CELPIP Reading Part 3 Practice Test: Hudson’s Bay Company From Fur Trade To Retail

Paragraph A

Few companies can claim a history as long as that of the Hudson’s Bay Company. On May 2, 1670, King Charles II of England granted a royal charter to a group of investors, giving them exclusive trading rights over all the lands whose rivers drained into Hudson Bay. This enormous territory, named Rupert’s Land after the king’s cousin, covered roughly a third of what is now Canada. Curiously, the idea for the venture came not from the English but from two French traders, Pierre-Esprit Radisson and Médard Chouart des Groseilliers, who had failed to win support for their plans in New France and took them to London instead.

Paragraph B

For nearly two centuries, the company’s business was fur, above all beaver. In Europe, beaver fur was pressed into felt to make fashionable, waterproof hats, and demand seemed endless. Rather than sending its own men deep into the interior, the company built trading posts such as York Factory on the shores of the bay and waited for Indigenous trappers to paddle in with their furs. In exchange, the trappers received metal kettles, tools, firearms and the striped wool “point blankets” that are still associated with the company today. This approach was later challenged by the Montreal-based North West Company, whose traders travelled inland to meet suppliers directly. After years of bitter and sometimes violent competition, the two rivals merged in 1821 under the Hudson’s Bay name. The combined company now controlled trade across a vast stretch of the continent.

Paragraph C

By the mid-nineteenth century, silk hats had replaced beaver in European fashion, and the fur trade began a slow decline. At the same time, the newly formed Dominion of Canada was eager to expand westward. In 1870, the company transferred Rupert’s Land to Canada in return for £300,000, land around its trading posts and a share of the farmland in the West. Settlers soon followed, and the company adapted by turning its trading posts into general stores that sold groceries, clothing and hardware to new arrivals. In the early 1900s, it began opening large department stores in growing cities such as Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver.

Paragraph D

Throughout the twentieth century, retail became the heart of the business. The company bought rival chains, including Simpsons and Zellers, and in 1987 it sold off its remaining northern stores and fur-trading operations. Ownership changed hands several times, and in 2006 the company was purchased by an American businessman, ending more than three centuries of British and Canadian control. However, it struggled to compete with online shopping and large discount retailers. In 2025, after years of falling sales, the company sought protection from its creditors and closed its remaining stores. Its name, coat of arms and famous multicoloured stripes were later sold to another Canadian retailer.