X Y Company

   Founded at Montreal in 1795 by several partners of the North West Company, who had become dissatisfied with the administration of the old company, and particularly resented the autocratic ways of its chief, Simon McTavish, popularly known among the fur traders, because of his domineering manner, as "Le Premier," and "Le Marquis." The backbone of the new concern was the powerful Montreal firm of Forsyth, Richardson & Co. Alexander Mackenzie was almost persuaded to join the new company in 1795, but did not actually do so until 1801. Meanwhile the X Y Company had built a post at Grand Portage in 1797, and followed their rivals to the Assiniboine, the Saskatchewan, the Athabaska, and even into the remote Peace River country. On the death of McTavish, in 1804, the two companies were united as the North West Company.

   Index: MS Organized by malcontents from North West Company, 6, 92; builds rival post at Grand Portage, 93; Mackenzie becomes the head of, 98; absorbed by North-West Company, 1804, 99.

   Bib.: Masson, Bourgeois de la Compagnie du Nord-Ouest; Bryce, Hudson's Bay Company.