Although North America was largely ignored by Europeans for a hundred years after its discovery, the area around Newfoundland was visited regularly by fishermen. These men often traded with natives, and the furs they brought back attracted a new sort of entrepreneur, the fur trader. Ships from France, Spain, England, and the Netherlands cruised the coast looking for native hunters willing to trade furs for knives and other goods. The French tried to monopolize the northern trade by placing outposts along the St. Lawrence River to intercept natives coming from the interior. The Dutch placed outposts at New Amsterdam and Albany on the Hudson for the same purpose. A beaver fur that could be obtained for a few tools and trinkets might sell for huge profits in Europe.
The demand for fur created intense rivalries on both the European and native sides. Wars were fought for control of the coasts, while native tribes fought over trapping grounds and the role of middlemen with the Europeans. As beaver populations were completely extinguished nearer the coasts, the traders and trappers had to push further inland. The French placed trading forts along the Great Lakes and eventually down the Mississippi River. The fur trade moved all the way to the Pacific Coast up rivers like the Missouri, and the Russians also sought sea otter furs.
The quest for furs was the critical factor in the early exploration and settlement of North America, but the industry had limited era of dominance. As colonies expanded in North America, changes in European tastes for hats, the growing scarcity of easily obtainable furs, and rising demand for other important resources (such as farmland, timber, and minerals) reduced the fur trade to a shadow of its former prominence.
