Government, the battle was won. What now remained was to take care that
the Imperial objects, for which some of us had struggled, were not
sacrificed, to indifference in high places at home, or to possible
conflicts between the two Provinces in Canada; and to secure an
energetic management of the business of the fur trade and of land
development by the executive of the Company, whose 144 posts covered
the continent from Labrador to Sitka, Vancouver's Island, and San
Francisco.

It seemed to me that this latter business was of vital and pressing
importance. The Hudson's Bay factors, and traders were, in various
grades and degrees, partners in the annual trade or "outfit," under the
provisions of the "deed poll." This "deed poll" was the charter under
which the hardy officials worked and saved. Their charter had been
altered or varied over the long period since the date of the Royal
concession, in the twenty-second year of the reign of Charles the
Second. The deed poll in existence in 1863 provided that the profits of
the fur trade (less interest on capital employed in the trade, which
belonged to the stockholders who provided it) were to be divided into
100 parts, of which 60 parts belonged to the stockholders, and 40 to
the "wintering partners." The "wintering partners" were the "chief
factors" and the "chief traders." These 40 parts were again subdivided
into 85 shares; and each "chief factor" was entitled to two of such
shares, and each "chief trader" to one share. The clerks were paid by
salary, and only a person who had served as a clerk could be promoted
to a "chief tradership," and only a "chief trader" to a "chief
factorship." Thus all had a direct or remote partnership interest. On
retirement, an officer held his full interest for one year and half his
interest for the succeeding six years.