North America's oldest company ruled a fur empire across Rupert's Land for 354 years, then died a department-store death as the Bay and Saks.
Born
1670 CE
Died
2025 CE
Lived
355 years
Dead for
1 yrs
At its peak
Controlled ~3.9 million km² (Rupert's Land); North America's oldest company
Cause of death
Replaced
The Obituary
Chartered by Charles II in 1670, the Hudson’s Bay Company was granted Rupert’s Land — about 3.9 million square kilometres draining into Hudson Bay, nearly a third of present-day Canada — and ran it as a fur-trading empire and de facto government for two centuries. After ceding its territory to Canada in 1870, it reinvented itself as a department-store retailer, eventually operating the Bay and Saks. The retail model decayed under e-commerce and debt. In 2025, after 354 years, the company sought creditor protection and began liquidating its stores, ending North America’s oldest continuously operating business.
Worth remembering
Its 1670 charter granted it Rupert's Land, about 3.9 million square kilometres — roughly a third of modern Canada.
For its first two centuries it functioned as a de facto government over much of British North America.
Gallery
Entrance to the Hudson's Bay Company trading post at Fort St. James on Stuart Lake, British ColumbiaPublic domain1952 advertisement for Hudson's Bay Company point blankets in The Beaver magazinePublic domain
Sources
Hudson's Bay Company, chartered in 1670, sought creditor protection in 2025 and moved to liquidate its remaining department stores Wikipedia
HBC was for centuries the largest landowner in North America, controlling the vast Rupert's Land territory Wikipedia
The Hudson's Bay Company, chartered in 1670, held a fur-trade monopoly over Rupert's Land — the roughly 1.5-million-square-mile watershed draining into Hudson Bay — and is among the oldest continuously operating companies in the world. Encyclopaedia Britannica
A graveyard tradition: leave a stone to show you came, and remembered.
Buried nearby — by shared fate or a neighbouring lifespan.
