George simpson biography

The highest-ranking officer of the Hudson's Bay Company in North America, Sir George Simpson, was a talented administrative martinet who was indefatigable, ambitious, and revenue-driven. He effected the continental reorganization of the fur trade and its associated commerce following the merger of the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) and the North West Company in 1821.

Through his initial visit to the Oregon Country in 1824, when he reached the company's headquarters at Fort George (formerly Fort Astoria), Simpson recognized the potential for the Columbia Department to turn a profit and spent the next two decades economizing and diversifying former North West Company holdings in the Oregon Country.

Born in northern Scotland in 1786 or 1787 to unwed parents from different social classes, the diminutive, blue-eyed, redhead honed a knowledge of working-class Gaelic and an "exterior of affability" that would later, in his work with subordinate fur trade employees, smooth the edges of his exa