Natural born merchants. The Hudson Bay Company, science and Canada’s final fur frontiers (1925–1931)

Abstract

This article explores the use of science and technology of the Hudson Bay Company, by examining the company’s development department (1925–1931). It focuses, first, on the cooperation between the development department and the renowned animal ecologist Charles Elton. Scientific practices of the department were also instrumental in supporting the company’s expansive strategy, of finding and commercialising Canada’s Arctic north. While the department remained short-lived, the article largely affirms the general view that science and technology played a minor role for trading companies. Yet it gives us a much better understanding of precisely why such a connection is difficult. The case also illustrates that scientific practices could and did play a role for trading companies, and had a specific value in modernising and expanding trade operations. Especially so in organising new supply chains in remote and new territory, and not only to support diversification operations, as it is usually argued.