When the Columbia Rediviva sailed to the Pacific Northwest for the fur trade, they carried mostly iron chisels for trading to the natives. The natives were less than impressed and wanted copper or weapons.
But why iron chisels in the first place? Why did they think that the natives would want that many iron chisels?
Iron and steel are quite valuable in any place where there isn’t any (the meretricious sexual stuff and sailors behaving badly is a red herring here; the point is that iron was locally scarce). A good question is why they imagined there was a shortage of iron ore in the Pacific Northwest.
Chisels are useful for woodworking, and there is quite a bit of wood in those parts.
European designed and crafted iron chisels would have been far superior to any other tools that they had for woodworking.
Perhaps they forgot to consult the USGS maps.
I have almost no knowledge, but would like to throw out a possibility.
Maybe they didn’t think there was a shortage of iron, but a shortage of ability to make iron products.
Maybe that’s why the Indians wanted copper. It’s a material they can work with.
All a WAG.
Native Americans never mined or worked iron.
Sure, but how many chisels can a tribe use?
It’s not so much that some chisels woudl be a bad thing, sure, but that is apparently all they carried for trade goods. Cases and cases of iron chisels. No axes, knives, beads, mirrors, etc.
Do you have a link I could go to to read about this “all chisels” cargo? I looked up the ship on Wiki and didn’t see anything about chisels.
ISTR that native Greenlanders used tools fashioned from iron meteorites.
It wasn’t intended that the locals they were trading with would want all of the chisels for their personal use. It was assumed they would, in turn, trade the chisels with other local tribes.
That was, after all, the way it worked with the furs. The Europeans weren’t planning on wearing all the furs they were receiving. They were going to trade them to other Europeans.
My guess is that chisels are easier to make than knives, axes, and hachets and thus less expensive. Probably cheaper than mirrors, too. Beads, though, would have been even less expensive, so I don’t know why they didn’t bring those.
It should be noted that that ship was not the first one to visit that region. I don’t know if any American ones had preceeded it, but British and Spanish ones had. So it’s possible they had some kind of report on what were the best trade goods.
Haswell, “A Voyage Round the World.
Maybe they just got a good deal on a boat load of iron chisels.
Haswell, “A Voyage Round the World.
lso
But I am not sure that is all they had, they did trade their own excess copper sheeting and what not, but iron chiels were the vast bulk of their trade good.
This cite mentions chisels and other tools, which doesn’t conflict with the OP.
This superior cite describes trade of **chisels **and clothing for otter skins. It’s from Jan 1920 and is therefore in public domain. Emphasis added [INDENT][INDENT] On the morning of July 7 the fast was cast off and the Hope
towed out of the sound, ready to begin the trading. Ingraham was
undecided whether to proceed to the northward or the southward.
Cape St. James lay only about sixty or seventy miles in the latter
direction and Ingraham knew that on the east coast of Queen Char-
lotte Islands the Washington had in 1788 reaped a rich harvest,
obtaining at one village, Kioo-sta, three hundred sea otter skins at
the rate of one chisel each. …
At dawn he fired a gun to announce his
arrival. Whilst awaiting the natives the crew were employed in
obtaining wood, for the supply being plentiful, the cook, he says
burned it “without mercy.” About noon Ucah, the chief, came out
to the Hope, on his neck the iron collar, shining and bright, bearing
evidence of having been carefully scoured and polished. He was
shown the garments with their array of fancy buttons; but whilst
admiring them, he plainly indicated that only the iron collars would
be acceptable in trade ; though the clothes were of ten times greater
intrinsic value. Ucah was insistent to obtain the gift of a cold
chisel as a preliminary to any dealings with his people. How-
ever he met his match. The present was promised, delivery being
deferred until the completion of the trade. Two small and indif-
ferent fur garments (cutsarks) were offered for an iron collar;
but Ingraham refused, being determined to keep the price up, in-
asmuch as five of them constituted a good day’s work for the
smith. Ultimately he obtained these skins for a saucepan, an article
of greater utility, but not so fashionable. Ingraham having in
three days’ trade obtained their whole stock of furs, resumed his
voyage northward. Ucah solicited him to remain, saying he “would
go and fight for skins which he would bring and sell to us, but his
success was too precarious to trust to.” This statement also throws
light upon methods of trade. …
Skidegate, a neighboring chief, came to trade, but Cumshewa
wished Ingraham to order him away. He, however, paid no at-
tention to the request as these people had what he had travelled so
far to obtain. From them he succeeded in getting skins for** chisels **
and clothing. These chisels as they were called in the trade were
merely pieces of flat iron about an inch in width, drawn to an
edge. They are what Dixon and the earlier traders called “toes.”
The jackets were in demand and when they were all sold the
trousers were no longer current ; blue cloth alone appealed to their
taste; green and white they would not accept. Then the crew dis-
posed of all their old clothes. Still the furs kept coming in, but
now there was a great dearth of the means of barter and in the
end Ingraham’s only resource was iron worked into collars or some
more useful form, though the greater the utility the smaller the
value in the native’s eyes.
This chief brought to an art the plan of barter in the form of
reciprocal gifts. He gave to Ingraham his skins and begged pres-
ents in return, taking care that the value thus received should be
greater than he could possibly have obtained in the regular way of
trade : after haggling for an hour over the price of a skin he would
in apparent disgust throw it on the deck with “I’ll give it to you,
then.” Ingraham’s great effort was to avoid these Greek gifts.
Skidegate urged earnestly that his twenty-four retainers should be
allowed to remain on board over night; as they outnumbered the
crew the request was denied. Clothing being still in demand by the
Indians and the supply being exhausted Ingraham bethought him
of some feathered caps and cloaks of the Sandwich Islands that
had been intended for friends in Boston. As soon as he saw them
the chief was captiviated; he must have a cap and two cloaks, for
which he bartered five excellent skins; but no sooner was the bar-
gain closed than he repented and demanded the return of his skins.
This Ingraham stoutly refused: “As sea otter skins were to me
much better curiosities than caps and cloaks I chose to adhere to
the bargain.” Seeing that he was obdurate, the wily old chief
threw the contended articles on the deck and in a high dudgeon
got into his canoe and paddled off a few yards, where he sat sulk-
ing, Achilles-like, until mollified by a small gift.
[/INDENT][/INDENT]
So, not quite "chisels’ per say but just wrought iron in a chisel like form? Ok, makes more sense.
However, I read that the natives had become bored or sated with them, and wanted copper instead.
Also, with patience and a whetstone, it would be fairly easy to transform a chisel into a knife or spearhead. And with a stick and a piece of thong you could easily make a hatchet or an adze out of a fairly broad chisel. So it strikes me as kind of a universal precursor to multiple tools.
Chisels are a portable form of bar steel.
My grandfather was driving through rural Korea when he broke an axle ~100 years ago. They wandered into the local blacksmith to see if he could help them out at all. He asked them what exactly they were driving (a Ford), and produced ~ Ta Da ~ a replacement axle. Which he was buying as bar steel.