The
North American fur trade was the industry and activities related to the acquisition, trade, exchange, and sale of animal
furs in the
North American continent.
Aboriginal peoples in Canada and
Native Americans in the United States of different regions traded among themselves in the
Pre-Columbian Era, but
Europeans participated in the trade beginning from the time of their arrival in the New World and extended its reach to Europe. The French started trading in the 16th century, the English established trading posts on
Hudson Bay in present-day Canada in the 17th century, and the Dutch had trade by the same time in
New Netherland. The 19th-century North American fur trade, when the industry was at its peak of economic importance, involved the development of elaborate trade networks and companies.