Grand Portage as a Trading Post: Patterns of Trade at “the Great Carrying Place”

White, Bruce

Although known primarily in the late 18th and early 19th centuries as “the great carrying place,” a transshipment point where the company headquarters and warehouses of the North West and XY Companies were located, Grand Portage was also a trading post. It was located in the midst of a Native community, where company employees wintered, trading with surrounding Ojibwe, also known as the Anishinaabe. The role of Grand Portage as a trading post was acknowledged indirectly around 1800 when North West Company partner Roderick McKenzie stated: “Chipeways about the Grand Portage are few in number—accustomed to opposition in trade they are extremely difficult to deal with.” The implication of this statement is that the Grand Portage Ojibwe caused special difficulties for traders. Because of trade competition they had become experienced negotiators, skillful in getting what they wanted from the trade. It could also be that their mere presence next to such an important company depot provided them with opportunities unavailable to Native people elsewhere. The statement points to the dynamics of Grand Portage, to a special characteristic of the people, the place, and the situation. Competition was one factor which shaped the trade at Grand Portage. But geography, cultural factors, and the roles of individual Indian people and traders all came together to produce a unique set of trade patterns, ones that will be explored in detail in this report.