Growing Economy

The first companies in Canada were formed during the French and British regimes and competed for the fur trade. The Hudson's Bay Company, with French, British and Aboriginal employees, came to dominate the trade in the northwest from Fort Garry (Winnipeg) and Fort Edmonton to Fort Langley (near Vancouver) and Fort Victoria -- trading posts that later became cities.

The first financial institutions opened in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The Montreal Stock Exchange opened in 1832. For centuries Canada's economy was based mainly on farming and on exporting natural resources such as fur, fish and timber, transported by roads, lakes, rivers and canals.