ABSTRACT
The fur trade was one of the major extractive enterprises in mainland North America. Beaver pelts in particular brought high prices in Europe, especially in the era when the beaver hat was the height of fashion. The best pelts came from the colder reaches, where beavers needed the most insulation. Beavers were trapped and hunted to the point of extinction in New England and easternmost Canada in the seventeenth century, prompting both the French and the English to enlist the aid of Amerindians to bring in pelts from the interior of North America. By the mid-eighteenth century the fur trade in North America had a history that spanned 150 years. It had developed into a sophisticated business, with efficient markets and a highly articulated division of labor. Amerindians trapped and skinned the beaver; coureurs de bois traded for the pelts; Montreal and Albany merchants managed the export to Europe. It showed all the hallmarks of a mature colonial enterprise.
