1749. Report From The Committee Appointed To Inquire into the State and Condition of the Countries Adjoining to Hudson's Bay, And Of The Trade Carried On There

[London: c1780]. Later issue of one of the most important reports on the Hudson's Bay Company. The parliamentary investigation into the activities of the Hudson's Bay Company was undertaken as a result of a petition made to the Lords in Council in 1749 aimed at depriving the Company of its charter. The petitioners argued that the charter of 1670, granting sole rights of trade and commerce in the entire area beyond the entrance of the Hudson Straits, was either invalid or forfeited, and requested an incorporation giving them similar rights over the adjacent region. Arthur Dobbs had provided the initial stimulus and basic grounding for the petition; his was the most sustained and vociferous attack on the meanness, rapacity, secrecy and jealousy of the Hudson's Bay Company, alleging that their policies and attitudes had thrown the fur trade into the hands of the French in Canada and were stifling the exploration of the Canadian North-West. Among the travelers, traders and merchants summoned as witnesses to give testimony before the committee were Joseph Robson, Matthew Serjeant, Arthur Dobbs, and William Moore. Appended is the Hudson's Bay Company Charter as well as the valuable narrative of French Canadian fur trader Joseph La France, describing the state of the French fortresses in Montreal and Quebec, and their lucrative trade with the Indians. The Papers Presented to the Committee contain information regarding voyages undertaken in search of the north-west passage, sales made by the Hudson's Bay Company, Henry Kelsey's journals of his attempt to open commerce with the Naywatamee Indians in 1691-92, &c. Although the impeachment failed, and the monopoly was to continue for another hundred years, it did alarm the Company into initiating serious and concerted exploration of the unknown western reaches of the Charter. TPL 213. Lande 1203. Vlach 353. Gagnon I 1712. Dionne II 470. Peel 10 (not seen). cfJCB I 906. cfSabin 33548. cfStreeter VI 3644. Winsor VIII, Chapt. 1. folio. pp. 1 p.l., [215]-286. text in double columns. A fine copy in modern quarter calf