The Hudson Bay Company deliberately destroyed Innu economic independence into serfdom

Evidence

It was the Hudson Bay Company that unleashed the most economic strife in the North, and is likely the largest single exploiter of the region. The Hudson Bay Company created what scholars generally regard as an economic serfdom in the region. Canadian historian Alan Cooke, among others, argues that, during the 18th century, the traders deliberately set out to destroy the economic independence of the Innu by making them dependent on goods they could obtain only from trading posts and by cheating the Innu and other Native people on their price for furs and other trade items. — Winona LaDuke, All Our Relations, 287

Categorization

• XREF: Parallels the monopsonistic trading-house exploitation of West African farmers in A Mission to Civilize — a repeating pattern of colonial trade dependency. — connects to: Colonialism dismantled viable local economies to serve metropolitan profit — Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism, 61; Industrial capital required the destruction of rural household production — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 344

Broader Connections

• Colonialism dismantled viable local economies to serve metropolitan profit #expands (0.88) — Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism, 61
• Industrial capital required the destruction of rural household production #corroborates (0.82) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 344