The newspapers are whizzing with speculation about the fate of historical artifacts in the possession of the bankrupt Hudson’s Bay Company (1670-2025), and particularly the royal charter whereby King Charles II gave the company title to the nearly four million square kilometres of the Hudson Bay watershed. The dying HBC has long since donated its official corporate archives and related material to public museums, and it mostly retained what amount to a few absorbing display pieces. But these happen to include the 1670 charter, which is the legal basis of the company’s existence and a crucial documentary foundation of today’s Canada.