Profit and Ambition: The North West Company and the Fur Trade 1779-1821

This book lets the reader relive the heroic days of the Canadian fur trade, a period of a little more than 40 years when a group of Montreal traders pushed the limits of European exploration and commerce west from Lake Winnipeg to the Pacific Ocean and north to the Arctic. The North West Company was established to control competition among a number of independent Montreal fur-trading companies. It brought together mainly Scottish businessmen and partners, French-Canadian voyageurs and their "country wives," Metis bison-hunters, and Aboriginal trappers and their families in a commercial enterprise which forever changed Canada’s position in North America. Canada’s "Wild West" is revealed through period maps, art, documents, and the many beautiful objects which recall this adventurous period in Canada’s history.