“The 1670 royal charter, signed by King Charles II establishing
Hudson’s Bay, is shown on display at the Manitoba Museum.”
ROYAL MONOPOLY CHARTERS
https://theglobeandmail.com/sale-of-hudsons-bay-charter-receives-court-approval
Sale of Hudson’s Bay charter receives court approval
by Susan Krashinsky Robertson / December 11, 2025
“The fate of the 1670 royal charter that launched the Hudson’s Bay Company, and played a pivotal role in the history of Canada, has now been officially decided – with a plan for the document to be shared among four public institutions receiving court approval on Thursday. The 355-year-old parchment had been the subject of significant concern among historians, government officials and Indigenous groups since The Globe first revealed in April that Hudson’s Bay was considering putting it up for sale as part of its insolvency proceedings. After a number of delays, the charter proceeded to a court-supervised auction last week, with the restriction that any successful bidder had to commit to keeping the historic document in Canada and in public hands.
An $18-million joint bid from two of Canada’s most prominent families, the Thomsons and the Westons, was deemed successful after no other qualified bidders stepped forward. Their plan is to donate the charter so it can be shared by four institutions: the Archives of Manitoba, the Manitoba Museum, the Canadian Museum of History and the Royal Ontario Museum. The plan also includes an additional $5-million donation to support the preservation of the document, which carries the wax seal of King Charles II, as well as consultations with Indigenous groups and other concerned parties about how its history should be presented.
“In light of the joint bid and potentially the increased purchase price, no one else wanted to participate in the auction,” Ashley Taylor, a lawyer representing the failed retailer, told the court on Thursday. The financial advisers running the auction, Reflect Advisors LLC, reached out to more than 150 potential buyers, he added. Asad Moten, a lawyer for the Attorney-General of Canada, recommended the approval of the plan, adding that the significance of the document “cannot be overstated. The royal charter has been in a dark box for the last six months, and in a corporate office for years before that,” Mr. Moten said, adding that the plan would have a positive impact on the public’s interest in the document.
Hudson’s Bay, Canada’s oldest retailer, has been selling off a number of assets in an effort to pay down part of the $1.1-billion debt that pushed it to seek court protection from its creditors in March. The charter has been sitting in a protective crate, Mr. Taylor said, while the locked case in which it had been displayed in the Bay’s offices has been stored in a separate crate. Fragments of the royal seal are contained in a separate package also in the crate.
The four institutions will now engage the Canadian Conservation Institute to assess the document’s condition and provide recommendations on how it should be handled. The winning bid came from DKRT Family Corp., the personal family holding company of Canadian businessman David Thomson, and Wittington Investments Ltd., the billionaire Weston family’s holding company. (The Woodbridge Co. Ltd., another holding company and primary investment vehicle for the Thomson family, owns The Globe and Mail.) The two families had previously submitted opposing bids for the document, before deciding to present a joint offer.
The 1670 royal charter was responsible for launching what was first called the Company of Adventurers of England, trading into Hudson’s Bay. The Crown at the time granted the company a trading monopoly over a vast swath of territory covering nearly one-third of what is now Canada. Employing the Doctrine of Discovery, the document claimed ownership over lands and waterways not already controlled by a “Christian prince or state” – without the knowledge or consent of the people living there. Ontario Superior Court Justice Peter Osborne told the hearing he was “gratified” with the results of the auction. The court regularly deals with asset sales and important documents, he said. “It’s not often, however, that we have to deal with a document that is 355 years old and one that has such importance to Canada and its people.”
VELLUM SEASON
https://theglobeandmail.com/hudsons-bay-charter-preservation
Custodians of history: Inside a three-story vault housing the Hudson’s Bay company records and treasures, conservationists prepare to help care for the oldest item in the collection – the royal charter
by Susan Krashinsky Robertson / December 30, 2025 / Updated January 6, 2026
“At Manitoba’s provincial archives, where more than three centuries of Hudson’s Bay Co. history is preserved, there is a time of year they call vellum season. That’s when the animal-skin parchment treasures of Canada’s oldest retailer – records that include a map from 1709, a vellum-bound book of company minutes starting in 1671, and fur-trade journals written in the dexterous cursive of a pre-digital age – can emerge from their climate-controlled vault. It happens only when Winnipeg’s desiccating winter air gives way to spring. Then, humidity is high enough to avoid undulations in the vellum that could warp a book cover or stress the ink and paint on a priceless cartograph. If the conditions aren’t right, “we usually don’t let them circulate,” said Ala Rekrut, manager of preservation services at the Archives of Manitoba, highlighting the meticulous care needed to preserve a collection whose history is deeply entwined with that of Canada.
“The Archives of Manitoba in downtown Winnipeg houses the three-story
Hudson’s Bay Company records vault in an old theatre space.”
Here in this government building – where the three-storey HBC records vault is housed in an old theatre space, constructed at odd angles around an immovable stage that once accommodated circus elephants –conservationists are preparing to help care for the oldest item yet, one that has been missing from the collection until now. The 1670 Royal Charter that founded Hudson’s Bay, granting it a trading monopoly over roughly one-third of what is now Canada, will soon be in public hands for the first time, after centuries tucked away in company boardrooms or storage in Canada and Britain.
“Winnipeg appears as a region on a 1820s map
once used by the Hudson’s Bay Company”
This month, an Ontario court approved an $18-million joint bid from two of Canada’s most prominent families, the Thomsons and the Westons, to purchase the historic document and donate it to the archives, along with three other institutions: the Manitoba Museum, the Canadian Museum of History and the Royal Ontario Museum. The decision ended months of uncertainty and speculation across Canada’s cultural sector since The Globe and Mail first revealed in April that the company was considering selling the artifact as part of its insolvency proceedings – one of many assets Hudson’s Bay has been forced to auction off to pay back a portion of its $1.1-billion debt.
“David Heffel auctions off works of art previously belonging to the
Hudson Bay Company’s collection, in November, 2025.” Laura Proctor
“The fear was real that it could have ended up in a private auction, it could have ended up belonging to somebody, and it’s in their house and no one gets to see it ever again,” said Amelia Fay, director of research, collection and exhibitions at Winnipeg’s Manitoba Museum, which holds more than 28,000 Hudson’s Bay artifacts. When the company, which once controlled all of the territory that is now Manitoba, donated its collection in 1994 – bequeathing the records to the archives at the same time – it held on to the oldest and most prized document, which is why the charter went to auction.
“Ala Rekrut, manager of preservation services, examines a vellum 1709 map.
Meticulous care is needed to preserve delicate historical documents.”
Now, in an unusual arrangement, these museums and archives will share custody of the 355-year-old parchment, collaborate on its preservation, and decide how to present it to Canadians. “We talk about colonial activities in other places. Do we really claim it as part of Canadian history?” said Kathleen Epp, the keeper of the Hudson’s Bay Archives. The charter, she added, is the record of King Charles II claiming the territory without the knowledge or consent of Indigenous people who lived there. “It’s right there. And isn’t that why we need to preserve it?”
“Kathleen Epp, keeper of the Hudson’s Bay Archives,
which houses some of the oldest records in Canada.”
The 2025 collapse of Hudson’s Bay was not the first time the charter’s ownership had been thrown into question by the company’s debts. After the mayor of London loaned £3,200 to the “company of adventurers” in 1679, he held on to the charter as security. Hudson’s Bay got it back after the loan was repaid, only to use it as security to borrow money again in 1681. Since then, the charter has faced other perils: the bombing of England during the Second World War, the ravages of time and movement that have cracked the king’s wax seal (it’s held together with pins), and well-meaning conservationists. One applied wormwood that made the lettering blotchy and illegible on one page; another, a vinyl acetate coating that may have led to darkening and discolouration. At times, it was stored loose, before a succession of display cases were built for it in the 20th century.
“Season Tse, senior conservation scientist at the Canadian Conservation Institute,
performs microfade testing on the 1670 Royal Charter of Hudson’s Bay Co. in 2012”
Before the charter was transferred to Toronto in 1974, a few years after Hudson’s Bay headquarters moved to Canada, executives were sweating over the need to protect it. “I can’t urge upon you too strongly the importance of taking all proper measures to protect this document,” A.R. Huband, who was then company secretary, wrote in a 1974 letter to a colleague, which Ms. Epp pulled from a manila envelope at the archives. Stressing the need to build appropriate housing for the parchment, he added: “We would look like complete fools if it were lost or damaged by fire, theft, or for any reason whatever.”
“The 1670 Royal Charter that founded Hudson’s Bay, granting it a trading monopoly over roughly one-third of what is now Canada, on display at the Manitoba Museum in 2020.”
Now that its fate is decided, the charter’s first stop is at the Canadian Conservation Institute in Ottawa, which last assessed its condition in 2012. “Parchment is ultimately a strong, resilient material, though it is susceptible to extremes in relative humidity,” said Monique Benoit, manager of treatment and collection care in CCI’s objects, paper and archeology division. That means climate control will be needed to preserve the charter in the long term as it moves around the four institutions – and possibly elsewhere in Canada, if it is loaned out. That kind of protection is visible at the Manitoba Archives, where the HBC vault is encased in fire-resistant gypsum covered in a black, bituminous membrane to create an air-vapour barrier. (It looks a bit like the exterior walls are plastered with garbage bags.) Inside on a shelf sits a hygrometer that measures humidity using human hair, which expands and contracts depending on the moisture in the air. The documents held within are not just a history of the company. They are also among the oldest records in Canada.
“A log book dating back to early 1700s documents the arrival and departure
of ships, providing valuable information on climate conditions at the time.”
Ms. Epp flipped through a book of ships’ movements, pointing to a 1719 entry. A vessel called the Mary arrived in Churchill that September, and wintered there when the ice prevented its return, the entry noted in curling script. On the next page, a note of the date it was “homeward bound” the following year. It’s a climate record from more than 300 years ago, and has been used in research to understand our changing planet. “A good example of something created for one thing that shows a whole lot of other information,” Ms. Epp said.
“ledger documenting ‘Indian debts’ dating back to early 1700s.” Shannon VanRaes”
Another example is a book with a marbled cover, titled “Indian debts.” It lists transactions at fur-trading posts: purchases of sugar and moose skins, one adept hunter’s delivery of 17 pounds of plovers. Today, these records can also be used to trace the movements of First Nations, Inuit and Métis families over generations, because they list names of Indigenous traders and, often, their fathers. Last September, the archives launched a digital index of those names, currently at roughly 65,000 entries and growing. Not everyone thinks the charter is so significant. Douglas Sanderson, who is a member of the Beaver Clan from the Opaskwayak Cree Nation and a professor at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Law, points out that the fur trade, and its impact on history, would have existed whether or not a remote sovereign asserted ownership of the land. “It feels to me that it’s part of this story of Canadian history that’s largely mythical,” Prof. Sanderson said, “and ignores the actual story of the actual people who lived through these events.”
“A supplemental Royal Charter was signed in 1970, transferring the company’s
headquarters from London to Winnipeg and formally making it a Canadian corporation.
It features the seal of Queen Elizabeth II.”
It is unclear when or where the charter will first be on display. There is still work to do: The donation – from David Thomson’s holding company, DKRT Family Corp., and the Westons’ Wittington Investments Ltd. – includes an additional $5-million, partly intended to fund consultations with Indigenous leaders. (The Woodbridge Co. Ltd., another holding company and primary investment vehicle for the Thomson family, owns The Globe and Mail.) At the Manitoba Museum, where the Hudson’s Bay collection includes many Indigenous artifacts, that is a familiar process. Walking through the collection, Ms. Fay points to a 19th-century cradle bag from the Red River Settlement, wood and ivory carvings, and a hide coat adorned with quill work. But visitors cannot go beyond one doorway, where ceremonial and sacred items are stored and cared for in partnership with an Indigenous elder. The museum is also working on repatriation requests for some items.
“Various artifacts and the HBC coat of arms are displayed
in the Manitoba Museum in Winnipeg, in April, 2025″
The last time Ms. Fay saw the charter was in 2020, when it was loaned to the museum for the company’s 350th anniversary. Hudson’s Bay reviewed the text Ms. Fay wrote for the display. Next time, she said, there will be fewer confines, and wider consultation, in its presentation. “It sets the foundation for our complicated history with First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples,” Ms. Fay said of the charter. “We really need to consider it, if we are going to go down this path of truth and reconciliation, because we still haven’t acknowledged truth in so many areas. “This document unlocks the door to that. This is the start of it all.”
PREVIOUSLY
RHODES MUST FALL
https://spectrevision.net/2020/06/10/rhodes-must-fall/
COLONIZER’s REMORSE
https://spectrevision.net/2018/07/05/colonizers-remorse/
LEGACY STATUS
https://spectrevision.net/2016/09/02/legacy-status/
