Fur Game

Some in the black and grey garb of the City represented British banks and insurance companies. Others, in tweeds, represented only themselves. Outwardly, as they trooped up the white steps of Beaver House on London's Garlick Hill one day last month, they were typical Britons. But they were Britons with a difference. These were "the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson's Bay," come together for the 278th general court (annual meeting).

The proprietors (stockholders) heard the 30th governor, Sir Patrick Ashley Cooper, report: "The fall in net profits (from -L-1,717,397, to -L-1,068,803) is largely due to the sharp fall in inventory prices in the fur trade. . . . The directors anticipate . . . some further downward adjustment. . . ." But Sir Patrick was confident. The company, he said, was well on the way to re-establishing London's eminence in the world's fur markets; the future looked bright.

Britons hold 95% ot the company's 2,492,224 ordinary shares. Few shares are Canadian-owned, although the bulk of the company's business is in Canada. Between the stockholders in Britain and the operating personnel in Canada, Sir Patrick is the chief link.

New Man, Old Company. A Scottish-born financier (director of the Bank of England), he was new to the old company when in 1931 he was called to be its governor to get it out of a financial jam. Today, Sir Patrick, 59, a big man with a glowing pink complexion, white toothbrush mustache and shaggy grey eyebrows, knows first-hand the many-sided operations of the company better than any of his predecessors. This week he is in Canada, to add to his knowledge.

Not until Sir Patrick gets to Hudson's Bay House in Winnipeg will he decide just where to visit. Then, says he, "All I have to do is to grab my hat and hop in a plane. The boys know I don't need much out there." Out there, "the Bay," as the company is known, has more than 200 trading posts for the governor to choose from.

The public still thinks of the Bay in terms of the far north where bitter winters grow thick, smooth fur on Arctic foxes, mink, muskrats, fishers and beavers. But furs are not the company's only concern. Actually, the 15,000 trappers from whom, the company buys are a less valuable asset than the far greater number of Canadians to whom it sells through six large department stores and 15 smaller stores. Sir Patrick likes to tell how this came about.

Old Posts, New Towns. "First," he says, "was the fortified post, surrounded by a stockade. Men with guns were careful to see that only a limited number of Indians were admitted to trade at one time. Then the guns disappeared, and the stockades, but still you had a more or less isolated post, with a few houses growing up around it. Then the settlement grew into a town, and a modern store developed--often on the very site of the old fortified post. Today, we don't try to limit the number of customers. Times have changed."

Before the war, the Hudson's Bay Company sold extensively in Britain. But during the dollar shortage Sir Patrick laid down a rule: export for dollars. Today, not a single Hudson's Bay blanket (made in Yorkshire) can be sold in Britain.

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