Rise of the Mackinaw Company.--Attempt of the American
Government to Counteract Foreign Influence Over the Indian
Tribes.--John Jacob Astor.--His Birth-Place.--His Arrival in
the United States.--What First Turned His Attention to the
Fur Trade.--His Character, Enterprises, and Success.--His
Communications With the American Government.--Origin of the
American Fur Company
THE success of the Northwest Company stimulated further enterprise in
this opening and apparently boundless field of profit. The traffic of
that company lay principally in the high northern latitudes, while
there were immense regions to the south and west, known to abound with
valuable peltries; but which, as yet, had been but little explored by
the fur trader. A new association of British merchants was therefore
formed, to prosecute the trade in this direction. The chief factory was
established at the old emporium of Michilimackinac, from which place the
association took its name, and was commonly called the Mackinaw Company.
While the Northwesters continued to push their enterprises into the
hyperborean regions from their stronghold at Fort William, and to hold
almost sovereign sway over the tribes of the upper lakes and rivers,
the Mackinaw Company sent forth their light perogues and barks, by Green
Bay, Fox River, and the Wisconsin, to that areas artery of the West, the
Mississippi; and down that stream to all its tributary rivers. In this
way they hoped soon to monopolize the trade with all the tribes on
the southern and western waters, and of those vast tracts comprised in
ancient Louisiana.
The government of the United States began to view with a wary eye the
growing influence thus acquired by combinations of foreigners, over
the aboriginal tribes inhabiting its territories, and endeavored to
counteract it. For this purpose, as early as 1796, the government sent
out agents to establish rival trading houses on the frontier, so as to
supply the wants of the Indians, to link their interests and feelings
with those of the people of the United States, and to divert this
important branch of trade into national channels.
The expedition, however, was unsuccessful, as most commercial expedients
are prone to be, where the dull patronage of government is counted
upon to outvie the keen activity of private enterprise. What government
failed to effect, however, with all its patronage and all its agents,
was at length brought about by the enterprise and perseverance of a
single merchant, one of its adopted citizens; and this brings us to
speak of the individual whose enterprise is the especial subject of
the following pages; a man whose name and character are worthy of being
enrolled in the history of commerce, as illustrating its noblest aims
and soundest maxims. A few brief anecdotes of his early life, and of the
circumstances which first determined him to the branch of commerce of
which we are treating, cannot be but interesting.
John Jacob Astor, the individual in question, was born in the honest
little German village of Waldorf, near Heidelberg, on the banks of the
Rhine. He was brought up in the simplicity of rural life, but, while
yet a mere stripling, left his home, and launched himself amid the
busy scenes of London, having had, from his very boyhood, a singular
presentiment that he would ultimately arrive at great fortune.
At the close of the American Revolution he was still in London, and
scarce on the threshold of active life. An elder brother had been for
some few years resident in the United States, and Mr. Astor determined
to follow him, and to seek his fortunes in the rising country. Investing
a small sum which he had amassed since leaving his native village, in
merchandise suited to the American market, he embarked, in the month
of November, 1783, in a ship bound to Baltimore, and arrived in Hampton
Roads in the month of January. The winter was extremely severe, and the
ship, with many others, was detained by the ice in and about Chesapeake
Bay for nearly three months.
During this period, the passengers of the various ships used
occasionally to go on shore, and mingle sociably together. In this
way Mr. Astor became acquainted with a countryman of his, a furrier by
trade. Having had a previous impression that this might be a lucrative
trade in the New World, he made many inquiries of his new acquaintance
on the subject, who cheerfully gave him all the information in his power
as to the quality and value of different furs, and the mode of carrying
on the traffic. He subsequently accompanied him to New York, and, by his
advice, Mr. Astor was induced to invest the proceeds of his merchandise
in furs. With these he sailed from New York to London in 1784, disposed
of them advantageously, made himself further acquainted with the course
of the trade, and returned the same year to New York, with a view to
settle in the United States.
He now devoted himself to the branch of commerce with which he had thus
casually been made acquainted. He began his career, of course, on the
narrowest scale; but he brought to the task a persevering industry,
rigid economy, and strict integrity. To these were added an aspiring
spirit that always looked upwards; a genius bold, fertile, and
expansive; a sagacity quick to grasp and convert every circumstance to
its advantage, and a singular and never wavering confidence of signal
success.
As yet, trade in peltries was not organized in the United States, and
could not be said to form a regular line of business. Furs and skins
were casually collected by the country traders in their dealings with
the Indians or the white hunters, but the main supply was derived
from Canada. As Mr. Astor’s means increased, he made annual visits to
Montreal, where he purchased furs from the houses at that place engaged
in the trade. These he shipped from Canada to London, no direct trade
being allowed from that colony to any but the mother country.
In 1794 or ‘95, a treaty with Great Britain removed the restrictions
imposed upon the trade with the colonies, and opened a direct commercial
intercourse between Canada and the United States. Mr. Astor was in
London at the time, and immediately made a contract with the agents of
the Northwest Company for furs. He was now enabled to import them from
Montreal into the United States for the home supply, and to be shipped
thence to different parts of Europe, as well as to China, which has ever
been the best market for the richest and finest kinds of peltry.
The treaty in question provided, likewise, that the military posts
occupied by the British within the territorial limits of the United
States, should be surrendered. Accordingly, Oswego, Niagara, Detroit,
Michilimackinac, and other posts on the American side of the lakes, were
given up. An opening was thus made for the American merchant to trade on
the confines of Canada, and within the territories of the United States.
After an interval of some years, about 1807, Mr. Astor embarked in this
trade on his own account. His capital and resources had by this time
greatly augmented, and he had risen from small beginnings to take his
place among the first merchants and financiers of the country. His
genius had ever been in advance of his circumstances, prompting him
to new and wide fields of enterprise beyond the scope of ordinary
merchants. With all his enterprise and resources however, he soon found
the power and influence of the Michilimackinac (or Mackinaw) Company too
great for him, having engrossed most of the trade within the American
borders.
A plan had to be devised to enable him to enter into successful
competition. He was aware of the wish of the American government,
already stated, that the fur trade within its boundaries should be in
the hands of American citizens, and of the ineffectual measures it had
taken to accomplish that object. He now offered, if aided and protected
by government, to turn the whole of that trade into American channels.
He was invited to unfold his plans to government, and they were warmly
approved, though the executive could give no direct aid.
Thus countenanced, however, he obtained, in 1809, a charter from the
legislature of the State of New York, incorporating a company under the
name of “The American Fur Company,” with a capital of one million
of dollars, with the privilege of increasing it to two millions. The
capital was furnished by himself he, in fact, constituted the company;
for, though he had a board of directors, they were merely nominal; the
whole business was conducted on his plans and with his resources, but
he preferred to do so under the imposing and formidable aspect of a
corporation, rather than in his individual name, and his policy was
sagacious and effective.
As the Mackinaw Company still continued its rivalry, and as the fur
trade would not advantageously admit of competition, he made a new
arrangement in 1811, by which, in conjunction with certain partners of
the Northwest Company, and other persons engaged in the fur trade, he
bought out the Mackinaw Company, and merged that and the American Fur
Company into a new association, to be called the “Southwest Company.”
This he likewise did with the privity and approbation of the American
government.
By this arrangement Mr. Astor became proprietor of one half of the
Indian establishments and goods which the Mackinaw Company had within
the territory of the Indian country in the United States, and it was
understood that the whole was to be surrendered into his hands at the
expiration of five years, on condition that the American Company would
not trade within the British dominions.
Unluckily, the war which broke out in 1812 between Great Britain and
the United States suspended the association; and, after the war, it was
entirely dissolved; Congress having passed a law prohibiting the British
fur traders from prosecuting their enterprises within the territories of
the United States.