n Wisconsin, the term plus stood for one dollar.[233] The
muskrat skin was also used as the unit in the later days of the
trade.[234] In the southern colonies the pound of deer skin had answered
the purpose of a unit.[235]

The goods being trusted to the Indians, the bands separated for the
hunting grounds. Among the Chippeways, at least, each family or group
had a particular stream or region where it exclusively hunted and
trapped.[236] Not only were the hunting grounds thus parcelled out;
certain Indians were apportioned to certain traders,[237] so that the
industrial activities of Wisconsin at this date were remarkably
systematic and uniform. Sometimes the trader followed the Indians to
their hunting grounds. From time to time he sent his engages (hired
men), commonly five or six in number, to the various places where the
hunting bands were to be found, to collect furs on the debts and to sell
goods to those who had not received too large credits, and to the
customers of rival traders; this was called "running a deouine."[238]
The main wintering post had lesser ones, called "jack-knife posts,"[239]
depending on it, where goods were left and the furs gathered in going to
and from the main post. By these methods Wisconsin was thoroughly
visited by the traders before the "pioneers" arrived.[240]

The kind and amount of furs brought in may be judged by the fact that in
1836, long after the best days of the trade, a single Green Bay firm,
Porlier and Grignon, shipped to the American Fur Company about 3600 deer
skins, 6000 muskrats, 150 bears, 850 raccoons, besides beavers, otters,
fishers, martens, lynxes, foxes, wolves, badgers, skunks, etc.,
amounting to over $6000.

None of these traders became wealthy; Astor's company absorbed the
profits. It required its clerks, or factors, to pay an advance of 81-1/2
per cent on the sterling cost of the blankets, strouds, and other
English goods, in order to cover the cost of importation and the expense
of transportation from New York to Mackinaw. Articles purchased in New
York were charged with 15-1/3 per cent advance for transportation, and
each class of purchasers was charged with 33-1/3 per cent advance as
profit on the aggregate amount.[241]

I estimate, from the data given in the sources cited on page 63, note,
that in 1820 between $60,000 and $75,000 worth of goods was brought
annually to Wisconsin for the Indian trade. An average outfit for a
single clerk at a main post