The system of trade was simple barter. The equivalent of value was beaver skins; while skins of less value were again calculated as so much of each for one beaver. A kettle was exchanged for one beaver. A pound and a half of gunpowder, one beaver. One blanket, six beavers. Two bayonets, one beaver. Four fire-steels, one beaver. One pistol, four beavers. Twelve needles, one beaver. One four-foot gun, twelve beavers. Three knives, one beaver, and so on over a long list of various articles. Some of the things exchanged nearly 130 years ago, show that the Indians had a good knowledge of trade, and of objects used by civilised people. For example; brandy (English), one gallon, four beavers. Vermilion, one and a half ounces, one beaver; and combs, egg-boxes, files, glasses, goggles, handkerchiefs, hats (laced), hawk- bells, rings, scissors, spoons, shirts, shoes, stockings, and thimbles. The factors were accused of imposing upon the Indians by using defective weights and measures; and it was said that the doubtful profit thus made, in opposition to the standards sent out from England, was called the "overplus-trade." In the year 1748, the forts and settlements of the Hudson's Bay Company "in the Bay" were:-- _Latitude_ Moose Fort 51 28 Henley House, or Fort 52 The East Main House 52 10 Albany Fort 52 18 York Fort 57 10 Prince of Wales' Fort 59 This limited occupation contrasts in a marked manner with the area of posts, all over the continent, at this later date; see a list at pp. 222-226, and a map in front of this volume. The skins and other articles imported, and sold at the Company's warehouse, in the City of London, by the "inch of candle"--a mode of auction common in those days (under which the bidding went on till the inch of lighted wax, candle went out)--fluctuated in the ten years between the years 1739 and 1748 very much. In that period the highest and lowest prices were for:--