Donnie Nichols
County Reporter
I recently finished Eric Jay Dolin’s, “Fur, Fortune, and Empire.” It’s the epic history of the fur trade in America.
It’s a fascinating historical journey of how trade with early natives in what would eventually become America, shaped a nation and changed the world. Furs became an incredibly important sign of class distinction and wealth, creating a symbolic divide between nobility and commoner. As far back as 1337, King Edward III of England limited the wearing of fur to the royal family and to church officials who had a yearly benefice of at least one hundred pounds.
By the early 1600s a problem arose because the European supply of furs was diminishing due to over harvest.
There are records dating back to 1534 of early explorers trading with natives off the coast of what is now present day Maine for beaver pelts and other furs. England and France enthusiastically supported expanding the fur trade in North America.
When Europeans first started colonizing North America and what would eventually become the United States, the majority of immigrants were of the poorer classes and those seeking a fresh start and hopefully a better life for themselves and their families. Many had to borrow money for the voyage. To help repay these loans, one source of income for settlers were animal skins. Early on, France had established fur companies in North America to supply the needs of European markets. The North American beaver (castor canadensis), fueled the early fur trade. They were plentiful, lived in family groups of 10-12, have a fairly large pelt and the market price was good. Much of the early exploration of North America was driven by the quest for their fur. Beaver pelts were actually used as currency by colonists. With one stamp size square having more than 120,000 hairs, the most valuable part of a beaver skin is the inner fur whose minute barbs make it excellent for felting, especially in hats. Today, hats are considered accessories but for centuries they were a mandatory part of every day dress for both men and women. Only in the 19th century did silk replace beaver in high fashion men’s hats.
Beaver were also trapped for their castoreum, a bitter tasting secretion with a slightly fetid odor contained in castor sacs of both male and females. Castoreum use in traditional medicines is credited to the accumulation of salicin from willow trees in the beaver’s diet which is transformed to salicylic acid and has action similar to aspirin.
Today, castoreum is used in perfume and as an enhancer of vanilla, strawberry, and raspberry flavoring. Also it’s sometimes added to frozen dairy gelatins, candy, and fruit beverages.
The King of England was so infatuated with beaver skin hats that in 1638 he decreed that all hats must be made of beaver. Because of this, and the thriving market for castoreum, by early 1700, beaver were nearly extirpated from Massachusetts. Trapping of beaver pelts led to the exploration and settlements of the western frontier with the same decimation of the beaver populations repeated all the way to the Pacific Ocean. By 1880 they were all but gone east of the Mississippi and by 1930 almost extinct in North America.
Mercury was one of the ingredients used to tan beaver hides. Hatters breathed vapors from these chemicals for extended periods. The fumes attacked the nervous system causing muscle twitching as well as difficulty in speech and thought and sometimes insanity. Thus the origin of the term, “mad as a hatter.”
“It’s not what you gather, but what you scatter that tells what kind of life you have lived.” -Helen R. Walton
