James Gibson's thoroughly researched and highly detailed study is the first comprehensive account of the maritime fur trade on the Northwest Coast of North America. Before Euro-American contact, the native peoples of the Northwest Coast had traded amongst themselves and with other indigenous people farther inland, but by the end of the 1780s, when Russian coasters had penetrated the Gulf of Alaska and British merchant ships were frequenting Nootka Sound, trade had become. The dominant economic activity in the area. The Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, Nootka, Salish, and Chinook spent much of their time hunting fur-bearing animals and trading their pelts - especially the highly prized "black skins" of sea otters - to Russian, British, Spanish, and American traders for metals, firearms, textiles, and food. The Northwest Coast Indians used their newly acquired goods in intertribal trade, while the Euro-Americans traded their skins at Canton for. Tea, silk, and porcelain which they then sold in Europe and America. This traffic continued for more than half a century until, in the early 1840s, the Northwest trade declined significantly with depletion of the fur-bearing animals due to overhunting, depopulatlon of the Natives by disease and warfare, and depression of the market for furs. While previous studies have concentrated on the boom years of the fur trade, before the War of 1812, Gibson reveals that the. Maritime fur trade persisted into the 1840s and shows that the trade was not solely or even principally the domain of American traders. He gives an account of Russian, British, Spanish, and American participation, describes the market in South China, and outlines the evolution of the coast trade. He also assesses the physical and cultural effects of this trade on the Northwest Coast and Hawaiian Islands and on the industrialization of the New England states. Gibson's new. Interpretations derive from his use of Western primary sources that have been largely ignored by previous investigators; Russian-language sources not consulted by others; the records of the Russian-American, East India, and Hudson's Bay companies; the unpublished logs and journals of a number of American ships; and the business correspondence of several New England shipowners.