Selkirk’s Ulterior Motives – Part 1
by Elizabeth Campbell
Back in December, I said I would write a series on the motivation various people have thought was behind Lord Selkirk’s establishing the Red River Settlement. Sorry to have kept you waiting so long!
I thought I would start with Alexander Ross’ list for a couple of reasons. It’s where I first met with a published list in my own reading. It’s also probably the first widely read publication that considered all the reasons that were floating around in a period close to the actual colonisation of Red River (Ross’ Red River Settlement was first published in 1852).
1st. According to the North-West creed, his lordship planted the colony to ruin their trade. From the jealous and hostile feuds carried on in the country at the time, by the partisans of the two rival companies, the North-West and Hudson’s Bay, it was alleged by the former, and with some degree of reason, that Lord Selkirk, who was a large shareholder in the latter, endeavoured to check the physical superiority of his opponents, and by means of the new colony secure to the Hudson’s Bay Company, and to himself, not only the extensive and undivided trade of the country within their own territories, but a safe and convenient stepping-stone for monopolizing all the fur trade of the far west; which would have been a death blow to their concern.
~ Alexander Ross, The Red River Settlement, p. 16.
Ross himself did not believe that this was the real motivation behind Selkirk’s philanthropic work at Red River, as we shall see later. But he does indicate that what is important is that this is what the Nor’ Westers believed, and it was this belief that led to the “hostility and enmity, on their part, [and] was the cause of all the troubles and misfortunes the colonists had to contend with for many years afterwards….” [pp. 16-17] That little word ‘all’ is surely an exaggeration, but Ross certainly makes a point!
Tags: HBC & RRS relations, RRS Origins, RRS Politics, Thomas Douglas Fifth Earl of Selkirk
