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The Hudson's Bav Company, one of the oldest commercial organizations in the world, traces its roots back to 1670 when King Charles II of England granted a group of investors a charter and a trading monopoly covering a vast region of northern North America. The territory granted to "The Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading into Hudson's Bay" covered much of present-day Western Canada and parts of the Northern United States.

The history of Canada is, to a remarkable extent, also the history of the Hudson's Bay Company. It was a Company man, Henry Kelsey, who was the first European to see herds of buffalo on the plains of Western Canada, and Company explorers such as Samuel Hearne and Anthony Henday opened large uncharted areas of the North and West to commerce, trade and subsequent settlement. Canadian cities such as Winnipeg, Edmonton and Victoria began as outposts of the Hudson's Bay Company's fur trade and many small communities across the Canadian North grew up around a Company post.

For the first 200 years of its history, the Hudson's Bay Company was primarily concerned with the fur trade, but as the years went by other activities were undertaken. The Company, over its history, has been a land company, a transportation company, and a store-keeper.

In 1870 the Hudson's Bay Company's chartered territory in the West was transferred to the government of the newly-created Dominion of Canada in return for a modest cash settlement and a portion of agricultural land in the "fertile belt," which was sold to settlers over the next 85 years.

During the nineteenth century as well, the Company became a major factor in Western transportation, moving goods to isolated communities and posts by canoe, York Boat, steamer, and, in the twentieth century, by airplane. In the twentieth century the Company brought radio communication to the North.

As settlement increased in the West, the Hudson's Bay Company became increasingly involved in the retail trade, and by the early years of the twentieth century sales shops and stores existed in major centres across Western Canada and in the North. The first Hudson's Bay Company "department store" opened in Winnipeg in 1881, and for years was a major hub of the fur trade.

After World War I the Company established a chain of modern department stores in major cities across Western Canada. The fur trade, meanwhile, continued in the North, with the Company still holding a major position as trader and store-keeper in remote Northern communities.

By 1970, its 300th anniversary, the Hudson's Bay Company had transferred its head office from London, England, to Canada, and cross-Canada expansion had begun in earnest. The Company had already made forays into Eastern Canada with the purchase of the Montreal-based department chain Henry Morgan and Co. in the late 1950s. In the late 1970s two large Canadian retailers, Zellers and Simpsons, were added and the Company expanded its operation throughout Western and Central Canada.

In the difficult business climate of the 1980s, the Hudson's Bay Company, electing to concentrate on its retail activities, moved away from participation in the resource and property development industries. Simpsons was absorbed into the Hudson's Bay Company identity and the Company's Northern Stores operation was sold. In the mid-1980s the Company also sold off its wholesale and fur divisions.

As the Company moved into the 1990s, profits increased dramatically and expansion resumed with the acquisition of the Woodward's and Towers chains. Today, the Hudson's Bay Company -- the Company of Adventurers -- continues to play a major role in the unfolding story of Canada.