John C. Jackson

Lloyd Keith

Between an American ship's 1792 discovery of the Columbia River, the brief Astorian episode that followed, and the 1821 transfer of North West Company operations to the Hudson's Bay Company, one might presume nothing of consequence happened in the Pacific Northwest. In reality, it was a remarkable quarter-century, with two companies attempting large-scale corporate trapping and vying to command the region's fur trade. On one side were the North West Company's Montreal entrepreneurs, and on the other, American John Jacob Astor and his Pacific Fur Company. These fur moguls were businessmen first and explorers second, and their era is a story of grand risk in both fives and capital-a global mercantile initiative in which controlling the mouth of the Columbia River and developing the China market were major prizes. Traversing the world in search of profits, they gambled on the price of beaver pelts, purchases of ships and trade goods, international commerce laws, and the effects of war. Book jacket.

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