TRADE, CONSUMPTION, AND THE NATIVE ECONOMY: LESSONS FROM YORK FACTORY, HUDSON BAY

Like Europeans and colonists, eighteenth-century Native Americans were purchasing a greatly expanded variety of goods. As fur prices rose from 1716 to 1770, there was a shift in expenditures from producer and household goods to tobacco, alcohol, and other luxuries by Indians who traded furs at the H...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	The Journal of Economic History 2001-12, Vol.61 (4), p.1037-1064
Main Authors:	Carlos, Ann M., Lewis, Frank D.
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	18th century Alcohol drinking Alcohols Amerindians Canada Consumer behavior Consumer behaviour Consumer goods Consumer spending Consumers Consumption Economic history Economic models Economic systems Fur trade Furs Guns Historians History History of trade Households Indigenous populations Labor supply elasticity Luxury goods Native Americans Native North Americans Ontario Price elasticity Prices Probate Society
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Summary:	Like Europeans and colonists, eighteenth-century Native Americans were purchasing a greatly expanded variety of goods. As fur prices rose from 1716 to 1770, there was a shift in expenditures from producer and household goods to tobacco, alcohol, and other luxuries by Indians who traded furs at the Hudson's Bay Company's York Factory post. A consumer behavior model, using company accounts, shows that Indians bought more European goods in response to higher fur prices and, perhaps more importantly, increased their effort in the fur trade. These findings contradict much that has been written about Indians as producers and consumers.
ISSN:	0022-0507 1471-6372