A history of the world's most famous trading company based on Peter Newman's history. In 1838 Sir George Simpson, the governor of the HBC, was toasted at a dinner as the "Head of the most extended dominion in the known world - the Emperor of Russia, the Queen of England and the President of the United States excepted". It was an astonishing but appropriate tribute to a commercial enterprise of unique scope and character, with trading houses that once stretched from the Arctic Ocean to Hawaii. Yet the history of the HBC is less the story of a company than of a people - its self-proclaimed gentlemen-adventurers mapped a continent and built a nation. The exciting story of the company and the people is told in this book.