[Footnote 221: In an address before the State Historical Society of
Wisconsin, on the Character and Influence of the Fur Trade in Wisconsin
(Proceedings, 1889, pp. 86-98), I have given details as to Wisconsin
settlements, posts, routes of trade, and Indian location and population
in 1820.]
[Footnote 222: Wis. Hist. Colls., XI., 377. Compare the articles used by
Radisson, _ante_, p. 29. For La Salle's estimate of amount and kind of
goods needed for a post, and the profits thereon, see Penna. Archives,
2d series, VI., 18-19. Brandy was an important item, one beaver selling
for a pint. For goods and cost in 1728 see a bill quoted by E.D. Neill,
on p. 20, _Mag. West. Hist._, Nov., 1887, Cf. 4 Mass. Hist. Colls.,
III., 344; Byrd Manuscripts, I., 180 ff.; Minn. Hist. Colls., II., 46;
Senate Doc. No. 90, 22d Cong., 1st Sess., II., 42 ff.]
[Footnote 223: Wis. Fur Trade MSS. Cf. Wis. Hist. Colls., XI., 377, and
Amer. State Papers, Ind. Affs., II., 360. The amount of liquor taken to
the woods was very great. The French Jesuits had protested against its
use in vain (Parkman's Old Régime); the United States prohibited it to
no purpose. It was an indispensable part of a trader's outfit. Robert
Stuart, agent of the American Fur Company at Mackinaw, once wrote to
John Lawe, one of the leading traders at Green Bay, that the 56 bbls. of
whiskey which he sends is "enough to last two years, and half drown all
the Indians he deals with." See also Wis. Hist. Colls., VII., 282;
McKenney's Tour to the Lakes, 169, 299-301; McKenney's Memoirs, I.,
19-21. An old trader assured me that it was the custom to give five or
six gallons of "grog"--one-fourth water--to the hunter when he paid his
credits; he thought that only about one-eighth or one-ninth part of the
whole sales was in whiskey.]
[Footnote 224: A light boat sometimes called a "Mackinaw boat," about 32
feet long, by 6-1/2 to 15 feet wide amidships, and sharp at the ends.]
[Footnote 225: See Wis. Hist. Colls., II., 108.]
[Footnote 226: Minn. Hist. Colls., V., 263.]
[Footnote 227: See Wis. Hist. Colls., VII., 220, 286; III., 235;
McKenney's Tour, 194; Schoolcraft, Ind. Tribes, II., 55. Sometimes a
family made 1500 lbs. in a season.]
[Footnote 228: Lewis Cass in Senate Docs., No. 90, 22d Cong., 1st Sess.,
II., 1.]
[Footnote 229: See D'Iberville's plans for relocating Indian tribes by
denying them credit at certain posts, Margry, IV., 597. The system was
used by the Dutch, and the Puritans also; see Weeden, Economic and
Social Hist. New Eng., I., 98. In 1765, after the French and Indian war,
the Chippeways of Chequamegon Bay told Henry, a British trader, that
unless he advanced them goods on credit, "their wives and children would
perish; for that there were neither ammunition nor clothing left among
them." He distributed goods worth 3000 beaver skins. Henry, Travels,
195-6. Cf. Neill, Minnesota, 225-6; N.Y. Col. Docs., VII., 543; Amer.
State Papers, Ind. Affs., II., 64, 66, 329, 333-5; _North American
Review_, Jan., 1826, p. 110.]
[Footnote 230: Biddle, an Indian agent, testified in 1822 that while the
cost of transporting 100 wt. from New York to Green Bay did not exceed
five dollars, which would produce a charge of less than 10 percent on
the original cost, the United States factor charged 50 per cent
additional. The United States capital stock was diminished by this
trade, however. The private dealers charged much more. Schoolcraft in
1831 estimated that $48.34 in goods and provisions at cost prices was
the average annual supply of each hunter, or $6.90 to each soul. The
substantial accuracy of this is sustained by my data. See Sen. Doc., No.
90, 22d Cong., 1st Sess., II., 45; State Papers, No. 7, 18th Cong., 1st
Sess., I.; State Papers, No. 54, 18th Cong., 2d Sess., III.;
Schoolcraft's Indian Tribes, III., 599; Invoice Book, Amer. Fur Co., for
1820, 1821; Wis. Fur Trade MSS. in possession of Wisconsin Historical
Society.]
[Footnote 231: The following is a typical account, taken from the books
of Jacques Porlier, of Green Bay, for the year 1823: The Indian Michel
bought on credit in the fall: $16 worth of cloth; a trap, $1.00; two and
a half yards of cotton, $3.12-1/2; three measures of powder, $1.50;
lead, $1.00; a bottle of whiskey, 50 cents, and some other articles,
such as a gun worm, making in all a bill of about $25. This he paid in
full by bringing in eighty-five muskrats, worth nearly $20; a fox,
$1.00, and a mocock of maple sugar, worth $4.00.]
[Footnote 232: A.J. Vieau, who traded in the thirties, gave me this
information.]
[Footnote 233: For the value of the beaver at different periods and
places consult indexes, under "beaver," in N.Y. Col. Docs,; Bancroft,
Northwest Coast; Weeden, Economic and Social Hist. New Eng.; and see
Morgan, American Beaver, 243-4; Henry, Travels, 192; 2 Penna. Archives,
VI., 18; Servent, in Paris Ex. Univ. 1867, Rapports, VI., 117, 123;
Proc. Wis. State Hist. Soc., 1889, p. 86.]
[Footnote 234: Minn. Hist. Colls. II., 46, gives the following table for
1836:
_St. Louis Prices._ _Minn. Price._ _Nett Gain._
Three pt. blanket = $3 25 60 rat skins at 20 cents = $12 00 $8 75
1-1/2 yds. Stroud = 2 37 60 rat skins at 20 cents = 12 00 9 63
1 N.W. gun = 6 50 100 rat skins at 20 cents = 20 00 13 50
1 lb. lead = 06 2 rat skins at 20 cents = 40 34
1 lb. powder = 28 10 rat skins at 20 cents = 2 00 1 72
1 tin kettle = 2 50 60 rat skins at 20 cents = 12 00 9 50
1 knife = 20 4 rat skins at 20 cents = 80 60
1 lb. tobacco = 12 8 rat skins at 20 cents = 1 60 1 38
1 looking glass = 04 4 rat skins at 20 cents = 80 76
1-1/2 yd.
scarlet cloth = 3 00 60 rat skins at 20 cents = 12 00 9 00
See also the table of prices in Senate Docs., No. 90, 22d Cong., 1st
Sess.; II., 42 _et seq._]
[Footnote 235: Douglass, Summary, I., 176.]
[Footnote 236: Morgan, American Beaver, 243.]
[Footnote 237: Proc. Wis. Hist. Soc., 1889, pp. 92-98.]
[Footnote 238: Amer. State Papers, Ind. Affs., II., 66.]
[Footnote 239: Wis. Hist. Colls., XI., 220, 223.]
[Footnote 240: The centers of Wisconsin trade were Green Bay, Prairie du
Chien, and La Pointe (on Madelaine island, Chequamegon bay). Lesser
points of distribution were Milwaukee and Portage. From these places, by
means of the interlacing rivers and the numerous lakes of northern
Wisconsin, the whole region was visited by birch canoes or Mackinaw
boats.]
[Footnote 241: Schoolcraft in Senate Doc. No. 90, 22d Cong., 1st Sess.,
II,. 43.]
[Footnote 242: Lawe to Vieau, in Wis. Fur Trade MSS. See also U.S.
Indian Treaties, and Wis. Hist. Colls., V., 236.]
[Footnote 243: House Ex. Docs., 19th Cong., 2d Sess., II., No. 7.]
[Footnote 244: For example see the Vieau Narrative in Wis. Hist. Colls.,
XI., and the Wis. Fur Trade MSS.]
[Footnote 245: Butler, Wild North Land; Robinson, Great Fur Land, ch.
xv.]