Getting into the details about economics and strategies used back then is very interesting. The similarities that are able to be drawn between modern economic tactics, transportation of goods, and how they compare to the ways those issues were handled back then. Also seeing the scope of companies and the extent they were willing to go to for cheap and affordable work, like having outposts in far off places like hawaii and alaska just for recruitment of labor. This profit mindset is what led to the later boom in trading of supplies and technology in the fur trade.
The fur trade was a middle ground between Native communities and European settlements because of the mutual transactions that occurred. Giving and taking of items that were needed and sought after was the basis that the trade was set on. Items like at the time industrialized fabrics, firearms, and even animals (and in turn animal hides).
At the start of the colonization of the Americas the native people provided informational help and even supplies to the Europeans in return for more advanced supplies and tools. This eb and flow continued for a very long time in a very large scale scope and there were even diplomatic advantages for both sides. There were so many mutual advantages that gifts were given in order to keep either side in good standing with each other. Items such as the Anishinaabe outfit, gifted to a British lieutenant Andrew Foster who was stationed in the now Michigan area, are examples of items that came from the mutual trading system that was in place. This outfit was believed to be crafted specifically for Foster as a sign of respect and good standing for international trade. The outfit however also begins to reveal how the power dynamics began to be misinterpreted by the later settlers. Items that were once a sign of respect and good fortune began to be seen as a form of worship towards the settlers and even though the people weren’t too far removed from when the gifts were received/given, viewing these “offering” as such is how the dynamics took such a quick turn for the absolute worst. Once the European descendants began to take advantage of the Natives, the once thriving middle ground that was the fur trade turned into a straight up robbery of anything that wasn’t bolted down.