On this day in history: Hudson`s Bay Company incorporated, 1670

In 1668 two English ships sailed for Hudson Bay to evaluate trade opportunities in the area. The expedition was instigated by two French fur traders called Médard des Groseilliers and Pierre-Esprit Radisson who had discovered from the Cree that the area was good for furs. After approaching a group of Boston businessmen, the two travelled to England where they commissioned the vessels.

Following a successful trade mission, on 2nd May 1670 King Charles II granted a Royal Charter to incorporate the The Governor and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson's Bay (commonly called the Hudson's Bay Company) at the instigation of the King's cousin, Prince Rupert who became the first governor of the company. The Charter granted the Company a monopoly of trade with the indigenous populations in any area where rivers flowed into the Bay. This area, covering approximately one and a half million square miles, was named Rupert's Land in honour of the first governor.

The Hudson's Bay Company is still in existence. You can find out more about its history at the Company's web site, including the full text of the Charter.

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On this day in history: First World`s Fair, 1851

On 1st May 1851, Queen Victorian opened the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations, in Hyde Park, London. Unlike the 1844 French Industrial Exposition, the Great Exhibition included exhibits from other nations - although British industrial developments enjoyed pride of place - setting the template for all future World's Fairs.

The building that housed the exhibition, designed by Joseph Paxton, was nicknamed the Crystal Palace. After being dismantled at the end of the exhibition, the building was re-erected in an enlarged form at Sydenham, in South London where it remained until it was destroyed by fire in 1936.

The exhibition attracted an estimated six million visitors (equivalent to around a third of the population of Great Britain at that time), ensuring that the exhibition made a profit of £186,000. This surplus was used to establish the Victoria and Albert Museum, which, along with the Science Museum, acquired many of the exhibits.

For more information on the 1851 Exhibition see the Great Exhibition Overview pages at The Victorian Web.

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On this day in history: Louisiana Purchase Treaty signed, 1803

In 1763, the Treaty of Paris was signed ending the Seven Years War between Great Britain and France. One of the articles required that the French give up all their colonies in North America. As such, Spain took control of the vast territory of Louisiana. Seven years later, the French and Spanish secretly signed the Third Treaty of San Ildefonso returning de jure control of the territory to the French, even though it remained under de facto Spanish control.

When Thomas Jefferson, then President of the United States, received news of this retrocession he sent Robert Livingston and James Monroe to France to negotiate the purchase of the city of New Orleans. Their initial overtures were rejected by the French; however, a year later, with the recently signed Peace of Amiens in tatters making a resumption of war between France and Great Britain more likely, Napoleon Bonaparte decided to offer not only New Orleans, but the whole of the Louisiana territory to the United States. Bonaparte realised that the territory would have been a tempting target for the British, and he could use the profits from the sale to fund the war.

Despite opposition in the U.S. the treaty was signed in Paris on 30th April 1803 by Livingston and Monroe on behalf of the U.S. and by the marquis de Barbé-Marbois for the French. The U.S. government made two payments in return for Louisiana: the first for sixty million francs ($11,250,000) and the second of 20 million francs ($3,750,000) would be paid to U.S. citizens to cover claims made by them against the French nation. The U.S. Senate ratified the treaty on 20th October. The Americans took control of New Orleans on 20th December 1803, and the rest of the territory following a formal ceremony on 10th March the following year.

The Avalon Project at the Yale Law School website includes pages dedicated to the Lousiana Purchase, including the text of the treaty.

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