when did the hudson's bay company start
Hudson's Bay Company The company was incorporated by English royal charter in 1670 as The Governor and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson's Bay. It functioned as the de facto government in parts of North America before European states and later the United States laid claim to some of those territories.[9] It was once the world's largest landowner, controlling the area of the Hudson Bay watershed, known as Rupert's Land, which has 15% of North American acreage. From its long-time headquarters at York Factory on Hudson Bay, the company controlled the fur trade throughout much of the English and later British-controlled North America for several centuries. Undertaking early exploration, its traders and trappers forged relationships with many groups of aboriginal peoples. Its network of trading posts formed the nucleus for later official authority in many areas of Western Canada and the United States. In the late 19th century, with its signing of the Deed of Surrender, its vast territory became the largest portion of the newly formed Dominion of Canada, in which the company was the largest private landowner.