Extract from HBCA 1733 Fort Albany: A ‘Made Beaver’ could buy one of the following:

Item Amount Item Amount

Beads
¾ lb. Pistols [1 for 4 pelts]
(Coloured)
Kettle, Brass 1 Gun Worms 1
Lead, Black 1 lb. Gloves, Yarn 1
Gun Powder 1 ½ lb. Goggles 2
Shot 5 lbs. Handkerchiefs 1
Sugar 2 lbs. Hats, laced 1
Tobacco, Brazil 2 lbs. Hatchets 2
Ditto Leaf or
1 ½ lbs. Hawk Bells 8
Roll
Thread 1 lb. Ice Chisels 2
Vermilion 1 ½ oz Knives 8
Brandy 1 gallon Looking Glasses 2
Mocotagans (Curved
Broad Cloth 2 yard 2
Knives)
Blankets 1 Needles 12
Flannel 2 yard Net-Lines 2
Gartering 2 yard Powder Horns 2
Awl Blades 12 Plain Rings 6
Buttons 12 dozen Stone Rings 3
Breeches 1 pair Scrapers 2
Combs 2 Sword Blades 2
Egg Boxes 4 Spoons 4
Feathers, red 2 Shirts 2
Fish Hooks 20 Shoes 1 pair
[1 for 1 ¼
Fire Steels 4 Stocking
pelts]
Files 1 Sashes, Worsted 2
Flints 20 Thimbles 6
Guns [1 for 10 to 12 Tobacco Boxes 2
 pelts]
The way to use this document is to establish the standard terms of trade.

As a trader, what do you wish to receive and take back to share within your own
community, perhaps trade in a secondary market, etc.?

As the HBC, you have these standards. Do you wish to or need to deviate from
them to foster exchange, take advantage, or ensure relations, etc.?

Thus, you need as the trader to decide the quantity (how many beaver or other
animal furs that you have or are willing to trade), the quality, and your market
expectations, etc.

At the HBC, you need to do the same from your side of the trade.

Your role as a team is to represent both sides and report on the outcome.

For example, the traders might arrive at the post with only beaver pelts – what
would they be in terms of ‘Made Beaver’ as evaluated by you [the trader] and the
post factor [who is buying them]? Each side might have a different opinion.

Also, you might have other animals, etc. but then they too are ‘translated’ into
made-beaver equivalents.

Don’t get too worried if some of the items aren’t familiar. They are presented as
they are in the original document. You need not trade all of them but to give you
a sense of the variety of goods on offer.