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The Firs Nation

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The experience of the Firs Nation’s during the fur trade would have been a new and novel situation for all First Nation’s. York and Hudson Bay Company led a competition between anyone living in Canada at the time but it became very competitive for the First Nation tribes. There was increasing fur and goods in 1730, but shortly after there was a sharp decline in goods until 1750 because of the competition was so hard. Indian tribes competed with one another for control of the trading posts. Problem was, there was a distance between the tribes that made trading more difficult, the Mountain Indians travelled 37 days downstream and took months to return. Assiniboine and Cree bands were taking over control of their inland trading of York factory …show more content…

The York factory actually used a unit called a MD (made beaver) which was a prime pelt of beaver, and they sued that measuring unit as a way trading with the First Nation’s. For example, a cotton blanket was the same unit equivalent to a MD, thus a FN could trade a MD for a blanket, and vice versa. York factory had to adjust its inflations for the Indians as well because the European assumed that the First Nation’s couldn’t understand the ideas of “surplus” or “inflation”, so they begin adjusting prices and short changing the First Nation’s. The First Nation’s noticed this, and began compromising with goods; First Nation’s tribes also didn’t need very much from the trading posts, requiring only 70 MB per year for basic necessities. The short-changing of the First Nation’s forced them into bargaining within their own terms of reference, so when the time arose, they were able to bargain effectively with other tribes. Another aspect of trading was the gift-giving to the First Nation’s that happened before trading days, and had this not occurred, no trading would have happened. The Europeans also gave gifts to other tribes that weren’t trading with them at the time, to encourage them to

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