At the age of 37, James Douglas is appointed chief factor for the Columbia Department, the highest rank in the fur trade. Douglas now oversees the entire fur trade of the Hudson’s Bay Company west of the Rocky Mountains. Douglas also sets up a fort on the Taku River under the advice of a local Indigenous resident. There, he refuses the demands of local Indigenous traders to price beaver skins at two blankets a pelt and forces them to accept a price of one blanket per beaver skin.

Sage, W.N. (Walter Noble). Sir James Douglas and British Columbia. (Toronto: The University of Toronto Press, 1930), 73, 99, 102, 198.