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.
Sources
A graveyard tradition: leave a stone to show you came, and remembered.