beaver pelts
Colonial trade currency
Beaver pelts are the processed skins of beavers, historically among the most valuable furs in North American trade.
From the 17th through 19th centuries, demand for beaver pelts—used primarily in felt hats—drove European exploration and shaped colonial economies: The Hudson's Bay Company built its fortune on beaver pelts.
The fur is prized for its density and water resistance.
- voyageursHistoric fur-trade boatmen
- trappingCatching with concealed devices
- Hudson's Bay CompanyColonial Canadian fur merchant
- barterDirect goods-for-goods exchange
- fur tradeCommercial exchange of animal skins
trading posts · trade goods · aquatic mammals · Métis · frontier life · felt hats · top hat · coureurs des bois · rendezvous · mercantilism · canoe routes · portage · pack animals · castor · luxury goods · New France · mountain men · status symbols
- Canadian Westpemmican, Hudson's Bay Company, voyageurs, coureurs des bois, buffalo hunting
- CanadianaCanadian, Canadian flag, maple syrup, maple leaf, loonie
- Dutch AmericaNew Amsterdam, Dutch settlers, Henry Hudson, New Netherland, Dutch colonial
- fur tradepelts, furs, mink, sable, fox
- New FranceAcadia, Quebec, Montreal, Acadians, St. Lawrence
- colonial moneypaper money, paper currency, Spanish dollar, piece of eight, pieces of eight