the Nor’westers did not appreciate Selkirk’s plan to establish a food-producing colony on their line of communication from Montreal to the Athabasca. The NWC declared virtual war on the colony. Fields of grain were trampled, men and women were driven from their homes, some were carried off for resettlement in Canada, and in 1816 Governor Semple and twenty of his men were shot to death at Seven Oaks, just north of the settlement. Selkirk’s thoughts of a peaceful outcome were dashed by the conflict between the two companies, which lasted until the union in 1821.
And where was George Simpson in the decade while all this was going on? He was in the clerk’s room at the counting house, at the partner’s table for meals, at the drawing room social events, listening to Andrew Colvile and Thomas Douglas expound on their ideas for transforming Rupert’s Land. At other times he was in the drawing rooms of Sir Alexander Mackenzie, listening to the old adventurer propound his idea for a transcontinental empire of the fur trade. In this strange way the young apprentice was immersed in the ideas of both houses. In time it would be George Simpson’s task to bring together the ideas of these three visionary men, as he sought to bring order out of chaos in the wreckage of the fur trade.
As the teens of the nineteenth century progressed, so did George’s business fortunes. Even his two worst enemies admit as much. His cousin Alexander Simpson tells us that, once in London, “his advance was rapid, for he was clever, active, plausible, and full of animal spirits.” Similarly, John MacLean said that by 1820, at the age of twenty-seven or twenty-eight, “his talents had advanced him to a seat at the first desk.” We have no reason to doubt that his rise was rapid and that by 1820 he was the head clerk, a position, judging by his performance in the Athabasca a few months later, woefully inadequate for his abilities. By 1820 his place in the bland world of colonial brokerage seemed secure.
Historian E.E. Rich claims that when Simpson entered the fur trade in 1820, he was an “utter novice” and “complete greenhorn.” But Simpson was no greenhorn, no novice. He had been in the company of Andrew Colvile since 1808 and had helped him in his capacity as Committee member. He knew personally the Earl of Selkirk and the other members of the Committee, and knew their tactical plans for victory in the Athabasca. He also knew Sir Alexander Mackenzie, with his breadth of knowledge of the Northwest and his geopolitical theory for a unified fur trade. As Simpson’s responsibilities in the HBC grew, he was to gain increasing intimacy and understanding of the workings of the Company. When he entered Rupert’s Land in 1820 he was a seasoned manager of men, expert bookkeeper and analytical accountant, and, behind it all, he had formed a concept for transcontinental mastery.
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