The Hudson's Bay Company by Joan Donaldson-Yarmey

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The beaver fur trade began in Montreal, originally founded as a French missionary centre, in the 17^th century. After a few decades, two fur traders, Pierre-Esprit Radisson and Medard des Groseilliers, heard the best furs were further north on a frozen sea, the Hudson’s Bay, and they wanted to investigate. They asked for backing from the French Governor but he didn’t want to fur trade to move away from the St Lawrence River area and refused.

The traders went to England and received funding from Prince Rupert, cousin of King Charles II. In 1668 two ships, the Nonsuch with Groseilliers and the Eaglet with Radisson, left London. However, the Eaglet had to turn back so only the Nonsuch sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to what is now James Bay on Hudson’s Bay. There, Groseilliers founded Charles Fort on the Rupert River. The fort was later named Rupert House. The ship returned to England in October 1669 laden with prime beaver furs to be made into the waterproof felt hats that were popular at the time.

The charter for the formation of the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) was granted by King Charles II on May 2, 1670. It included all the land surrounding the rivers that drained into the Hudson’s Bay. This reached as far west as the origin of the North Saskatchewan River in the Rocky Mountains and was named Rupert’s Land. The company’s headquarters were in London and by 1717 there were six forts on the bay. The company controlled the fur trade throughout most of North America. However, they relied on the natives to transport the furs to their posts by canoe to trade for muskets, gunpowder, shot, and kettles and other articles.

The French, known as voyageurs, continued their fur trade with the indigenous peoples but they were the ones who went inland with the goods and built posts to trade for the furs. Eventually, in 1779, the independent traders formed their own company, The North West Company. The Hudson’s Bay Company began to open their own inland posts in competition. In 1821 the two joined under the name The Hudson’s Bay Company. It was the government of the land until 1868, two years after Canada was established.

Over the decades the company opened 80 retail stores across North America and employed over nine thousand workers. However, times changed and in March of 2025, the oldest continually operating company in North America filed for credit protection. It closed its last store in June 2025.

I have written three Canadian west historical novels for young adults. Two, ‘West to the Bay’ and ‘West to Fort Edmonton’, a novella, are based on the Hudson Bay Company. The third, ‘West to Grande Portage’ is based on the voyageur’s life. I am researching for a fourth which is tentatively titled, 'West to Fort Selkirk.'

 

Book Reviews by Joan Donaldson-Yarmey

https://books2read.com/West-to-the-Bay-Yarmey

Review: A delving into history and the Hudson Bay Company. Tells the story of one young man Thomas and his experiences after leaving his home to travel to the New World. Full of adventure and history. I enjoyed the book and the ease of reading.

Review: I have visited Churchill on the Hudson Bay and this book took me back 300 years to what it was like? A good read cannot put it down

 

https://books2read.com/West-to-Grande-Portage-V2

Review: This book was exactly what I needed to read. It took me away to a completely different world in another time. I followed along, very intrigued by the detail Ms. Donaldson provided about Quebec and the voyageurs of the 1700s all the while creating a very compelling story. I loved this book so much that I immediately began West to the Bay after I finished it. I look forward to reading more and more of Ms. Donaldson's stories.

 

Book Reviews

Book reviews are very important for writers especially in today’s flooded book world. In the past there were traditional publishers, and a few writers who self-published, who send their new releases to book reviewers working on the newspapers. The reviewers would then read them and write reviews for the public. Or the publisher sent the manuscripts (ARCs) to other authors before the book was published and would get a review to add to the front of the book.

But things have changed drastically. While the big five publishers still do a lot of the publicizing and marketing, the smaller publishers are now requiring their authors to take over that job. With the Internet making self-publishing cheap and easy, there are a lot more books on the market. So this is why reviews are so important—authors need readers to tell others why they should read that particular book. And most of that is done on Amazon. The algorithms on Amazon don’t care how long or what was said in the reviews, they just look at the number of reviews. The more reviews, the higher up the book is placed.

Unfortunately, many readers seem reluctant to leave a review. And there are many reasons for that. They think they have to write a long one giving some of the storyline. But that’s not necessary. All they have to say is that they liked the book and hoped the author was writing another. Some get busy and forget or they don’t think their opinion is important. Also, if they didn’t like the book or it wasn’t what they expected, they feel a little uncomfortable leaving a three star or less review. But, just because one person didn’t like the subject of the book, that doesn’t mean the next person will think the same way. Liking or disliking a book is subjective. And, hopefully, readers realize that when they look at the reviews of a book they are interested in.

So, it has become necessary for authors to actively ask for reviews. Publishers and self-published authors now add a note at the end of the book reminding the reader to leave a review. Also, writers who send out newsletters prompt readers to go into their book’s Internet site and write a quick assessment of the story.

Even though this way of getting reviews is all free it does seem like a lot of work and seldom pays off. In the end, some authors opt for another way to get reviews, and that is to pay for them. There are businesses that accept books for review and authors can submit their work to them. But it costs and some charge up to $450.00. The questions I have about this are: Is this ethical; does it mean that the more you pay the better the review; does this give the reader a true, objective opinion of the story and of the writing?

The thing is that it is easy for readers to leave a review of my, or any author’s, books on Amazon. And you don’t have had to purchase it through Amazon. Just go to the book’s Amazon page, scroll down to review this product, select the number of stars you give it, and click on the write a customer review button. You can write as many or as few words as you wish.

Just a note: if you are a friend of the author on any social media, Amazon may reject your review and may even delete previous reviews left by other readers.