Then there was the other proprietary class--the actual traders, who conducted the expeditions amongst the Indians and furnished no capital. If they did amass capital by the trade they could invest it in the company through the agents, but could never employ it privately. There were several who from long service and influence who had acquired double shares and these were permitted to retire from activity, leaving one of such shares to whichever young man in the service they chose to nominate, provided always he was approved by the company. Such successions, we are told, were considered as due to either seniority or exceptional merit. The retiring shareholder was relieved from any responsibility concerning the share he transferred and accounted for it according to the annual value or rate of the property. Thus the trader who disposed of his extra share had no pecuniary advantage from the sale, but only drew a continuous profit from the share which as a sleeping partner he retained. [Sidenote: Partnership regulations.] By such means all the younger men who were not provided for at the inception of the North-West company, or when they afterwards entered into service, were likely to succeed to the situation and profits of regular partners in the concern. By their contract they entered the company's service as articled clerks for five or seven years. Occasionally they succeeded to shares before the expiration of their apprenticeship. None could be admitted as a partner unless he had first served such apprenticeship to the fur-trade, therefore shares were transferable only to the concern at large. As for the sleeping partner he could not, of course, be debarred from selling out if he chose, but if the transaction were not countenanced by the rest, his name continued to figure in committee, the actual owner of the share being regarded as merely his agent or attorney. A vote accompanied every share, two-thirds constituting a majority. Such, in brief, was the remarkable constitution of this commercial body--a constitution which was in those days wholly unique. By such regular and equitable methods of providing for all classes of employees, a zeal and independence was fostered. Every petty clerk felt himself, as he was, a principal, and his loyalty and thrift became assured forthwith. It has been argued, and not unjustly, that such a constitution was obvious, that no great merit need be ascribed to its originators, that it was evolved, so to speak, by the situation itself. The character of the fur-trade at that time was such, the commerce so hazardous and diffused over so vast a country, that without that spirit of emulation thus evoked the new fur company must quickly have resolved itself into its constituent particles. Nevertheless, shrewdness, courage and foresight were demanded, and in the persons of these Canadian Scotchmen were forthcoming.