A company chartered in 1670 to Prince Rupert and 17 others by Charles II to govern and trade in the vast area of the Canadian north-west, called Rupert’s Land, which drained into Hudson Bay. Although huge profits accrued from the fur trade, the company was, until 1763, threatened by competition and military attack from the French. From 1787 there was occasionally murderous conflict with the North-West Company over control of the fur trade until the two companies amalgamated in 1821.