Clerk of the Fur Trade: Gall nuts, gall nuts, who's got the gall nuts?

Clerk, Trader, and Merchant

The term "clerk", like "merchant", covers a wide range of endeavor. Indeed, qualifications needed for success as a clerk were much like that of the merchant as detailed by Postlethwayt in The Merchant's Public Counting House (1750): some acquaintance with the commodities of trade, command of foreign languages, knowledge of bookkeeping, shipping, foreign weights and measures, tariffs, foreign exchange, and the stock and produce markets.

No one clerk, as no one merchant, could have complete command of all these particulars and so specialization in trade and commerce took place. For one aspiring to the merchant or trader class, or one of the specialized commercial adjuncts, a term, usually as apprentice, as a clerk in the countinghouse was to be expected.

Thus, the clerk was no lowly scrivner, though some there might be. From the ranks of the clerk came literary notables such as Charles Lamb, the insurance brokers of England, and many of the trading partners of North America's North West Company, the largest fur company in the world during it's time in the late 18th and early 19th century.

The Clerk is available for presentations regarding the life of the clerk, the fur trade of the North West Company, accounting and paperwork of the era as it relates to the fur trade. The Clerk's skills are also demonstrated by way of the cutting of quills and the manufacture of ink using the correct recipe of the 18th century.

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Gall nuts, gall nuts, who's got the gall nuts?

This is the first in a flurry of posts; I probably should space them out but I've got the time over the long weekend so here goes:

Gall nuts are starting to appear. Apparently, the weather or something has delayed the wasp egg laying component here in the Upper Midwest. I've been finding gall nuts, though not as abundantly as I would hope. Going up to the oak savannah in Anoka MN next week to check out the supply there.

The gall nuts I have found have ranged from dried to green and probably still containing the larvae. They are, for the most part, rather large. I've picked a few green ones as an experiment to see how they compare.

Next up, Grand Portage's countinghouse and the movie filmed there, and Punch and Judy arrive at Grand Portage from the 18th century. See you in a day or so.

1 comment:

EJDJanuary 1, 2011 at 7:04 AM
Hello:

I wanted to let you know about my book, FUR, FORTUNE, AND EMPIRE: THE EPIC HISTORY OF THE FUR TRADE IN AMERICA (W. W. Norton, July 2010). A video that gives an overview of the book can be found on YouTube at,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSNNoeUf4bA

You can also find out more about the book at my website: www.ericjaydolin.com.

Please share the links to my video and website with others who might be interested in the book.

Thanks for your time.
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Saturday, September 4, 2010

Gall nuts, gall nuts, who's got the gall nuts?

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