EXPLORING WISCONSIN'S WATERWAYS: THE PEOPLE AND THE WATERWAYS  115


  ""eavers ana i neir toams , irom I.jeorge icatiln, Letters and
Notes on the Manner, Customs and
  Conditions of the North American Indians (1841). (SHSW WHi(X3)27627)

and Missouri Rivers. These new traders, operating under the Union Jack,
adopted French methods in pursuit of the beaver.
   By the time of the American Revolution, cut throat competition convinced
smaller partnerships to combine in an effort to share the trade and make
profits possible for all. Montreal partners, so active in Wisconsin country
and elsewhere, organized a loose partnership of trading companies known as
the North West Company. Formed possibly as early as 1778, this huge enter-
prise rivaled the earlier chartered Hudson's Bay Company in size and volume
of trade. Operating out of Montreal, its main thrust was to the west and
northwest of Lake Superior, but it did have a component focused around the
Great Lakes. It maintained scattered posts on the southern shore of Lake
Superior and inland. For example, on the Yellow River in northern Wiscon-
sin both the Northwest Company and a temporary rival made up of some
disaffected company partners known as the XY Company constructed trad-
ing posts very close to each other (see pp. 166-167). Its representatives
also
traded at such locations as Prairie du Chien, Manitowoc, Sheboygan, Mil-
waukee, and Kewaunee on Lake Michigan. Other smaller British partner-
ships operated in the Wisconsin country as well. The British continued until
after the War of 1812 to effectively dominate the fur trade in the territory
they
had ceded in 1783 to the United States, and their presence became a thorn
in
the side of American government and American entrepreneurs.
  The person who effectively challenged that British domination and whose
fur trading empire was destined to have a great impact in Wisconsin was John
Jacob Astor. Astor came from the Duchy of Baden to the United States in