Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 14.djvu/46



38 LIEUTENANT HOWISON REPORT ON OREGON, 1846

they are too wise to depreciate unduly. They are complained of as powerful monopolists; but so long as their power is made subservient to general interests, as well as their own, and stands in the way of rapacious speculators, it avails a good purpose, and is cheerfully recognized by the good citizen. They certainly may be said to establish a standard of prices; and many persons think if they were withdrawn, more competition would arise among merchants, and higher prices would be given for produce; but it should be remembered that their prices, those which they give and those which they take, are uniform, and not subject to those fluctuations which militate eventually against the producer.

They would sell the last bushel of salt or pouhd of nails in their storehouses as the first had been sold ; not increasing the price as the article became less abundant in the market. They give sixty cents for an imperial bushel, or sixty-eight pounds of wheat ; one dollar apiece for flour barrels ; three dollars a thou- sand for shingles, and a corresponding price for other articles of country production. They see very plainly that in the pros- perity of others consists their own; and, acting upon this judi- cious principle, they are content with sure and moderate gains. I have heard general charges of extortion alleged against them, but without proof to sustain them. They have providentially been the instrument of much good to Oregon, as the early emi- grants can testify; and however objectionable it is on some grounds to have a large and powerful moneyed institution, con- trolled by foreigners, in the heart of this young America, its sudden withdrawal would be forcibly and disadvantageously felt throughout the land. In a few years, with a knowledge that the company is to withdraw, there will no doubt be a more enlarged system of trade entered upon by our own merchants, which will eventually supply the place of the company. At present they ca'nnot well be spared, as will be more plainly seen by what I have to say of the commerce of Oregon. These re- marks about the Hudson's Bay Company are made under the impression, prevalent in Oregon where the treaty itself had