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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) is a Canadian holding company of department stores and commercial property. It was the oldest corporation in North America, founded in 1670 and liquidated in 2025. It was headquartered at the Simpson Tower in Toronto.
The founding royal charter, issued by King Charles II, granted the company the right of "sole trade and commerce" over the Rupert's Land territory, the borders of which were based on the Hudson Bay drainage basin. It controlled the fur trade throughout English and later British North America, and was its de facto government until it relinquished control of the land to Canada in 1869. The company then diversified with the ownership and operation of several retail businesses throughout the latter country. It established its namesake department stores in 1881, the Home Outfitters home furnishings stores in 1999, and acquired the Zellers and Fields discount stores in 1978. It also owned several regional department stores that were eventually converted to The Bay, including Morgan's, Simpsons, and Woodward's. Expansions beyond Canada included the United States, where it owned department stores including Lord & Taylor, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Saks Off 5th in the 2010s; and the Netherlands, where it sold its remaining stores in 2019.
The Thomson family was the majority stockholder of HBC from 1979 to 1992 and sold its last shares in the company in 1997. HBC was bought by American businessman Jerry Zucker in 2006 and became privately held. Following Zucker’s death in April 2008, HBC was acquired by NRDC Equity Partners and was operated by the latter's holding company Hudson's Bay Trading Company until 2012. HBC went public again from 2012 to 2020 on the Toronto Stock Exchange, with NRDC as the main shareholder.
HBC spun-off its American assets into the holding company Saks Global in November 2024, and filed for creditor protection in March 2025. By this time, its business consisted only of Hudson's Bay stores and the Canadian locations of Saks. Following the closure of its remaining stores by June 2025 and the subsequent sale of its intellectual property to Canadian Tire, the Hudson's Bay Company was formally renamed 1242939 B.C. Unlimited Liability Co. in August 2025. By December 2025, the liquidation of the company was essentially over, with the royal charter and art collection having been auctioned off, and the former store leases either sold to other parties or returned to landlords. As of February 2026, eight people were still working at the company, compared to 9,364 when it had filed for creditor protection and closed its stores in 2025, and a high of 70,000 employees back in 2006.
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.
A royal charter from King Charles II incorporated "The Governor and Company of Adventurers of England, trading into Hudson's Bay" on 2 May 1670. The charter granted the company a monopoly over the region drained by all rivers and streams flowing into Hudson Bay in northern parts of present-day Canada, taking part on behalf of England. The area was named "Rupert's Land" after Prince Rupert, the first governor of the company appointed by the King. This drainage basin of Hudson Bay spans 3,861,400 square kilometres (1,490,900 sq mi), comprising over one-third of the area of modern-day Canada, and stretches into the present-day north-central United States. The specific boundaries remained unknown at the time. Rupert's Land would eventually become Canada's largest land "purchase" in the 19th century.
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Hudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company (abbreviated HBC and colloquially Hudson's Bay) is a Canadian holding company of department stores and commercial property. It was the oldest corporation in North America, founded in 1670 and liquidated in 2025. It was headquartered at the Simpson Tower in Toronto.
The founding royal charter, issued by King Charles II, granted the company the right of "sole trade and commerce" over the Rupert's Land territory, the borders of which were based on the Hudson Bay drainage basin. It controlled the fur trade throughout English and later British North America, and was its de facto government until it relinquished control of the land to Canada in 1869. The company then diversified with the ownership and operation of several retail businesses throughout the latter country. It established its namesake department stores in 1881, the Home Outfitters home furnishings stores in 1999, and acquired the Zellers and Fields discount stores in 1978. It also owned several regional department stores that were eventually converted to The Bay, including Morgan's, Simpsons, and Woodward's. Expansions beyond Canada included the United States, where it owned department stores including Lord & Taylor, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Saks Off 5th in the 2010s; and the Netherlands, where it sold its remaining stores in 2019.
The Thomson family was the majority stockholder of HBC from 1979 to 1992 and sold its last shares in the company in 1997. HBC was bought by American businessman Jerry Zucker in 2006 and became privately held. Following Zucker’s death in April 2008, HBC was acquired by NRDC Equity Partners and was operated by the latter's holding company Hudson's Bay Trading Company until 2012. HBC went public again from 2012 to 2020 on the Toronto Stock Exchange, with NRDC as the main shareholder.
HBC spun-off its American assets into the holding company Saks Global in November 2024, and filed for creditor protection in March 2025. By this time, its business consisted only of Hudson's Bay stores and the Canadian locations of Saks. Following the closure of its remaining stores by June 2025 and the subsequent sale of its intellectual property to Canadian Tire, the Hudson's Bay Company was formally renamed 1242939 B.C. Unlimited Liability Co. in August 2025. By December 2025, the liquidation of the company was essentially over, with the royal charter and art collection having been auctioned off, and the former store leases either sold to other parties or returned to landlords. As of February 2026, eight people were still working at the company, compared to 9,364 when it had filed for creditor protection and closed its stores in 2025, and a high of 70,000 employees back in 2006.
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.
A royal charter from King Charles II incorporated "The Governor and Company of Adventurers of England, trading into Hudson's Bay" on 2 May 1670. The charter granted the company a monopoly over the region drained by all rivers and streams flowing into Hudson Bay in northern parts of present-day Canada, taking part on behalf of England. The area was named "Rupert's Land" after Prince Rupert, the first governor of the company appointed by the King. This drainage basin of Hudson Bay spans 3,861,400 square kilometres (1,490,900 sq mi), comprising over one-third of the area of modern-day Canada, and stretches into the present-day north-central United States. The specific boundaries remained unknown at the time. Rupert's Land would eventually become Canada's largest land "purchase" in the 19th century.
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