The Beaver Club was a leading Montreal social and business club formed in 1785. At social functions member traders wore medals which were presented to them to commemorate the fact that they had spent at least one winter in the pays d'en haut, the Northwest. This particular medal belonged to James McGill, one of the founders of the club. The date of the member's inland winter appeared below his name (1766 in the case of McGill, who was also responsible for the founding of McGill University). Members of the Beaver Club also included Canadien winterers whose medals were inscribed "Coterie du Castor". The medal has a diameter of 38 mm.
The Beaver Club demonstrates the close interconnection of business and social ties involved in the North West Company. The Company consisted of business enterprises, centred primarily in MontrÄal, which agreed to cooperate in the western fur trade for limited periods of time. Each agreement, or "syndic", specified how the final profits, if there were any, would be shared. Other members of the Company, such as clerks (commis) and servants (engagÄs) functioned on a contractual basis, receiving a specified wage for specified services. Business ties linking the partners frequently were strengthened by ties of blood and marriage. It was possible for the more skilled, ambitious and socially connected to eventually become shareholding members.
