Rupert's Land
Courtesy of the Hudson Bay Company Archives
The Granting of the Royal Charter by Charles II in 1670
Painting by E.A. Cox. Courtesy of the HBCA
York Factory
Courtesy of the HBCA
Rupert's Land was the area that drained into Hudson Bay - nearly four million square kilometres of land between Labrador and the Rocky Mountains. When a group of London businessmen formed the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) in 1670, it was granted trading rights in this vast region. Initial explorations confirmed the company's claim that the western interior was suited only for the fur trade. The image, so useful to the HBC, remained intact for two centuries. By the mid-1800s, however, interest mounted in Canada West (Ontario) to acquire and develop Rupert's Land. While Canadians believed portions of Rupert's Land had economic potential beyond the fur trade, Britain remained largely unconvinced.
When the HBC's charter was due for renewal in 1857, both Britain and Canada commissioned scientific expeditions to study Rupert's Land's economic potential. In the following decade, various factors, including American interest in the Canadian West, Britain's concern about securing the area, and most importantly, Confederation, led Britain and the HBC to enter negotiations with the Canadian government to transfer the company's claim. In 1869, Canada bought Rupert's Land, an area ten times the size of what was then Canada, for approximately $1,500,000. In return, it promised the HBC one twentieth of the land within the so-called fertile belt of its former lands. The North-West Territories Act of 1869 provided for a temporary government, which would be administered by a federally appointed lieutenant governor and council. Representative and responsible government, and provincial status would be granted when sufficient population existed.
