Early modern globalization and the extent of indigenous agency: Trade, commodities and ecology

Abstract

This paper examines the responses of Indigenous nations and European companies to new trading opportunities: the Cree nations with the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) and the Khoe nations with the Dutch East India Company [Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC)]. This case study is important because of the disparate outcomes. Within a few decades the Cree standard of living had increased, while Khoe nations had lost cattle and land. Standard histories begin with the establishment of trading posts, but this elides the decades of prior intermittent contact which played an important role in the disparate outcomes in these two regions. The paper emphasizes the significance of Indigenous agency in trade.