The Company That Became a Country

Podcast: Business History (LS 45 · TOP 1% what is this?)
Episode: The Company That Became a Country
Pub date: 2026-11-04

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Before there was Canada, there was the Hudson’s Bay Company.

HBC had its own laws and its own currency, and at one point controlled trade routes from the Arctic to Hawaii. It started cities like Winnipeg, Edmonton, and Victoria. It also fought an actual war with a rival business over pemmican, a traditional indigenous snack made of dried buffalo meat, fat and berries. 

Business History’s resident Canadian Robert Smith tells Jacob Goldstein how two French traders built an empire out of beaver fur, and how the company they created later signed one of the biggest real estate deals in history. 

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