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The plot by the Furrier Monopoly to take control of the United States.

The Hudson Bay Company whose territory was outlined in this map of Canada controled most of Canada's furs, Most of the rest of Canada's furs were controled by their major rival The North West Company,

Russia controled all the rest of the Northern lands (and it's furs) from Alaska all the way around the globe to Canada except for Finland and Norway. After the American Revolution the Hudson Bay Company came up with a daring plan to corner the market on all far northern furs by forming a consortium with The North West Company, Russia's Queen Catherine and Norway which would give them control of over 95% of the worlds warm furs.

Their plan was to wait until the United States formed and then buy the presidency of the United States with liquor, bribes and promises. Then they intended to triple the price of North American furs in Europe. They were very resolved to pursue the endeavor no matter what the expense.

Their problem had always been that they did not control the trappers who were independent. The trading companies were the only ones around that the trappers could sell furs to so they had a monopoly. The trading companies controlled the routes out of Canada as well.

If the price of furs then went high, as the trading companies planned, then the trappers could simply transport their furs out to Europe through any of the 13 states. They could have easily broken any monopoly that way. However the trading companies had a plan. When the Unted States was formed and the Constitution signed the trading companies planned to install their own president who would then stop the transportation of furs through any of the states. Then the Hudson Bay company would have a monopoly on all the furs.

The key to their plan was the presidency of the United States and the person they intended to put in that position was the head or one of two partners in a company out of New York or Boston. He was not born in the US and since he was not yet a citizen it was an easy way to stop him in his tracks. He was actually French I think and had been in Canada north of the Great Lakes. He was a Daniel Boone type of character and most people liked him.

That one line in the Constitution which prevents foreign born citizens from becoming the president was placed just to keep that one person from becoming president.

The whole Hudson Bay company scheme fell apart because if it.

Some of Thomas Jefferson's records will refer to it. I do recall writing about it at the time of my/his election. And again, about two years into the presidency and early in the diary written while in France. However, the diary entry was just an a abbreviated statement about defeating the furriers interests in the north or in Canada. It's not a full statement and is not conclusive on it's own. It's certainly does not constitute the evidence needed in this endevor. Everyone else in the world knew about it though. I am certain hundreds of references can be located and price changes that occurred in the fur industry can be tied into the finding out about what the phrase was meant for as well as the signing of the constituiton itself. Who gained and who lost the most from this is all you need to find out in order to locate the evidence?

The French records must have information on this though the Hudson Bay Company stayed tight lipped about it the whole time. At least one of the other companies involved had investors that they were trying to impress with this plan so it was almost certainly published.

Of the four major trading companies involved I think probably two have information in St. Petersburg since they had control of some of the operations and dealt with in Russian royalty. Maybe the Russian's were going to make more money because of it. I just remember that It was a big issue with those Russian royalty who were visiting Paris when I was there. They were buying up everything they could take back to Russia..on credit. Jefferson was even told that his life would be short if he went near Russia!

Now, I recall. It was mainly Queen Catherine who got upset. Their main source of funds were furs and she was looking at doubling Russia's income in a year once they got their man in as president. As I recall she used lots of the money beforehand.

She built the Russian army and then started the Russo-Turkish War based on a projected increase of fur profits. She was the main one that was upset and to the point of screaming and killing. Most of the rest of the Russian aristocrats didn't care since they got nothing from those taxes and most of them were hooked on Opium. Those records in St Petersburg were probably destroyed several times including during WWII but there must be a few records on the internet or elsewhere that will prove it.*

Yes Maria, it is possible to change that part of the Constitution since it has done it's work and has long ago outlived it's usefulness.

* There is aparently some evidence on the internet that points towards a planned world wide monopoly on furs after all. Principally among these was Rezanov who was one of the ten Barons of Russia and a close friend of Queen Catherine. The most information on the internet is found in the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica. Since the Russians had no free press at the time we must read between the lines to figure out what really happened.

Meeting (in 1788) [with] Shelikov, chief of the Shelikov-Golikov Fur Company, Rezhnov became interested in the merchants project to obtain a monopoly of the fur trade in those distant dependencies. Conscious of latent energies, and already tired of the pleasures of a dissolute court, he became a partner in the company, and rapidly developed into a keen and tireless man of business.

Is it white wash or hog wash? Take your pick. The truth is that the truth was whatever the Queen said was the truth.

One thing that is true was stated here and that is that an independent company wanted a monopoly on all Russian furs in 1788 which is right before the US Constitution was ratified in 1789. (Just this is an immediate confirmation. The timing is just too close to be coincidental.)

Notice that Queen Catherine did not wait for the signing of the Constitution to do her part in the Hudson Bay Company plot. By the time the Constitution was signed Queen Catherine completely controlled the fur trade from Finland across all of Russia, through Alaska and took liberties across about half of Canada. The control would have been complete if the monopoly had succeeded.

I think this is what really happened based on just this little bit of information.

Catherine's representative, Baron Rezhnov, made her a partner in exchange for the fur monopoly. (That meant the company gave half the profits to the Baron who took out a couple percent and gave her the rest.)

One big issue is why did they keep the details of this huge enterprise a secret in Russia even after the fact if not for this reason. Desimination of information is of paramount importance to the success of many ventures that employ independent operators. She would have made it public if there was not an attempt to monopolize the fur trade going on behind the scenes.

Previously Russia only taxed furs a measly 10% from the trappers and this plan would have brought in 50% or more. However they appear to have waited for something to happen elsewhere in the world because Catherine's Fur company spent lots of time doing next to nothing. I guess she was waiting for one of the fur company alternate plots to work, including an assassination of George Washington. Remember they had many upset trappers who were used to killing large animals with rifles and would have volunteered to do the same thing to our president.

It possibly could have been because of the money that was involved. This may be of interest to you as well as the accompaning article about the Alaska Fur trade.

In 1810 a single prime adult female sea otter pelt sold for as much as one thousand rubles, an amount that equaled the total annual salary of three Russian fur traders. PBS

Russia in Alaska 1825 (click for full sized)

You can see how much of Alaska the Russians were claiming. On the right is the Rocky Mountains.