A common seventeenth-century mercantile practice was the formation of large companies with monopolistic trading privileges. Wealthy entrepreneurs with personal connections in the English court sought such a trading advantage in Hudson Bay. The venture was based upon the idea of a northern sea approach conceived by Des Groseilliers and Radisson who were employed to accompany a 1668 expedition to James Bay. Radisson's ship was forced to turn back but the Nonsuch with Des Groseilliers on board wintered in James Bay at Rupert River and returned the next year with a cargo of furs. This small beginning led eighteen subscribers in 1670 to form the "Governor and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson's Bay". A royal charter granted a crest (inset), along with broad territorial rights and powers of administration. From the beginning the Hudson's Bay Company was hierarchical in structure and closely directed from London. The silver seals, which bear the Company's crest and motto, pro pelle cutem ( for the sake of the fleece, the pelt ), were used to make an impression in wax, giving official sanction to orders sent to the trading posts.
