Treaty of Ghent: How It Affected British Fur Trade

Fur trader and director of the North West Company, William McGillivray, argued to retain the British occupied post at Mackinac to secure the fur trade in American territory but the Treaty of Ghent restored the pre-war boundary and this all occupied posts.

The loss of Mackinac and American assertion of the trading rights granted to the First Nations (Indians) in the 1794 Jay Treaty effectively ended the trade for Britain in the American Northwest.  Another blow to Montreal-based fur traders attempting to control commerce in Michigan and Wisconsin Territories came with the Convention of 1818 which settled the U.S.-British North American boundary west of the Lake of the Woods ending any chance of British commercial expansion into the southwest of the continent.

In case you're wondering, the Lake of the Woods is a large lake located on the borders of Manitoba, Ontario and Minnesota.  West of it, the boundary between the two countries is straight.

--Brock-Perry