North West Company

Foundation and an Early Start
Montreal based fur traders formed the company as a 16 share organization in 1779 and was based in Montreal for the moment. It was officially founded in 1787 merged with a rival organization Gregory, McLeod and others. Alexander Mackenzie conducted two important trips. In 1789, he went to the Grand River which is the Mackenzie River, to the Arctic Ocean, and in 1793 he went overland from Peace River to the Pacific Ocean. Further explorations were performed by David Thompson, starting in 1797, and later by Simon Fraser. These men pushed into the wilderness territories of the Rocky Mountains and Interior Plateau and all the way to the Strait of Georgia on the Pacific Coast. In 1800, HBC profited £38,000 in trade compared to the North West Company's £144,000 in 1800. This bold move caught the Hudson's Bay Company off guard. In succeeding years it retaliated rather than reaching a compromise and it begun a rivalry between the two companies. The company would further succeed in Western Canada being highly successful and even beating the Hudson bay Company there in some aspects.

Hudson Bay Company Agreement of 1821
In 1821 after some raids between each other the Hudson Bay Company and the North West Company agreed on a split of influence with the Hudson bay company being granted Eastern Canada and the lands around the Hudson Bay. The North West Company would be granted all of western Canada from Manitoba and onward. This eventually saved some peace between the two.

Native Raids and Eventually Downfall
Great Manitoban Raid occurred in 1834-1841 which caused the Company to send troops and engage in the conflict losing hundreds of lives. This action eventually led to the company's demise in 1853 in-which due to the failure of not taking control of the raids it was integrated into the Hudson Bay Company which was formally abolished in 1869.