Commerce Before Empire Pipeline

"While Jefferson had been wrong on the specifics—so far, at least—he was right on the approach. Under the law of nations, colonizing was a gradual process. A successful claim to a region’s preemption rights might start with a nation sending out scientific explorers, to be followed by privately funded fur traders, a few trading posts, and eventually permanent settlements, ideally on rivers so the claim would include the full watershed. By 1802, British ships, Spanish ships, American ships, even Russian ships were trading along the coast of the Pacific Northwest. They were probing the rivers that snaked into its interior, with the Columbia as the most promising. Jefferson knew what would happen next. So far, he told a senator, “no European nation claimed either the soil or jurisdiction.” But soon someone would try to advance the colonizing process: discovery, then occupation; commerce, then empire; furs, then farms."

"The fur trade seemed simple enough. Traders wanted furs they could sell for a profit, including beaver and buffalo. Native people wanted manufactured goods, including metal tools and metal weapons. But complications lurked around every riverbend. A Native nation might want to block its rivals from getting gunpowder and bullets. A European nation might want to encroach on another’s network. America needed to know more. It needed information."