Page:A History of the Pacific Northwest.djvu/114



wheat raisers, all agreeing to return the loans of seed grain in wheat and usually agreeing to sell their surplus to the Company at a fixed price.

The Fort was the market for all. The Company maintained a flouring mill, where settlers could have their wheat ground. Beginning in the year 1839, it supplied grain and flour regularly, under contract, to the Russian American Fur Company in Alaska. It also shipped to the Hawaiian Islands. McLoughlin estimated the export of flour for 1846 at 6,000 barrels, in addition to a cargo of wheat for Alaska.

Lumber and other exports; merchandise. Besides shipping grain and flour, the company sold lumber sawed in their mill near Vancouver, also salmon taken in the lower Columbia. They also supplied from their store at Vancouver and a branch store at Willamette Falls all kinds of merchandise and other supplies required by their servants, ex-servants, and the American settlers. New settlers received credit usually to the extent of their need until they could raise a crop of wheat, from the surplus of which the year's accounts were settled.

Mechanics. The fort had its mechanics, representing all the ordinary trades. There were besides farmers, gardeners and dairymen, smiths, carpenters, tinners, millwrights, coopers, and a baker, and all were kept fully occupied. The carpenters built boats for the river trade and even several coasting vessels. The coopers made barrels for shipping flour and salted salmon.