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By the 1850s, there were eight posts on the Mackenzie River, supplied
annually by York boats, which had replaced canoes. The only white
residents in the region were those associated with the fur trade.
 Trading was operated on a credit system where the trader "advanced debt"
to the trapper for his winter trapping outfit. The trapper would then sell his
furs to the same trader to make up his debt. Excess furs could be traded
for goods. The amount of credit advanced was based on a trapper's skill
and previous success. A large debt was therefore considered quite
prestigious.
Until 1900, the currency used for trade was the "made-beaver" (MB), or the
value of one prime beaver skin. Furs, provisions, and trade goods were all
assigned prices in MB. Three marten, 10-15 muskrat, one full-size prime
lynx, or six swans were considered equal to one beaver skin. Foxes other
than cross fox sold for two MB. Small "common" skins received half-price.
At Fort Lard in 1855, a plain two-and-a-half point blanket cost eight MB; a
common cotton handkerchief or a knife cost two MB. Four MB would buy a
swan's down vest, a scarlet belt, or just over one kilogram of (musket) ball.
To simplify these exchanges, the Hudson's Bay Company had coins
minted for use in their trading posts, in denominations of MB.
 Typical trade items were woolen blankets, stroud, knives, axes, needles,
kettles, firearms, powder, ball, shot, flint, traps, tea, tobacco, flour, beads
and rum. Indians occasionally received goods in payment for working at
the post, caring for the dogs, fishing, or assisting on river trips. Often, guns
and scarlet coats were made specially for chiefs, and given to them as
presents, along with shirts, hats, tobacco and rum.
In the late 1850s, a new group of Europeans arrived in the Mackenzie
Valley. Anglican and Roman Catholic missionaries came to introduce
Christianity. They relied on the Hudson's Bay Company transportation
system for travel and supplies, and on the trading posts to attract
prospects to their missions, which they built close by.
 The traders provided medical care, law enforcement, counseling, mail
service and transportation, as well as trade goods. In the late 1850s, hares
- a staple food for the region - reached very low numbers. Everyone faced
starvation and hardship, and traders frequently gave out food to starving
Indians who came to the forts for help. Epidemics of smallpox and measles
spread along the Mackenzie River and killed many who had no resistance
to European diseases. The missionaries built schools in Fort Norman and
Fort Providence, and a hospital in Fort Providence, to care for orphans left
after the epidemics.
In 1870, the Hudson's Bay Company sold Rupert's Land to the new
Government of Canada for £300,000. The Company continued to dominate
the fur trade, and the fur trade continued to dominate the North. There
were nine trading posts: Fort Good Hope, Fort Liard, Fort McPherson, Fort
Norman, Fort Providence, Fort Resolution, Fort Simpson, Hay River and
Old Fort Rae.
 In 1875, fur returns for the Mackenzie River District totaled $115,224.
Between 1875 and 1885, values for prime pelts went from $7.90 to $11.48
for bear, from $2.56 to $4.09 for beaver, from $1.82 to $1.30 for red fox
and from 16 cents to 7 cents for muskrat. During this period, silver fox was
the most valuable pelt, worth $53.53 in 1885.
(Photos - Right: A fur baler in Fort Norman. Below: Furs baled for shipment
south.)
Adapted from "A Way of Life", pp 8-18, by Marianne Bromley, Department
of Renewable Resources, (RWED) Government of the Northwest Territories,
Yellowknife, NT Copyright 1986 ISBN 0-7708-7146-1
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