A History of Oregon, 1792-1849: Drawn From Personal Observation and Authentic InformationGray, W. H. (William Henry)
History
A History of Oregon, 1792-1849: Drawn From Personal Observation and Authentic Information
Gray, W. H. (William Henry)
Frontier and pioneer life -- Oregon; Oregon Territory -- History
For the right of the free navigation of the Columbia River, £300,000.
For their forts, farms, posts, and establishments, with the buildings
and improvements, £285,350, making, in all, £785,350, or $3,822,036.67,
or £385,350 more than the whole amount of nominal stock which they claim
to have invested in their entire trade.
We will not stop to speak of the morality of this claim; it is made in
due form, and this with the claim as set forth in the same document, to
wit: For lands, farms, forts, and improvements, £190,000; loss of live
stock and other losses, £50,000; total, £240,000--equal to $1,188,000,
to be paid in gold. In British money these two sums amount to £1,025,350
sterling, in American dollars to $4,990,036.67; or £625,350 sterling
money more than their nominal stock, and £998,050 sterling more than all
their real stock invested.
It will be remembered that this demand is simply on account of the
settlement of Oregon by the Americans. A part of the posts for which
this demand is made are still in their undisputed possession, and a
large portion of the claim is set up in consequence of the loss of the
profits of the fur trade, of that portion of their business as conducted
in territory that originally belonged to the United States, and was
actually given up to them by the treaty of December 24, 1814.
The reader will bear in mind, that in the review or discussion of this
Hudson's Bay Company's claim on our government, we only refer to that
part of their trade, and the rights or privileges they were permitted to
enjoy, jointly with Americans, in what is now absolutely American
territory. Over two-thirds of their capital has always been employed in
territory that the American has not been permitted to enter, much less
to trade and form a settlement of any kind.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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