NOTE: This special episode of Explore is being re-released to mark an important moment in Canadian history: the original 1670 Hudson’s Bay Company Royal Charter is being sold at auction. But thanks to a joint purchase by the Thomson and Weston families, the charter will remain in Canada, ensuring this remarkable artifact of colonial history stays in public hands

In 2020, the Hudson’s Bay Company marked its 350th anniversary. At this time, podcast host David McGuffin headed deep into the HBC vault with Amelia Fay, curator of the HBC Collection at the Manitoba Museum. Together, they unpacked the story and the symbolism of the Royal Charter granted by King Charles II in 1670, a document that established what was then known as “The Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading into Hudson’s Bay.”

Fay describes the charter in vivid detail, from its shimmering vellum pages to its exceptional state of preservation, and explains how this corporate decree laid out the governance structures and sweeping territorial claims that would shape the future of northern North America. Their conversation explores the charter’s complex legacy: how it empowered the HBC to act as a government, shaped settlement and trade across a vast section of the continent and how it is inseparable from the Doctrine of Discovery and the harmful concept of terra nullius, both of which displaced and ignored the sovereignty of Indigenous nations.

With the charter now back in the public spotlight through its historic sale, this episode offers timely context on why the document remains both foundational and deeply problematic, and why understanding its legacy is essential to understanding Canada today.