Rivalry between the North West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company ended in coalition in March 1821. The factors which brought this about were a desire by the British government to bring peace and administrative stability to the Northwest and a recognition on the part of the principal partners of the North West Company and the directors of the Hudson's Bay Company that destructive economic competition could not continue. A key part of the new arrangement was a twenty-one year agreement accompanied by a twenty-one year licence for the new Hudson's Bay Company to trade in regions beyond Rupert's Land in the Northwest. Most of the principal figures in the North West Company were included in the new organization. The agreement spelled the end of the St. Lawrence River system as a fur trade route to the Northwest, although MontrΘal continued as an administrative centre. After 1821 goods and furs moved primarily through Hudson Bay.
A dominant figure in the implementation of the new arrangement was George Simpson, a Scot with a solid business mind but little fur trade experience. Within a decade as resident Governor for the Company, Simpson firmly placed his administrative stamp on its affairs. Efficiency and consolidation were the watchwords in the older trading areas such as the Saskatchewan and Athabasca countries, while expansion took place across the Rocky Mountains, on the Pacific coast and toward the North. To lend dignity to his position as Governor, Simpson was accompanied on trips by his personal bagpiper, Colin Fraser, who piped him into the various posts. Until his death in 1860 Simpson was the paramount personage in western British America. He was, indeed, the "Little Emperor".
In 1830 Simpson initiated the construction of Lower Fort Garry on the Red River north of the settlement. One of the first buildings to be completed was the Big House, this beautiful stone residence intended for the use of Simpson and his wife, Frances. The couple moved in in the fall of 1832 but neither enjoyed living in the West and the next spring Frances left Red River, never to return. The Big House was inhabited subsequently by different Hudson's Bay Company officials until 1911 when the fort was closed. Two years later the building became the clubhouse for the Winnipeg Motor Country Club which occupied it until the 1960s when it was restored as an historic site.
