In the 16th century, the American continent, because it was in a primitive state, there were many animals, although there were Indians constantly predation, but basically can maintain the stability of the population, but with the advent of the Age of Discovery, European colonists set foot on the American continent, so that many animals on the American continent were killed tragically, among which the representative is today's Canadian national beast American beaver and the American national beast North American bison.
beaver
You must know that the number of American beavers and North American bison at that time was tens of millions, but by the end of the nineteenth century, there were less than 1,000 North American bison left with a large population, and what happened in just over a hundred years? Why are they only more than a thousand heads? Let's take a look at the fate of the Colonists today in the Abnormal History Research Room.
The beginning of fur's prosperity
Fur has been a luxury in Europe since the Middle Ages, and in Europe at that time, the most important symbol between nobles and commoners was whether they could afford to wear fur.
European nobility
At that time, Britain stipulated that only men above the knighthood level could wear some mink clothes, some officials could wear slightly worse fur decorated robes, and ordinary people could only wear clothes made of sheepskin.
Of course, with the advent of the Age of Discovery, European commerce continued to prosper, and some wealthy commercial classes began to break through the original regulations, move closer to the nobility, and wear high furs that only nobles could wear, which led to a soaring price of furs.
Noble robes
Seeing that these "upstarts" also wore the same fur as them, the nobles began to pursue more luxurious furs in order to maintain their dignity, so as to press a head on the fur on some occasions, such as Henry VIII of England at that time, he had a dress that used 100 sable skins and 560 squirrel skins, and the price of this dress was 200 times the salary of the low-class people in England at that time.
Of course, this is only one of the many aristocrats, to know that there were many European aristocrats at that time, so it gave birth to a prosperous fur market, fur at that time can be said to be Europe's hard currency, top luxury goods, no luxury fur is embarrassed to say that they are aristocrats.
However, there is too much demand, too little fur, and under the continuous demand of Europeans, the local fur in Europe has become increasingly scarce, so their eyes are running overseas.
Journey to the Americas
In 1534, the French explorer jacques Cartier traveled to the king, hoping to get funding to open a route with China, of course, the original intention was to find gold, and the fiery gold trade in Spain at that time made France red,000, and he immediately made a decision to find a route.
Jacques Cartier
On April 20, 1534, Jacques Cartier spent three weeks crossing the ocean current to the American continent, to what is now the Canadian province of New Brunswick, and when he came ashore, he found a group of Indians with furs who wanted to trade, but because there were too many Indians, they were less unsafe, so they boarded a ship and waited for the Indians to leave.
As a result, the Indians, who were very eager to trade, actually rowed boats to trade, and eventually Jacques Cartier exchanged some of the axes, knives, and other worthless things on the ship for a lot of fur.
Native American
Although Jacques Cartier was unable to discover new routes, he let Europeans know that there were a lot of cheap furs in the Americas, and many adventurers went to the Americas to exchange European handicrafts for cheap furs.
Beaver with felt hat
On the one hand, handicrafts are all over Europe, and it is just right to exchange it for fur, and for the Indians, fur is their cheap goods, and they can go out on a trip, but they can exchange for good handicraft products in Europe.
Among the many American furs, the european favorite is the beaver fur, and the felt hat made of beaver fur is a symbol of the social status of Europeans.
Beaver felt hat
In Europe, if your felt hat is color difference, the style is always looked down upon, because there is no money to change the high-end felt hat is definitely not settled, and if you have a shiny beaver felt hat, walking on the road others can look at you twice, so the felt hat made by the beaver is very hot in Europe, Europeans are proud of a good color felt hat, in the old European photos, many nobles wear felt hats are made of beaver skin.
The "Doomsday" of the Beaver
In North America at that time, there were a conservative estimate of 40 million beavers, which was definitely enough for Europeans at that time, and they found that the colder the climate, the thicker the fur of the beaver, and the natural price would rise, so the fur acquisition market at that time was mostly in today's northern United States and Canada.
Native American
For the Indians, the beaver was their necessity, they depended on the beaver for their livelihood, eating beaver meat, wearing beaver clothes, making tools out of beaver bones, in a word, the beaver was their life, of course, selling to Europeans was only a trivial matter in their daily life, after all, they could get it by hunting.
At that time, beavers ran through the North American trade, the Indians sold beaver skins to British immigrant merchants in exchange for pots, axes and swords and other necessities, while British immigrant merchants sold uniformly to trading stations, and then exchanged money to buy seeds for land cultivation, while Dutch immigrants relied on developed shipping and shipped to Europe, and the difference in price during this period was full of pots.
Beaver trade
Of course, in European countries, the largest fur trade volume is the French, France in North America fur trading station is very many, from the St. Lawrence River Valley as the starting point, all the way to the Gulf of Mexico, so many fur trade has become the pillar industry of the French colonial economy.
But with the expansion of the fur trade, the beavers and other furs on the east coast of North America have gradually become scarce and become scarce, and no amount of beavers can withstand the wanton hunting of Europeans and Indians, after all, animals are not industrial products, and can produce many axes a day, but beavers rely on natural reproduction.
Beaver trade
In order to obtain more fur, the British and French colonists began to open up new hunting areas, gradually moving towards the western part of North America, and finally in the nearly 300-year fur trade, the native animals of the entire North American continent, including beavers, were almost killed.
From 1534 onwards, trade on the East Coast began in 1640, and for a hundred years, the Hudson River basin and Massachusetts could no longer see a single beaver, and then pushed all the way to the western part of North America, and by 1830, the annual production of beaver skins in the entire Rocky Mountains was less than 2,000 sheets, and the beaver had become a frequently endangered species.
Beavers are currently Canada's national beasts
North American bison
Like beavers, north American bison are a source of livelihood for the Indians in the plains, who feed on bison, make clothes from bison skins, and of course use cow dung as fuel, almost everything that the plains Indians live for.
North American bison
Bison skins were of great use, and merchants who had become Americans at that time began to buy bison skins, and the price at that time was about $4 a bison skin, which was a very high price at that time, so the Indians went out hunting, peeled the bison skins and sold them to merchants, in exchange for some handicrafts produced in the eastern United States, alcohol, and so on. Not only Indians, but also some Americans came west to hunt bison.
Bones of the North American bison
From the early 19th century, the annual production of bison skins in the United States could reach 100,000 pieces, which is equivalent to killing nearly 200,000 bison a year. Originally, there were nearly 30 million bison on the North American continent, but by 1870 there were about 10 million left.
But the killing never stopped, and from the 1870s onwards, the bison leather tanning technology was upgraded, and the bison skin suddenly became a hot product in the fur market, and the "end" of the bison also came.
Hunt bison
From 1872 to 1874, in just three years, indians and American hunters hunted 9 million bison, and many local bison herds disappeared, and finally in 1884, the annual production of bison skins dropped to 300, and by 1890, there were less than 1,000 bison left in the United States.
The decline of the fur trade
With the disappearance of the bison herd, the North American fur trade that has been hot for hundreds of years has also declined, of course, the fur trade is not only a simple commercial trade, but also accompanied by colonial expansion, in the early years, Britain and France even broke out the "Seven Years War" to compete for the fur trade, and with the decline of the fur trade, the Indians in the initial stage of the fur trade were gradually excluded to the edge of society, and eventually went to the brink of extinction.
Native American