Chartered on 2 May 1670 by King Charles II, which granted the Company both a trading monopoly over the entire Hudson Bay drainage basin, called Rupert's Land, and formal ownership of that territory, then the largest private land grant in history. Built on the same joint-stock, chartered-monopoly model as the East India Company, it organised the North American fur trade for two centuries through a network of trading posts rather than settlement colonies. It ceded Rupert's Land to the new Dominion of Canada in 1870 and, having converted itself into an ordinary retail corporation, remains the oldest continuously operating commercial corporation in North America.
Facts
Founding Year Founding Date Headquarters Chronology
Dissolved YearWikidata Q76039, property P576 (dissolved, abolished or demolished date). Classification
Institution Subtype Geography
Country or Jurisdiction ServedWikidata Q76039, property P17 (country). FAQs
What happened to the Hudson's Bay Company's land in 1870?
Canada took over its territory in 1870 and gave it prairie farm lands in return.
In 1870 the government of Canada took over the company's chartered territory, known as Rupertsland, and in return the company received farm lands in the prairie provinces. The company later sold those lands to settlers over the following decades. The change ended its role as the legal owner of a vast territory and left it as a commercial enterprise.
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Source Encyclopaedia Britannica
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Sources
1. Hudson's Bay Company (Wikipedia)
In Group: Chartered Colonial and Trading Companies, Lead paragraphQuote, In Group: Chartered Colonial and Trading Companies, Lead paragraph
The founding royal charter, issued by King Charles II, granted the company the right of "sole trade and commerce" over the Rupert's Land territory, the borders of which were based on the Hudson Bay drainage basin covering most of what is now central Canada and smaller parts of the northern United States.
2. Wikidata
Wikimedia Foundation
3. Encyclopaedia Britannica
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.- Hudson's Bay Company
- Hudson's Bay Company, Founding
- charter granted 2 May 1670
- Associated With: East India Company, East India Company
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