N THEIR TRADE 40
XII. THE ENGLISH AND THE NORTHWEST. INFLUENCE OF THE
INDIAN TRADE ON DIPLOMACY 42
XIII. THE NORTHWEST COMPANY 51
XIV. AMERICAN INFLUENCES 51
XV. GOVERNMENT TRADING HOUSES 58
XVI. WISCONSIN TRADE IN 1820 61
XVII. EFFECTS OF THE TRADING POST 67

THE CHARACTER AND INFLUENCE OF THE INDIAN TRADE IN WISCONSIN.

INTRODUCTION.[1]

The trading post is an old and influential institution. Established in
the midst of an undeveloped society by a more advanced people, it is a
center not only of new economic influences, but also of all the
transforming forces that accompany the intercourse of a higher with a
lower civilization. The Phoenicians developed the institution into a
great historic agency. Closely associated with piracy at first, their
commerce gradually freed itself from this and spread throughout the
Mediterranean lands. A passage in the Odyssey (Book XV.) enables us to
trace the genesis of the Phoenician trading post:

"Thither came the Phoenicians, mariners renowned, greedy merchant-men
with countless trinkets in a black ship.... They abode among us a whole
year, and got together much wealth in their hollow ship. And when their
hollow ship was now laden to depart, they sent a messenger.... There
came a man versed in craft to my father's house with a golden chain
strung here and there with amber beads. Now, the maidens in the hall and
my lady mother were handling the chain and gazing on it and offering him
their price."

It would appear that the traders at first sailed from port to port,
bartering as they went. After a time they stayed at certain profitable
places a twelvemonth, still trading from their ships. Then came the
fixed factory, and about it grew the trading colony.[2] The Phoenician
trading post wove together the fabric of oriental civilization, brought
arts and the alphabet to Greece, brought the elements of civilization to
northern Africa, and disseminated eastern culture through the
Mediterranean system of lands. It blended races and customs, developed
commercial confidence, fostered the custom of depending on outside
nations for certain supplies, and afforded a means of peaceful
intercourse between societies naturally hostile.

Carthaginian, Greek, Etruscan and