British History -2
' The Great White Company'
RHODA POWER
Last Wednesday Miss Rhoda Power gave her first broadcast since her return from America, and today she is to tell you something about ' The Great White Company ', a name given to the ' Adventurers of England ' who, under the title of the Hudson's Bay Company, were granted a charter by Charles II in 1670, which gave them a monopoly of the trade of all lands watered by streams flowing into Hudson Bay.
In a description of Hudson Bay written in the eighteenth century, it was said ' The commodities for trade here are guns, powder, shot, cloth, hatchets, kettles, tobacco, etc., which the English exchanged for Furs, Beavers, Martin, Fox, Moose, and other pelting (skins).'
Today you will hear something of the fur traders described in this quotation.