THE ROYAL CHARTER
The Royal Charter gave “the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson Bay” a trading monopoly over the Hudson Bay drainage basin. Its clauses outline the rights and obligations of the Company of Adventurers over its new domain, including the right to exploit mineral resources and the obligation to search for the Northwest Passage. The document also detailed how the Company would be governed. The King named his “dear and entirely beloved cousin” Prince Rupert as the Company’s first governor of the territory that would henceforth be known as “Rupert’s Land.” Today, the original Royal Charter is preserved in HBC’s corporate office in Toronto.