Truckhouse

A truckhouse or truck-house was a type of trading post established by legislation in the colonies of British America to regulate the North American fur trade. Truckhouses were maintained in the early to mid-18th century.

Truckhouses in the province of Massachusetts Bay held a monopoly on trade with Indigenous peoples along the Nashua, Merrimack, and Piscataqua rivers.[1] Leach argues that truckhouses "completely dominated" trade in the eastern colonies between 1726 and the 1740s, when King George's War erupted.[2] Despite its dominance, however, the system did not generally turn a profit.[3] Truckhouses sold goods to Indigenous buyers at low prices.[3] The aim of the truckhouse system was to disrupt French diplomatic influence in the area, not primarily to supplement government revenue.[3][4] It also served as a means of regulating settlers' trade with Indigenous peoples.[5]

The Massachusetts General Court, legislature of the province of Massachusetts Bay, established truckhouses by statute in 1699.[1][6] An earlier statute creating truckhouses had been passed in 1694, but the system was disrupted when King William's War—in which many Indigenous groups sided with the French—broke out.[7] The 1699 statute was reenacted every year until 1703.[8] A later statute, passed in 1726, used the truckhouse system to implement terms of the Treaty of Falmouth which followed Dummer's War.[9] The 1726 statute continued until 1731, when a new statute was passed that prescribed trade with Indigenous peoples "at such easy rates and prices as may oblige them to a firm adherence to His Majesty's interest".[10] The 1731 statute continued, with modifications, until 1742.[11]

During the American Revolutionary War, there were truckhouses on the Saint John, Penobscot, and Machias rivers.[12] The Saint John truckhouse was destroyed by the British in 1777.[12] Another truckhouse on the Kennebec was closed before the war ended.[13]

Truckhouse officials, known as truckmasters, included:[14] Samuel Moody (1675–1747), a minister;[15] Joseph Heath, a military official;[16] Joseph Kellogg (1691–1756), a militiaman and trader;[17] Thomas Smith, an Indian agent and father of a cleric of the same name;[18] John Noyes; and Jabez Bradbury, a militiaman.[19][20]

The province of Pennsylvania passed a truckhouse statute in 1758 which was based on the Massachusetts law.[21] The Halifax Treaties, concluded in 1760–1 between the Miꞌkmaq and the British Crown, included provisions establishing truckhouses in Nova Scotia.[22]