Papers presented by Ann Carlos since 2019
2020 Charlotte, North Carolina
"The Essential Role of Indigenous Consumer Satisfaction in the Eighteenth-Century Hudson’s Bay Company"
Ann Carlos, University of Colorado, Boulder
Abstract:
The rise of global trade in the aftermath of the Voyages of Exploration brought differing societies and cultures into contact for the first time. This was especially the case for the commercial fur trade in sub-Arctic Canada which brought iron and manufactured products to Native society and furs and pelts much in demand by hatters and felters to Europe for the cosmopolitan trade in hats. Often depicted as subaltern agents, this paper documents the ways in which taste, preferences and demands of native actors structured the trade not merely in terms of their cultural practices but more importantly in terms of the types of goods, their quality and the prices paid. Consumer satisfaction was an essential element in the collaboration between the Hudson’s Bay Company on the one hand and the indigenous agents without whom there would have been no trade. Collaboration was not just a function of those moments of trade exchange but also required the active engagement of individuals far removed, in particular, the role of women long ignored must be considered as vital to the success of the trade.