North West Company

The establishment of fur-trading associations, which were designed to lessen competition, led in 1779 to the formation of the North West Company (NWC). It expanded beyond the Rocky Mountains and north to Great Bear Lake in an endeavour to tighten its grip on the whole fur trade. The NWC’s chief competitors were the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) and the New North West Company (sometimes called the XY Company). In 1804 the latter merged with the NWC, whose trade campaign against the HBC, at times particularly violent, did not end until 1821, when the two companies amalgamated.