Beyond Skins: The Far-flung Impacts of Sea Otter Fur Capitalism

Sea otter fur was one of the first commodities to shape the broader Pacific Ocean trade. As the trade expanded, it became entwined in a global network of commerce that stretched from St. Petersburg to Alaska, from Boston to Astoria, from London to Nootka Sound, and from Hawaii to Canton (China, modern-day Guangzhou). This paper aims not just to view the trade qua trade, but to go Beyond Skins to tell four stories of impacts of sea otter fur capitalism, in the areas of geopolitics, Indigenous cultures, trade in China, and local ecology. Originating in the Pacific Northwest, the sea otter fur trade drew the attention first of traders and then of governments as they vied for territorial supremacy over the region. The reliance on Indigenous labor resulted in immense Indigenous influence over the trade until the impacts of disease, government policy, and the declining sea otter population reversed that dynamic. In Canton, at the other end of the supply chain, the sea otter trade provided an entrée for Americans who, with their aggressive practices, undermined the meticulously built, yet delicate, Chinese trading system at a crucial time. Finally, this paper explores what in hindsight seems inevitable, the trade's devastation of the sea otters themselves.