DCHP-3

free trader

Fur Trade
DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

Entry from the DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

This entry may contain outdated or offensive information, terms, and examples.

1

Hist. a former servant of the Hudson's Bay Company who travelled amongst the Indians, especially in the hunting grounds, trading necessary articles for furs and usually getting his outfit from the Company.

See: freeman(def. 1a)

Quotations

1872
These "houses" were the trading posts of the first English Free-Traders. . . .
1907
The origin of the term "Free Trader" dates back considerably over three-quarters of a century and was first used as a distinction by the Hudson's Bay Company between their own traders, who traded directly from their posts and others who in most cases had been formerly in their employ, but had turned "Free Traders."
1940
Local metis and French Canadians--free-traders--cabined in the neighbourhood, were happy enough to assist McLeod in a task to which he had set himself.
1965
James Sinclair, a metis free trader . . . nearly lost his life going over the Kananaskis Pass
2a

a fur trader operating independently of and in opposition to the fur companies.

Quotations

1864
Another circumstance which strengthens this probability is that the plains are lined with Free traders, who are well-supplied with goods and provisions.
1934
The bitterness aroused in their breasts if a "free trader" ventured to defy the might of the "Gentlemen Adventurers" by attempting to trade on their own was almost inconceivable.
1947
Its founder, Nicolas Peltier, a native-born Canadian of French parentage, and one of the first free traders to follow in the footsteps of Pierre Esprit Radisson . . . first came into the Saguenay in 1672 under a conge, or permit, from the Governor, de Frontenac.
1965
Bill Anderson [is] a veteran free trader at Fort Albany on James Bay. . .
2b

Hist. a person trading or selling whisky, especially as an illicit business, to the Indians.

Quotations

1881
Whiskey was the great staple article of trade, both of the Hudson's Bay Company and the free traders in this district, and the horses and fur of the Indians and gold of the miners went to purchase it.
1957
Being somewhat remote, they were never overrun with whisky-peddling "free-traders."
1960
[Between 1868 and 1874] there was an invasion of American "free traders," bringing in raw whisky in their trade with the Indians.