Job Title:
Research Assistant – An Economic History of the Canadian Fur Trade

Special Skills Needed:

• Proficiency in Microsoft Excel
• Strong organizational skills
• Attention to detail
• Self-motivated
• Patient
• Ownership of a laptop

Job Description:
Under the direction of Assistant Professor Matthew Gregg, you will be responsible for creating an Excel database on the purchases of European goods by Native fur traders in Canada from annual trade accounts collected by the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) from 1716-1770.

In particular, you will be asked to collect expenditure data (such as, inter alia, the quantity demanded of alcohol, tobacco, guns and blankets) from four HBC trading posts over the eighteenth century. Other variables such as the number of beaver pelts traded, amount and type of gifts exchanged, and number of canoes arrived in each year will also be collected. You will also be in contact with HBC archivists to organize regular inter-library shipments of their microfilmed documents.

Ideally, by the end of this project, you will have created four separate excel documents containing data on the behavior of Native fur traders at each HBC trading post from 1716-1770

Academic Major Preferred (if any):
Economics, History, any major

Contact Name:
Matthew Gregg

Contact Phone Number:
401-254-3160

Contact Email Address:
mgregg@rwu.edu 

Contact Department:
Economics

Beginning Date:
September 1st, 2009