Global Fur Trade: Siberian Sable Tribute, Beaver Hats and Sea Otter Pelts

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In the 16th and 17th centuries fur drove empires much as oil did later. With Europe's beaver and marten hunted out, demand turned to Russia, which lacked gold and silver and paid for European firearms, metals and textiles with sable, marten, fox and squirrel. To keep pelts flowing, Moscow pushed into Siberia and imposed the yasak, a fixed fur tribute from every indigenous male over 15, enforced by holding chiefs and relatives hostage in forts while unpaid governors demanded it two or three times over. Bands of 10 to 15 promyshlenniki trapped for years at a time, and by 1620 Russian dominion ran from the Urals to the Pacific, about 1.25 million square miles.

European hatters wanted castor gras, beaver robes worn by Native Americans until friction removed the guard hairs and left the barbed underwool that felts into waterproof hats. After French authorities confiscated their furs, Radisson and Groseilliers took their routes to London, and in 1670 the Hudson's Bay Company won a monopoly over Rupert's Land. Unions between traders and Indigenous women produced the Métis and the Michif language. On the Pacific coast, sea otter pelts bought tea, silk and porcelain in Canton, Haida and Tlingit traders played captains against each other, and New England profits funded textile mills that raised demand for slave-grown cotton. John Jacob Astor quit in 1834 as animals vanished and the silk top hat replaced beaver felt.

• A sea otter's fur holds up to a million hairs per square inch.
• One beaver pelt could buy several metal axes, saving hours of labor over stone tools.
• Indigenous leaders protested traders' use of rum and brandy as currency.
• Canada has roughly 60,000 active trappers, about 25,000 of them Indigenous.
• California banned commercial and recreational trapping in 2015.