CHAPTER II.
Rise of the Mackinaw Company.-- Attempt of the American Government to Counteract
Foreign Influence Over the Indian Tribes.-- John Jacob Astor.-- His Birth-Place.-- His
Arrival in the United States.-- What First Turned His Attention to the Fur Trade.-- His
Character, Enterprises, and Success.-- His Communications With the American
Government.-- Origin of the American Fur Company
THE success of the Northwest Company stimulated further enterprise in this opening
and apparently boundless field of profit. The traffic of that company lay principally in the
high northern latitudes, while there were immense regions to the south and west,
known to abound with valuable peltries; but which, as yet, had been but little explored
by the fur trader. A new association of British merchants was therefore formed, to
prosecute the trade in this direction. The chief factory was established at the old
emporium of Michilimackinac, from which place the association took its name, and was
commonly called the Mackinaw Company.
While the Northwesters continued to push their enterprises into the hyperborean
regions from their stronghold at Fort William, and to hold almost sovereign sway over
the tribes of the upper lakes and rivers, the Mackinaw Company sent forth their light
perogues and barks, by Green Bay, Fox River, and the Wisconsin, to that areas artery
of the West, the Mississippi; and down that stream to all its tributary rivers. In this way
they hoped soon to monopolize the trade with all the tribes on the southern and
western waters, and of those vast tracts comprised in ancient Louisiana.
The government of the United States began to view with a wary eye the growing
influence thus acquired by combinations of foreigners, over the aboriginal tribes
inhabiting its territories, and endeavored to counteract it. For this purpose, as early as
1796, the government sent out agents to establish rival trading houses on the frontier,
so as to supply the wants of the Indians, to link their interests and feelings with those of
the people of the United States, and to divert this important branch of trade into
national channels.
The expedition, however, was unsuccessful, as most commercial expedients are prone
to be, where the dull patronage of government is counted upon to outvie the keen
activity of private enterprise. What government failed to effect, however, with all its
patronage and all its agents, was at length brought about by the enterprise and
perseverance of a single merchant, one of its adopted citizens; and this brings us to
speak of the individual whose enterprise is the especial subject of the following pages;
a man whose name and character are worthy of being enrolled in the history of
commerce, as illustrating its noblest aims and soundest maxims. A few brief anecdotes
of his early life, and of the circumstances which first determined him to the branch of
commerce of which we are treating, cannot be but interesting.
John Jacob Astor, the individual in question, was born in the honest little German
village of Waldorf, near Heidelberg, on the banks of the Rhine. He was brought up in
the simplicity of rural life, but, while yet a mere stripling, left his home, and launched
himself amid the busy scenes of London, having had, from his very boyhood, a singular
presentiment that he would ultimately arrive at great fortune.
At the close of the American Revolution he was still in London, and scarce on the
threshold of active life. An elder brother had been for some few years resident in the
United States, and Mr. Astor determined to follow him, and to seek his fortunes in the
rising country. Investing a small sum which he had amassed since leaving his native
village, in merchandise suited to the American market, he embarked, in the month of
November, 1783, in a ship bound to Baltimore, and arrived in Hampton Roads in the
month of January. The winter was extremely severe, and the ship, with many others,
was detained by the ice in and about Chesapeake Bay for nearly three months.
During this period, the passengers of the various ships used occasionally to go on
shore, and mingle sociably together. In this way Mr. Astor became acquainted with a
countryman of his, a furrier by trade. Having had a previous impression that this might
be a lucrative trade in the New World, he made many inquiries of his new acquaintance
on the subject, who cheerfully gave him all the information in his power as to the quality
and value of different furs, and the mode of carrying on the traffic. He subsequently
accompanied him to New York, and, by his advice, Mr. Astor was induced to invest the
proceeds of his merchandise in furs. With these he sailed from New York to London in
1784, disposed of them advantageously, made himself further acquainted with the
course of the trade, and returned the same year to New York, with a view to settle in
the United States.
He now devoted himself to the branch of commerce with which he had thus casually
been made acquainted. He began his career, of course, on the narrowest scale; but he
brought to the task a persevering industry, rigid economy, and strict integrity. To these
were added an aspiring spirit that always looked upwards; a genius bold, fertile, and
expansive; a sagacity quick to grasp and convert every circumstance to its advantage,
and a singular and never wavering confidence of signal success.(1)
As yet, trade in peltries was not organized in the United States, and could not be said
to form a regular line of business. Furs and skins were casually collected by the
country traders in their dealings with the Indians or the white hunters, but the main
supply was derived from Canada. As Mr. Astor's means increased, he made annual
visits to Montreal, where he purchased furs from the houses at that place engaged in
the trade. These he shipped from Canada to London, no direct trade being allowed
from that colony to any but the mother country.
In 1794 or '95, a treaty with Great Britain removed the restrictions imposed upon the
trade with the colonies, and opened a direct commercial intercourse between Canada
and the United States. Mr. Astor was in London at the time, and immediately made a
contract with the agents of the Northwest Company for furs. He was now enabled to
import them from Montreal into the United States for the home supply, and to be
shipped thence to different parts of Europe, as well as to China, which has ever been
the best market for the richest and finest kinds of peltry.
The treaty in question provided, likewise, that the military posts occupied by the British
within the territorial limits of the United States, should be surrendered. Accordingly,
Oswego, Niagara, Detroit, Michilimackinac, and other posts on the American side of the
lakes, were given up. An opening was thus made for the American merchant to trade on
the confines of Canada, and within the territories of the United States. After an interval
of some years, about 1807, Mr. Astor embarked in this trade on his own account. His
capital and resources had by this time greatly augmented, and he had risen from small
beginnings to take his place among the first merchants and financiers of the country.
His genius had ever been in advance of his circumstances, prompting him to new and
wide fields of enterprise beyond the scope of ordinary merchants. With all his
enterprise and resources however, he soon found the power and influence of the
Michilimackinac (or Mackinaw) Company too great for him, having engrossed most of
the trade within the American borders.
A plan had to be devised to enable him to enter into successful competition. He was
aware of the wish of the American government, already stated, that the fur trade within
its boundaries should be in the hands of American citizens, and of the ineffectual
measures it had taken to accomplish that object. He now offered, if aided and protected
by government, to turn the whole of that trade into American channels. He was invited
to unfold his plans to government, and they were warmly approved, though the
executive could give no direct aid.
Thus countenanced, however, he obtained, in 1809, a charter from the legislature of
the State of New York, incorporating a company under the name of "The American Fur
Company," with a capital of one million of dollars, with the privilege of increasing it to
two millions. The capital was furnished by himself -- he, in fact, constituted the
company; for, though he had a board of directors, they were merely nominal; the whole
business was conducted on his plans and with his resources, but he preferred to do so
under the imposing and formidable aspect of a corporation, rather than in his individual
name, and his policy was sagacious and effective.
As the Mackinaw Company still continued its rivalry, and as the fur trade would not
advantageously admit of competition, he made a new arrangement in 1811, by which,
in conjunction with certain partners of the Northwest Company, and other persons
engaged in the fur trade, he bought out the Mackinaw Company, and merged that and
the American Fur Company into a new association, to be called the "Southwest
Company." This he likewise did with the privity and approbation of the American
government.
By this arrangement Mr. Astor became proprietor of one half of the Indian
establishments and goods which the Mackinaw Company had within the territory of the
Indian country in the United States, and it was understood that the whole was to be
surrendered into his hands at the expiration of five years, on condition that the
American Company would not trade within the British dominions.
Unluckily, the war which broke out in 1812 between Great Britain and the United States
suspended the association; and, after the war, it was entirely dissolved; Congress
having passed a law prohibiting the British fur traders from prosecuting their
enterprises within the territories of the United States.
1. An instance of this buoyant confidence, which no doubt aided to produce the
success it anticipated, we have from the lips of Mr. A. himself. While yet almost a
stranger in the city, and in very narrow circumstances, he passed by where a row of
houses had just been erected in Broadway, and which, from the superior style of their
architecture, were the talk and boast of the city. "I'll build, one day or other, a greater
house than any of these, in this very street," said he to himself. He has accomplished
his prediction.