American Fur Trade Case

1) I think that Astor was just doing what any other businessperson would. He obviously wanted to make good money but he tended to seem a bit eager. Overall, Astor was very powerful and successful with his profits and ended up being the richest man in America. I think that he was selfish and he even cut his workers salaries. He was definitely motivated to be the complete best and have the biggest and only American Fur Company while owning 99.9% of the stocks. Astor definitely had outstanding managerial abilities to make tons of profit on every single possible part of labor. He also would purchase furs for extremely low prices. Astor promised that his company would deal with the Indians honestly, in which they did not at all so his ethics were non-existent.

I believe that in Astor’s case, virtue and success are not related at all. There is no doubt about Astor being extremely successful with his company and profits. He definitely did not have any sort of high moral standards. Astor knew exactly what to do to make profit, which was great for him, but he never really thought about the society around him and how to help them.

2) The environment of the American Fur Company began to change in the 1830s. When it hit 1832, the trade almost went completely to halt. This is because a cholera epidemic went worldwide and tons of people believed that it spread to the transported furs being sold. In result of this, the beavers were all trapped in one are to leave none for other competitors and they pretty much used up all of the beavers resources.

3) Economically, an abundant amount of wealth was created from the fur trade in which Astor profited tremendously from. The fur was more on the light side so it was easier to trade with and it was mostly sent out on Astor’s fleet of ships that he owned. Also, North America went through an economic expansion because of the settlements that were made. There was a hurtful impact culturally with the Indian tribes with alcohol, trade goods, and firearms. Astor encouraged many tribes to take trade goods on credit, which resulted in all of the Indian tribes being covered in debt. Basically each tribe ended up needing to owe the fur company up to $50,000. A technological dimension would be that the very first keel boat was made and later on the steamboat. The steamboat also ended up making ecological damage because riverside forests were being destroyed in order to receive fuel. Naturally, the population with animals decreased like crazy because of all the fur being needed for Astor’s company. Forests ended up being cut down significantly as well for fuel and trading posts. A governmental dimension would be that Astor could lower the price of his fur being sold because he would buy fur in bulk. He would also trade alcohol with traders, which many of them wanted and he was great with corrupting influence and bribing. Legally, the American Fur Trade corrupted the environment and treaties were made. President’s Jefferson and Washington also dearly loved the fur trade. This was great for Astor, but the government basically failed to have regulation on the trade. Lastly, internally the whole environment was basically taken over by Astor and all the other outlying fur companies were just simple.