. The Company continues to expand its retail operations with acqusitions such as Kmart and new outlets like the Outfitters store in Toronto.