06/10/2025

The Oldest Company in North America Just Shut Down

It operated for 355 years

It was the oldest company in North America, and yet it ended a few days ago not with a bang or a whimper — but instead with a whole bunch of liquidation sales above the 49th parallel. Here’s the story:

Back in the year 1670, the English government issued a charter for a company called, “the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay,” granting it “sole trade and commerce” over what is now a giant part of Canada and a bit of the Midwestern U.S.

Stretching from modern-day northern Minnesota, North Dakota and Montana, to the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan, along with parts of Alberta, Ontario and Quebec, and the entire Canadian territory of Nunavut, it had an enormously lucrative opportunity.

Please select this link to read the complete article from Inc.