The Hudson's Bay (1660-1752) and South Sea Joint Stock Companies

¹¹⁰ Before their misfortunes in the recent war, the Hudson’s Bay Joint Stock Company was much more fortunate than the Royal African Joint Stock Company.

Their necessary costs are much smaller.

• They maintained up to 120 persons in their settlements which they called forts.
• 120 persons are sufficient to prepare the cargo of furs and other goods for their ships beforehand.
  • Their ships can seldom remain more than 8 weeks in those seas because of the ice.

For several years, private adventurers could not have this advantage of having a cargo ready prepared. Without this advantage, it was impossible to trade to Hudson’s Bay.

The company’s moderate capital does not exceed £110,000.

• It might be enough to enable them to engross the whole trade and surplus produce of that miserable but large country.

No private adventurers have ever attempted to compete with them. This company always enjoyed an exclusive trade even if they may have no legal right to it. Its moderate capital was divided among very few proprietors.

But a joint stock company with a moderate capital and a few proprietors are almost like a private copartnery.

• It is capable of nearly the same degree of vigilance and attention.
• It is no wonder that the Hudson’s Bay Company was able to carry on their trade successfully before the recent war.

Their profits probably never approached to what the late Mr. Dobbs imagined them.

Mr. Anderson

• is much more sober and judicious.
• is the author of The Historical and Chronological Deduction of Commerce
• very justly examines the accounts Mr. Dobbs received of its exports and imports
• made the proper allowances for their extraordinary risk and expence
• revealed that its profits do not much exceed ordinary profits.