Details
ROBSON, Joseph (fl. 1730s-40s). An Account of Six Years Residence in Hudson's-Bay. From 1733 to 1736, and 1744 to 1747. London: J. Payne and J. Bouquet, 1752.
8o (205 x 125 mm). Advertisement leaf. Two engraved folding maps and one engraved folding plan. (Some spotting.) Calf stamped in gilt (rubbed, rebacked). Provenance: Henry Stevens Sons & Stiles (pencil notation by Frank S. Streeter on front free endpaper).
FIRST EDITION OF "ONE OF THE EARLIEST, AND CERTAINLY THE FULLEST, OF WORKS THAT HAD HITHERTO BEEN PUBLISHED ON THE HUDSON BAY TERRITORY" (Hill). Robson's account argues for breaking the Hudson Bay Company's monopoly and opening the rich resources of the Bay to British traders "as the only Method of keeping it out of the Hands of the French." The Company kept its operations and procedures closely guarded secrets, and this account by an "early corporate renegade" was "the only first hand description published and circulated about the HBC's activities in the first half of the eighteenth century..." (Peter C. Newman, Empire of the Bay, 2000, p.128). Field 1312; Hill 1477; Lande 1418; Sabin 72259; Staton & Tremaine/TPL 217; Streeter sale VI:3648.
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FIRST EDITION OF "ONE OF THE EARLIEST, AND CERTAINLY THE FULLEST, OF WORKS THAT HAD HITHERTO BEEN PUBLISHED ON THE HUDSON BAY TERRITORY" (Hill). Robson's account argues for breaking the Hudson Bay Company's monopoly and opening the rich resources of the Bay to British traders "as the only Method of keeping it out of the Hands of the French." The Company kept its operations and procedures closely guarded secrets, and this account by an "early corporate renegade" was "the only first hand description published and circulated about the HBC's activities in the first half of the eighteenth century..." (Peter C. Newman, Empire of the Bay, 2000, p.128). Field 1312; Hill 1477; Lande 1418; Sabin 72259; Staton & Tremaine/TPL 217; Streeter sale VI:3648.