Dictionary.net

This trade, especially that in beaver, was an important element in the economic life of all the colonies in the seventeenth century, and in the struggle between England and France for the possession of North America, also in all negotiations respecting the northwest boundary of the United States. As the trade receded farther and farther to the northwest, the Hudson Bay Company and the Northwest Company, established in 1783 by England, tried to monopolize it. In 1809 John Jacob Astor secured the incorporation of the American Fur Company. He founded Astoria in Oregon, and attempted to connect it with Mackinaw by a line of posts and consolidate the whole northwestern fur-trade. After the War of 1812 he renewed his attempt. In 1816 Congress passed an act excluding foreign fur-traders.