Hudson's Bay Company

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The Hudson's Bay Company (abbreviated HBC and colloquially Hudson's Bay or The Bay) was a Canadian holding company of department stores and commercial property. It was the oldest corporation in North America, founded in 1670 and liquidated in 2025. It was headquartered at the Simpson Tower in Toronto. Today, it serves as an Intellectual Property and brand of Canadian Tire for its iconic point stripe blankets and other merchandise within Canadian Tire stores. The founding royal charter, issued by King Charles II, granted the company the right of "sole trade and commerce" over the Rupert's Land territory, the borders of which were based on the Hudson Bay drainage basin covering most of what is now central Canada and smaller parts of the northern United States. HBC controlled the fur trade throughout English and later British North America, and was its de facto government until it relinquished control of the land to Canada in 1869. The company then diversified with the ownership and operation...

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