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Hudson's Bay Company
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Hudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company (abbreviated HBC and colloquially Hudson's Bay) was a Canadian holding company whose principal businesses included department stores and commercial property. Founded by royal charter in 1670, it developed from a fur-trading enterprise that exercised extensive commercial and governmental authority in Rupert's Land into a major Canadian retailer. Its retail operations ceased in 2025, after which its remaining legal entity continued to wind up assets under a numbered-company name. HBC was headquartered at the Simpson Tower in Toronto.
The charter issued by King Charles II granted the company the right of "sole trade and commerce" over Rupert's Land, a territory defined broadly by the Hudson Bay drainage basin and covering much of what is now central Canada as well as smaller parts of the northern United States. HBC dominated much of the fur trade in English and later British North America and exercised de facto governmental functions across its chartered territory until the transfer of Rupert's Land to Canada in 1870.
After the decline of its territorial and fur-trading role, HBC increasingly focused on retailing. It developed its namesake department-store chain, acquired Canadian retailers including Zellers, Fields, Morgan's, Simpsons, and Woodward's, and operated Home Outfitters. During the 2010s it also owned major department-store businesses outside Canada, including Lord & Taylor, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Saks Off 5th in the United States and Galeria Kaufhof in Europe.
The Thomson family was HBC's majority shareholder from 1979 to 1992 and sold its remaining shares in 1997. American businessman Jerry Zucker acquired the company in 2006 and took it private. Following his death in 2008, HBC was acquired by NRDC Equity Partners. It returned to the Toronto Stock Exchange in 2012 and became privately held again in 2020.
HBC spun off its American assets into Saks Global in November 2024 and filed for creditor protection in March 2025. Its remaining stores closed by 1 June 2025, and its principal Canadian intellectual-property assets were sold to Canadian Tire. The legal entity was renamed 1242939 B.C. Unlimited Liability Co. in August 2025. By the end of 2025 most former store leases and major heritage assets had been disposed of, although court-supervised wind-up proceedings continued into 2026.
For much of the 17th century, the French colonists in North America, based in New France, operated a de facto monopoly in the North American fur trade. Two French traders, Pierre-Esprit Radisson and Médard des Groseilliers (Médard de Chouart, Sieur des Groseilliers), Radisson's brother-in-law, learned from the Cree that the best fur country lay north and west of Lake Superior, and that there was a "frozen sea" still further north. Assuming this was Hudson Bay, they sought French backing for a plan to set up a trading post on the Bay in order to reduce the cost of moving furs overland. According to Peter C. Newman, "concerned that exploration of the Hudson Bay route might shift the focus of the fur trade away from the St. Lawrence River, the French governor", Marquis d'Argenson (in office 1658–61), "refused to grant the coureurs des bois permission to scout the distant territory". Despite this refusal, in 1659 Radisson and Groseilliers set out for the upper Great Lakes basin. A year later they returned to Montreal with premium furs, evidence of the potential of the Hudson Bay region. Subsequently, they were arrested by French authorities for trading without a licence and fined, and their furs were confiscated by the government.
Determined to establish trade in the Hudson Bay area, Radisson and Groseilliers approached a group of English colonial merchants in Boston to help finance their explorations. The Bostonians agreed on the plan's merits, but their speculative voyage in 1663 failed when their ship ran into pack ice in the Hudson Strait. Boston-based English commissioner Colonel George Cartwright learned of the expedition and brought the two to England to raise financing. Radisson and Groseilliers arrived in London in 1665 at the height of the Great Plague. Eventually, the two met and gained the sponsorship of Prince Rupert. Prince Rupert introduced the two to his cousin, the reigning king – Charles II. In 1668 the English expedition acquired two ships, the Nonsuch and the Eaglet, to explore possible trade into Hudson Bay. Groseilliers sailed on the Nonsuch, commanded by Captain Zachariah Gillam, while the Eaglet was commanded by Captain William Stannard and accompanied by Radisson. On 5 June 1668, both ships left port at Deptford, England, but the Eaglet was forced to turn back off the coast of Ireland.
The Nonsuch continued to James Bay, the southern portion of Hudson Bay, where its explorers founded, in 1668, the first fort on Hudson Bay, Charles Fort at the mouth of the Rupert River. It later became known as "Rupert House", and developed as the community of present-day Waskaganish, Quebec. Both the fort and the river were named after the sponsor of the expedition, Prince Rupert of the Rhine, one of the major investors and soon to become the new company's first governor. After a successful trading expedition over the winter of 1668–69, Nonsuch returned to England on 9 October 1669 with the first cargo of fur resulting from trade in Hudson Bay. The bulk of the fur – worth £1,233 – was sold to Thomas Glover, one of London's most prominent furriers. This and subsequent purchases by Glover proved the viability of the fur trade in Hudson Bay.
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Hudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company (abbreviated HBC and colloquially Hudson's Bay) was a Canadian holding company whose principal businesses included department stores and commercial property. Founded by royal charter in 1670, it developed from a fur-trading enterprise that exercised extensive commercial and governmental authority in Rupert's Land into a major Canadian retailer. Its retail operations ceased in 2025, after which its remaining legal entity continued to wind up assets under a numbered-company name. HBC was headquartered at the Simpson Tower in Toronto.
The charter issued by King Charles II granted the company the right of "sole trade and commerce" over Rupert's Land, a territory defined broadly by the Hudson Bay drainage basin and covering much of what is now central Canada as well as smaller parts of the northern United States. HBC dominated much of the fur trade in English and later British North America and exercised de facto governmental functions across its chartered territory until the transfer of Rupert's Land to Canada in 1870.
After the decline of its territorial and fur-trading role, HBC increasingly focused on retailing. It developed its namesake department-store chain, acquired Canadian retailers including Zellers, Fields, Morgan's, Simpsons, and Woodward's, and operated Home Outfitters. During the 2010s it also owned major department-store businesses outside Canada, including Lord & Taylor, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Saks Off 5th in the United States and Galeria Kaufhof in Europe.
The Thomson family was HBC's majority shareholder from 1979 to 1992 and sold its remaining shares in 1997. American businessman Jerry Zucker acquired the company in 2006 and took it private. Following his death in 2008, HBC was acquired by NRDC Equity Partners. It returned to the Toronto Stock Exchange in 2012 and became privately held again in 2020.
HBC spun off its American assets into Saks Global in November 2024 and filed for creditor protection in March 2025. Its remaining stores closed by 1 June 2025, and its principal Canadian intellectual-property assets were sold to Canadian Tire. The legal entity was renamed 1242939 B.C. Unlimited Liability Co. in August 2025. By the end of 2025 most former store leases and major heritage assets had been disposed of, although court-supervised wind-up proceedings continued into 2026.
For much of the 17th century, the French colonists in North America, based in New France, operated a de facto monopoly in the North American fur trade. Two French traders, Pierre-Esprit Radisson and Médard des Groseilliers (Médard de Chouart, Sieur des Groseilliers), Radisson's brother-in-law, learned from the Cree that the best fur country lay north and west of Lake Superior, and that there was a "frozen sea" still further north. Assuming this was Hudson Bay, they sought French backing for a plan to set up a trading post on the Bay in order to reduce the cost of moving furs overland. According to Peter C. Newman, "concerned that exploration of the Hudson Bay route might shift the focus of the fur trade away from the St. Lawrence River, the French governor", Marquis d'Argenson (in office 1658–61), "refused to grant the coureurs des bois permission to scout the distant territory". Despite this refusal, in 1659 Radisson and Groseilliers set out for the upper Great Lakes basin. A year later they returned to Montreal with premium furs, evidence of the potential of the Hudson Bay region. Subsequently, they were arrested by French authorities for trading without a licence and fined, and their furs were confiscated by the government.
Determined to establish trade in the Hudson Bay area, Radisson and Groseilliers approached a group of English colonial merchants in Boston to help finance their explorations. The Bostonians agreed on the plan's merits, but their speculative voyage in 1663 failed when their ship ran into pack ice in the Hudson Strait. Boston-based English commissioner Colonel George Cartwright learned of the expedition and brought the two to England to raise financing. Radisson and Groseilliers arrived in London in 1665 at the height of the Great Plague. Eventually, the two met and gained the sponsorship of Prince Rupert. Prince Rupert introduced the two to his cousin, the reigning king – Charles II. In 1668 the English expedition acquired two ships, the Nonsuch and the Eaglet, to explore possible trade into Hudson Bay. Groseilliers sailed on the Nonsuch, commanded by Captain Zachariah Gillam, while the Eaglet was commanded by Captain William Stannard and accompanied by Radisson. On 5 June 1668, both ships left port at Deptford, England, but the Eaglet was forced to turn back off the coast of Ireland.
The Nonsuch continued to James Bay, the southern portion of Hudson Bay, where its explorers founded, in 1668, the first fort on Hudson Bay, Charles Fort at the mouth of the Rupert River. It later became known as "Rupert House", and developed as the community of present-day Waskaganish, Quebec. Both the fort and the river were named after the sponsor of the expedition, Prince Rupert of the Rhine, one of the major investors and soon to become the new company's first governor. After a successful trading expedition over the winter of 1668–69, Nonsuch returned to England on 9 October 1669 with the first cargo of fur resulting from trade in Hudson Bay. The bulk of the fur – worth £1,233 – was sold to Thomas Glover, one of London's most prominent furriers. This and subsequent purchases by Glover proved the viability of the fur trade in Hudson Bay.
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