The episode examines the fur trade’s continued role in the early 19th‑century Ottawa Valley. Though dominated by lumber, the region still relied on furs as a seasonal income source for settlers and Indigenous hunters. After the fall of New France, the Hudson Bay Company held a monopoly, challenged by the North West Company until their forced 1821 merger. Bytown’s rise during the Rideau Canal project created a new hub for independent and Indigenous traders. American traders, bringing cash and alcohol, further weakened HBC influence. By the 1830s–40s, Bytown had become a competitive centre for small‑scale fur trading, sustaining local economic diversity.