Supply & Demand: The Ledgers & Gear of the Western Fur Trade by McCloskey and Olsen

A collection of excerpts from Western fur trade ledgers showing the items that were sent to trading posts and fur companies during the heyday of the mountain men. By Oliver McCloskey and Scott "Doc Ivory" Olsen. Softcover, 8-1/2" X 11", 194 pages.

McCloskey and Olsen have assembled a cache of Western fur trade ledgers that show just what items were being sent to trading posts and fur companies during the heyday to the mountain men. Some of the ledgers and accounts also show what the individual trappers were buying. The original ledgers in this book include goods bound for Fort Astoria in 1810, William Ashley’s accounts from the rendezvous in 1825, goods transferred by Ashley to Smith, Jackson and Sublette in 1826, Robert Campbell’s accounts from 1832, accounts of items shipped to and traded at Fort Union from 1828 to 1840, Fort Hall ledgers in 1834, annuities for several Indian tribes in 1836, Fort Uncompahgre and Bent’s Fort ledgers and accounts from various other trappers and companies in the fur trade.

An added bonus are the research articles written by Allen Chronister. Chronister is a noted fur trade researcher and author whose work has appeared in numerous historical publications. The articles printed here were written for the newsletter published by the Upper Missouri Outfit of the American Mountain Men. In them Chronister notes many seemingly unusual items in the trade and helps explain the background and significance of some of the items listed in the ledgers.

Supply & Demand contains a wealth of information that is informative—and sometimes surprising, in regard to what was bought and sold in the Rocky Mountain fur trade during the mountain man era. It’s definitely a must-have book for the modern-day mountain man’s library.