Fur trade in Nizhny Novgorod (before 1906)

The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of world market for in the early modern period furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the most valued. Historically it had a large impact on the exploration and colonization of Siberia, northern North America and the South Shetland and South Sandwich Islands. Today the importance of fur trade has diminished and is currently centered around fur farms and authorized wildlife hunting, but remains controversial due to the cruelty involved and conflicts with the tourism industry. Several animal rights organizations oppose the fur trade, while supporters often cite their methods as not being cruel, that the animal populations are abundant and their rights to practice a traditional lifestyle should be respected. The use of fur on some items today has been partly substituted by synthetic imitations.

An Alberta fur trader in the 1890s.

Russian fur trade[link]

Before the colonization of the Americas, Russia was a major supplier of fur-pelts to Western Europe and parts of Asia. Fur was a major Russian export as trade developed in the Early Middle Ages ( 500-1000 AD/CE ), first through the Baltic and Black Seas. The main trading destination was the German city of Leipzig.^[1]

Originally, Russia exported a majority in raw furs of the pelts of martens, beavers, wolves, foxes, squirrels and hares. Between the 16th and 18th centuries, Russians tamed Siberia, a region rich in many mammal species, such as Arctic fox, lynx, sable, sea otter and stoat (ermine). In the search for the prized sea otter (pelts first used in China), and, later the northern fur seal, the Russian Empire expanded into North America, notably Alaska. Between the 17th and second half of the 19th century, Russia was the largest supplier of fur in the world. The fur trade played a vital role in the development of Siberia, the Russian Far East and the Russian colonization of the Americas. To this day sable is a regional symbol of Ural Sverdlovsk oblast and Siberian Novosibirsk, Tyumen and Irkutsk oblasts of Russia.^[2]

Fur muff manufacturer 1949 advertisement

The European discovery of North America, with its vast forests and wildlife, particularly the beaver, led to the continent becoming a major supplier in the 17th century of fur pelts for the fur-felt hat and fur trimming and garment trades of Europe. Fur was a major source of warmth in clothing, critical prior to the organization of coal distribution. Portugal and Spain played major roles in fur trading after 1400s with their business in fur hats.^[3]

Siberia[link]

Merchants and boyars of Novgorod had exploited the fur resources “beyond the portage”, a watershed at the White Lake that represents the door to the entire northwestern part of Eurasia, from as early as the tenth century. They began by establishing trading posts along the Volga and Vychegda river networks and requiring the Komi people they encountered to give them furs as tribute. Novgorodians expanded farther east and north, coming into contact with the Pechora people of the Pechora river valley and the Yugra people residing near the Urals. Both of these native tribes offered more resistance than the Komi and killed many tribute collectors throughout the tenth and eleventh centuries.^[4] As Muscovy gained more power in the fifteenth century and proceeded in the “gathering of the Russian lands”, the Muscovite state began to rival the Novgorodians in the Far East. During the fifteenth century Moscow began subjugating many native tribes. One strategy was to exploit the antagonisms between tribes, notably the Komi and Yugra, by recruiting men of one tribe to fight in an army against the other tribe. Campaigns against native tribes in Siberia were minimal until they began on a much larger scale in 1483 and 1499.^[5]

Besides the Novgorodians and natives, Muscovites also had to contend with the various Muslim Tatar khanates of Siberia. In 1552, Ivan IV took a great step towards securing Russian superiority in Siberia when he sent a large army to attack the Kazan Tartars and ended up obtaining the territory from the Volga to the Ural Mountains . It was at this point that the phrase “ruler of Obdor, Konda, and all Siberian lands” was included in the title of the Tsar of Muscovy.^[6] Even so, problems pursued in 1558 when Ivan IV sent Grigoriy Stroganov to colonize land on the Kama and subjugate and enserf the Komi living there. Stroganov soon came into conflict with the Khan of Sibir whose land he was encroaching on. Ivan told Stroganov to hire Cossack mercenaries to protect the new settlement from the Tatars. The band of Cossacks was led by Yermak Timofeyevich who fought many battles that eventually culminated in a Tartar victory and the temporary end to Russian occupation in the area. In 1584, Ivan’s son Fyodor sent military governors (voyevodas) and soldiers to reclaim Yermak’s conquests and officially annex the land the khanate of Sibir held. Similar skirmishes with Tartars took place across Siberia as Russian expansion continued.^[7]

Russian conquerors treated the natives of Siberia as easily exploited enemies that were inferior to them. As they penetrated deeper into Siberia, traders built outposts or winter lodges called zimovya where they lived and collected fur tribute from native tribes. By 1620, Russia dominated the land from the Urals eastward to the Yenisey valley and to the Altai Mountains in the south, comprising about 1.25 million square miles of land.^[8] Furs were destined to become Russia’s largest source of wealth during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Keeping up with the advancement of Western Europe required significant capital and Russia did not have sources of gold and silver, but it did have furs, which became known as “soft gold” and provided Russia with hard currency. The Russian government received income from the fur trade through two taxes, the yasak (or iasak) tax on natives and the 10% “Sovereign Tithing Tax” imposed on both the catch and sale of fur pelts.^[9] Fur was in great demand in Western Europe, especially sable and marten, since European forest resources had been over-hunted and were extremely scarce. Fur trading allowed Russia to purchase goods that they lacked from Europe like precious metals, textiles, firearms, lead, sulphur, and tin. Russia also traded furs with Ottoman Turkey and other countries in the Middle East in exchange for silk, textiles, spices, and dried fruit. The high prices that sable, black fox, and marten furs could generate in international markets spurred a “fur fever” in which many Russians moved to Siberia as independent trappers. From 1585 to 1680, tens of thousands of sable and other valuable pelts were obtained in Siberia each year.^[10]

The primary way for the Muscovite state to obtain their furs was by exacting a fur tribute from the Siberian natives, called a yasak. Yasak was usually a fixed number of sable pelts that was required of every male member of a tribe at least fifteen years old to give to Russian officials. Officials enforced yasak through coercion and by taking hostages, usually the tribe chiefs or members of the chiefs family. At first Russians were content to trade with the natives, exchanging things like pots, axes, and beads for the prized sables that the natives did not value, but greater demand for furs led to violence and force becoming the primary means of obtaining the furs. The largest problem with the yasak system was that Russian governors were prone to corruption because they received no salary. They resorted to illegal means of getting furs for themselves, including bribing customs officials to allow them to personally collect yasak, extorting natives by exacting yasak multiple times over, or requiring tribute from independent trappers.^[11]

Russian fur trappers, called promyshlenniki, hunted in one of two types of bands of 10-15 men, called vatagi. The first was an independent band of blood relatives or unrelated people who contributed an equal share of the hunting expedition expenses and the second was a band of hired hunters that participated in expeditions fully funded by trading companies who employed them. Members of an independent vatagi cooperated and divided all necessary work associated with fur trapping, including making and setting traps, building forts and camps, stockpiling firewood and grain, and fishing. All fur pelts went into a common pool that the band divided equally among them after Russian officials exacted the tithing tax. On the other hand, a trading company provided hired fur trappers with the money needed for transportation, food, and supplies, and once the hunt was finished, the employer received two-thirds of the pelts and the remaining ones were sold and the proceeds divided evenly among the hired laborers. During the summer, promyshlenniki would set up a summer camp to stockpile grain and fish and many would do agricultural work for extra money. During late summer or early fall the vatagi would leave for their hunting ground, survey the area, and set up a winter camp. Each member of the group would set at least 10 traps and the vatagi would divide into smaller groups of 2-3 men who cooperated to maintain certain traps. promyshlenniki checked traps daily, resetting them or replacing bait whenever necessary. The hunting strategies of the promyshlenniki were both passive and active. The passive approach involved setting traps while the active approach involved the use of hunting dogs and bow and arrows. Occasionally hunters would also follow sable tracks to their dwellings and string nets around them and wait for the sable to emerge.^[12]

The hunting season began around the time of the first snow in October or November and went until early spring. Hunting expeditions lasted two to three years on average but occasionally even longer. Because of the long hunting season and the fact that passage back to Russia was difficult and costly, many promyshlenniki chose to stay and settle in Siberia beginning around the 1650s-1660s.^[13] From 1620 to 1680 there were a total of 15,983 trappers active in Siberia.^[14]

North American fur trade[link]

The North American fur trade was a central part of the early history of contact between European-Americans and the native peoples of what is now the United States and Canada. In 1578 there were 350 European fishing vessels at Newfoundland. Sailors began to trade metal implements (particularly knives) for the natives' well-worn pelts. The pelts in demand were beaver, sea otter and (in the 1870s) buffalo, as well as occasionally deer, bear, ermine and skunk.^[15]

Fur robes were blankets of sewn-together, native-tanned, beaver pelts. The pelts were called castor gras in French and "beaver coat" in English, and were soon recognized by the newly developed felt-hat making industry as particularly useful for felting. Some historians, seeking to explain the term castor gras, have assumed that coat beaver was rich in human oils from having been worn so long (much of the top-hair was worn away through usage, exposing the valuable under-wool), and that this is what made it attractive to the hatters. This seems unlikely, since grease interferes with the felting of wool, rather than enhancing it.^[16] By the 1580s, beaver "wool" was the major starting material of the French felt-hatters. Hat makers began to use it in England soon after, particularly after Huguenot refugees brought their skills and tastes with them from France.

Early organization[link]

General map of the "Beaver Hunting Grounds" described in "Deed from the Five Nations to the King, of their Beaver Hunting Ground," also known as the Nanfan Treaty of 1701

Captain Chauvin made the first organized attempt to control the fur trade in New France. In 1599 he acquired a monopoly from Henry IV and tried to establish a colony at the mouth of the Saguenay River (Tadoussac, Quebec). French explorers (and Coureur des bois—Étienne Brûlé, Samuel de Champlain, Radisson, La Salle, Le Saeur), while seeking routes through the continent, established relationships with Amerindians and continued to expand the trade of fur pelts for items considered 'common' by the Europeans. Mammal winter pelts were prized for warmth, particularly animal pelts for beaver wool-felt hats, which were an expensive status symbol in Europe. The demand for these beaver wool-felt hats was such that the beaver in Europe and European Russia had largely disappeared through exploitation.

In 1613 Dallas Carite and Adriaen Block headed expeditions to establish fur trade relationships with the Mohawks and Mohicans. By 1614 the Dutch were sending vessels to secure large economic returns from fur trading. The fur trade of New Netherland, through the port of New Amsterdam, depended largely on the trading depot at Fort Orange (now Albany), where much of the fur is believed to have originated in Canada, smuggled by entrepreneurs who wished to avoid the government-imposed monopoly there.

England was slower to enter the American fur trade than France and Holland, but as soon as English colonies were established, it was discovered that furs provided the best way for the colonists to remit value back to the mother country. Furs were being dispatched from Virginia soon after 1610, and the Plymouth Colony was sending substantial amounts of beaver to its London agents through the 1620s and 1630s. London merchants also made attempts to take over France's fur trade in the St Lawrence. Taking advantage of one of England's brief wars with France, Sir David Kirke captured Quebec in 1629, and brought the year's produce of furs back to London. Other English merchants also traded for furs in the St. Lawrence in the 1630s, but these were officially discouraged, and soon ceased as France strengthened its presence in Canada. Meanwhile, the New England fur trade expanded, not only inland, but northwards along the coast into the Bay of Fundy region. London's access to high quality furs was greatly increased with the capture of New Amsterdam, whereupon the fur trade of that colony (now called New York) fell into English hands.

Fur traders in Canada, trading with Native Americans, 1777

The English fur trade entered a new phase in 1668. Two French citizens, Radisson and Groseilliers, had traded with great success west of Lake Superior in 1659-60, but upon their return to Canada most of their furs had been seized by the authorities. Their trading voyage had convinced them that the best fur country was far to the north and west, and could best be reached by ships sailing into Hudson Bay; and their treatment in Canada suggested that they would not find support for their scheme from France. They first went to New England, where they were able to find local support for at least two attempts to reach Hudson Bay, both unsuccessful. Their ideas had reached the ears of English authorities, however, and in 1665 Radisson and Groseilliers were persuaded to go to London. After some setbacks, a number of English investors were found to back another attempt for Hudson Bay. Two ships were sent out in 1668. One, with Radisson aboard, had to turn back, but the other, the Nonsuch^{[disambiguation needed ]}, with Groseilliers, did penetrate the Bay. There, trading natives were contacted, a fine cargo of beaver skins was collected, and the expedition returned to London in October 1669. The delighted investors now sought a royal charter, which was obtained the next year. By it, the Hudson's Bay Company was established, and was granted a monopoly to trade into all the rivers that fall into Hudson Bay. From 1670 onwards, the Hudson's Bay Company sent two or three ships into the Bay every year, brought back furs (mainly beaver), and sold them, sometimes by private treaty but usually by public auction. The beaver was bought mainly for the English hat-making trade, while the fine furs went to Holland and Germany.

Meanwhile, in the English southern colonies (established around 1670), the deerskin trade was established based on the export hub of Charleston, South Carolina. Word spread amongst Native hunters that the Europeans would exchange pelts for European-manufactured goods that were highly desired in native communities. Axe heads, knives, awls, fish hooks, cloth of various type and color, woolen blankets, linen shirts, kettles, jewelry, glass beads, muskets, ammunition and powder were some of the major items exchanged on a 'per pelt' basis.

Colonial trading posts in the southern colonies also introduced many types of alcohol (especially brandy and rum) for trade.^[17] European traders flocked to the continent and made huge profits off the exchange. A metal axe head, for example, was exchanged for one beaver pelt (also called a 'beaver blanket'). The same pelt could fetch enough to buy dozens of axe heads in England, making the fur trade extremely profitable for the European nations. The iron axe heads replaced stone axe heads which the natives made by hand in a labor-intensive process, so they derived substantial benefits from the trade as well.

Social-economic ties[link]

Fur trading at Fort Nez Percés in 1841

Often, the political benefits of the fur trade became more important than the economic aspects. Trade was a way to forge alliances and maintain good relations between different cultures. The fur traders, men of social and financial standing, usually went to North America as young single men and used marriages as the currency of diplomatic ties, marriages and relationships between Europeans and First Nations/Native Americans became common. Traders often married or cohabited with high-ranking Indian women. Fur trappers and other workers usually had relationships with lower ranking women. Many of their children developed their own culture, now called Métis. Their descendants of mixed European and Native American parentage developed their own language and culture. They have been recognized as an ethnic group in Canada. These groups formed a two-tier society, in which descendants of fur traders and chiefs achieved prominence in social and economic circles. Lower-class descendants formed the majority of a separate Métis culture based on hunting, trapping and farming.

Because of the wealth at stake, different European-American governments competed with each other for control of the fur trade with the various native societies. Native Americans sometimes based decisions of which side to support in time of war upon which side provided them with the best trade goods in an honest manner. Because trade was so politically important, it was often heavily regulated in hopes (often futile) of preventing abuse. Unscrupulous traders sometimes cheated natives by plying them with alcohol during the transaction, which subsequently aroused resentment and often resulted in violence.

In 1834 John Jacob Astor, who had created the Pacific Fur Company, which became the largest American fur trading company,^{[dubious – discuss]} retired after recognizing that all fur-bearing animals were becoming scarce. Expanding European settlement displaced native communities from the best hunting grounds. Demand for furs subsided as European fashion trends shifted. The Native Americans' lifestyles were altered by the trade. To continue obtaining European goods on which they had become dependent and to pay off their debts, they often resorted to selling land to the European settlers. Their resentment of the forced sales contributed to future wars.

Fur traders descending the Missouri, c. 1845

After the United States became independent, it regulated trading with Native Americans by the Indian Intercourse Act, first passed on July 22, 1790. The Bureau of Indian Affairs issued licenses to trade in the Indian Territory. In 1834 this was defined as most of the United States west of the Mississippi River, where mountain men and traders from Mexico freely operated.

Early exploration parties were often fur-trading expeditions, many of which marked the first recorded instances of Europeans' reaching particular regions of North America. For example, Abraham Wood sent fur-trading parties on exploring expeditions into the southern Appalachian Mountains, discovering the New River in the process. Simon Fraser was a fur trader who explored much of the Fraser River.

The fur trade and economic anthropology[link]

Economic historians and anthropologists have studied the fur trade's important role in early North American economies, but they have been unable to agree on a theoretical framework to describe native economic patterns.

John C. Phillips and J.W. Smurr tied the fur trade to an imperial struggle for power, positing that the fur trade served both as an incentive for expanding and as a method for maintaining dominance. Dismissing the experience of individuals, the authors searched for connections on a global stage that revealed its “high political and economic importance.”^[18] E.E. Rich brought the economic purview down a level, focusing on the role of trading companies and their men as the ones who “opened up” much of Canada’s territories instead of the role of the nation-state in opening up the continent.^[19]

Rich’s other work gets to the heart of the formalist/substantivist debate that dominated the field or, as some came to believe, muddied it. Historians such as Harold Innis had long taken the formalist position, especially in Canadian history, believing that neoclassical economic principles affect non-Western societies just as they do Western ones.^[20] Starting in the 1950s, however, substantivists such as Karl Polanyi challenged these ideas, arguing instead that primitive societies could engage in alternatives to traditional Western market trade; namely, gift trade and administered trade. Rich picked up these arguments in an influential article in which he contended that Indians had “a persistent reluctance to accept European notions or the basic values of the European approach” and that “English economic rules did not apply to the Indian trade.”^[21] Indians were savvy traders, but they had a fundamentally different conception of property, which confounded their European trade partners. Abraham Rotstein subsequently fit these arguments explicitly into Polanyi’s theoretical framework, claiming that “administered trade was in operation at the Bay and market trade in London.”^[22]

Arthur J. Ray permanently changed the direction of economic studies of the fur trade with two influential works that presented a modified formalist position in between the extremes of Innis and Rotstein. “This trading system,” Ray explained, “is impossible to label neatly as ‘gift trade', or ‘administered trade', or ‘market trade', since it embodies elements of all these forms.”^[23] Indians engaged in trade for a variety of motivations. Reducing these to simple economic or cultural dichotomies, as the formalists and substantivists had done, was a fruitless simplification that obscured more than it revealed. Moreover, Ray used trade accounts and account books in the Hudson’s Bay Company’s archives for masterful qualitative analysis and pushed the boundaries of the field’s methodology. Following Ray’s position, Bruce M. White also helped to create a more nuanced picture of the complex ways in which native populations fit new economic relationships into existing cultural patterns.^[24]

Richard White, while admitting that the formalist/substantivist debate was “old, and now tired,” attempted to reinvigorate the substantivist position.^[25] Echoing Ray’s moderate position that cautioned against easy simplifications, White advanced a simple argument against formalism: “Life was not a business, and such simplifications only distort the past.”^[26] White argued instead that the fur trade occupied part of a “middle ground” in which Europeans and Indians sought to accommodate their cultural differences. In the case of the fur trade, this meant that the French were forced to learn from the political and cultural meanings with which Indians imbued the fur trade. Cooperation, not domination, prevailed.

Present[link]

There are about 80,000 trappers in Canada (based on trapping licenses), of whom about half are Indigenous peoples.^[27]

Maritime Fur Trade[link]

The North West Coast during the Maritime Fur Trade era, about 1790 to 1840

The Maritime Fur Trade was a ship-based fur trade system that focused on acquiring furs of sea otters and other animals from the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast and natives of Alaska. The furs were mostly sold in China in exchange for tea, silks, porcelain, and other Chinese goods, which were then sold in Europe and the United States. The maritime fur trade was pioneered by the Russians, working east from Kamchatka along the Aleutian Islands to the southern coast of Alaska. British and Americans entered during the 1780s, focusing on what is now the coast of British Columbia. The trade boomed around the turn of the 19th century. A long period of decline began in the 1810s. As the sea otter population was depleted, the maritime fur trade diversified and transformed, tapping new markets and commodities while continuing to focus on the Northwest Coast and China. It lasted until the middle to late 19th century. Russians controlled most of the coast of what is now Alaska during the entire era. The coast south of Alaska saw fierce competition between, and among, British and American trading vessels. The British were the first to operate in the southern sector, but were unable to compete against the Americans who dominated from the 1790s to the 1830s. The British Hudson's Bay Company entered the coast trade in the 1820s with the intention of driving the Americans away. This was accomplished by about 1840. In its late period the maritime fur trade was largely conducted by the British Hudson's Bay Company and the Russian-American Company.

The Russian fur traders from Alaska established their largest settlement in California, Fort Ross, in 1812.

The term "maritime fur trade" was coined by historians to distinguish the coastal, ship-based fur trade from the continental, land-based fur trade of, for example, the North West Company and American Fur Company. Historically, the maritime fur trade was not known by that name, rather it was usually called the "North West Coast trade" or "North West Trade". The term "North West" was rarely spelled as the single word "Northwest", as is common today.^[28]

The maritime fur trade brought the Pacific Northwest coast into a vast, new international trade network, centered on the north Pacific Ocean, global in scope, and based on capitalism but not, for the most part, on colonialism. A triangular trade network emerged linking the Pacific Northwest coast, China, the Hawaiian Islands (only recently discovered by the Western world), Britain, and the United States (especially New England). The trade had a major effect on the indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest coast, especially the Aleut, Tlingit, Haida, Nuu-chah-nulth, and Chinook peoples. There was a rapid increase of wealth among the Northwest Coast natives, along with increased warfare, potlatching, slaving, depopulation due to epidemic disease, and enhanced importance of totems and traditional nobility crests.^[29] The indigenous culture was not overwhelmed however but rather flourished, while simultaneously undergoing rapid change. The use of Chinook Jargon arose during the maritime fur trading era and remains a distinctive aspect of Pacific Northwest culture. Native Hawaiian society was similarly affected by the sudden influx of Western wealth and technology, as well as epidemic diseases. The trade's effect on China and Europe was minimal. For New England, the maritime fur trade and the significant profits it made helped revitalize the region, contributing to the transformation of New England from an agrarian to an industrial society. The wealth generated by the maritime fur trade was invested in industrial development, especially textile manufacturing. The New England textile industry in turn had a large effect on slavery in the United States, increasing the demand for cotton and helping make possible the rapid expansion of the cotton plantation system across the Deep South.^[30]

A sea otter, drawing by S. Smith after John Webber

Modern and historical ranges of sea otter subspecies

The most profitable furs were those of sea otters, especially the northern sea otter, Enhydra lutris kenyoni, which inhabited the coastal waters between the Columbia River to the south and Cook Inlet to the north. The fur of the Californian southern sea otter, E. l. nereis, was less highly prized and thus less profitable. After the northern sea otter was hunted to local extinction, maritime fur traders shifted to California until the southern sea otter was likewise nearly extinct.^[31] The British and American maritime fur traders took their furs to the Chinese port of Guangzhou (Canton), where they worked within the established Canton System. Furs from Russian America were mostly sold to China via the Mongolian trading town of Kyakhta, which had been opened to Russian trade by the 1727 Treaty of Kyakhta.^[32]

See also[link]

Footnotes[link]

Bibliography[link]

General Surveys[link]

• Chittenden, Hiram Martin. The American Fur Trade of the Far West: A History of the Pioneer Trading Posts and Early Fur Companies of the Missouri Valley and the Rocky Mountains and the Overland Commerce with Santa Fe. 2 vols. (1902). full text online
• Dolan, Eric Jay, Fur, Fortune, and Empire: The Epic History of the Fur Trade in America (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2010).
• Fisher, Raymond H. The Russian fur trade, 1550-1700 (1943)
• Phillips, Paul and J.W. Smurr, The Fur Trade, 2 vols. (Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1961).

Biographies[link]

• Berry, Don. A Majority of Scoundrels: An Informal History of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. New York: Harper, 1961.
• Hafen, LeRoy, ed. The Mountain Men and the Fur Trade of the Far West. 10 vols. Glendale, California: A.H. Clark Co., 1965-72.
• Lavender, David. Bent’s Fort. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1954.
• Lavender, David. The Fist in the Wilderness. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1964.
• Oglesby, Richard. Manuel Lisa and the Opening of the Missouri Fur Trade. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1963.
• Utley, Robert. A Life Wild and Perilous: Mountain Men and the Paths to the Pacific. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1997.

Economic Studies[link]

• Bernard Allaire, Pelleteries, manchons et chapeaux de castor: les fourrures nord-américaines à Paris 1500-1632, Québec, Éditions du Septentrion, 1999, 295 p. (ISBN 978-2840501619)
• Black, Lydia. Russians in Alaska, 1732-1867 (2004)
• Cronon, William. Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England. New York: Hill and Wang, 1983.
• Gibson, James R. Otter Skins, Boston Ships, and China Goods: The Maritime Fur Trade of the Northwest Coast, 1785-1841. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1992.
• Innis, Harold. The Fur Trade in Canada. Toronto: Toronto University Press, 1962.
• Ray, Arthur J. The Canadian fur trade in the industrial age (1990)
• Ray, Arthur J., and Donald B. Freeman. "Give Us Good Measure": An Economic Analysis of Relations between the Indians and the Hudson's Bay Company Before 1763. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1978.
• Rotstein, Abraham. “Karl Polanyi’s Concept of Non-Market Trade.” The Journal of Economic History 30:1 (Mar., 1970): 117-126.
• Rich, E.E. The Fur Trade and the Northwest to 1857. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart Limited, 1967.
• Rich, E.E. “Trade Habits and Economic Motivation Among the Indians of North America.” The Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science 26:1 (Feb., 1960): 35-53.
• Vinkovetsky, Ilya. Russian America: an overseas colony of a continental empire, 1804-1867 (2011)
• White, Richard. The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650-1815. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
• White, Richard. The Roots of Dependency: Subsistence, Environment, and Social Change Among the Choctaws, Pawnees, and Navajos. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 1983.

Social Histories: Native Americans[link]

• Brown, Jennifer S.H. and Elizabeth Vibert, eds. Reading Beyond Words: Contexts for Native History. Peterborough, Ontario; Orchard Park, N.Y.: Broadview Press, 1996.
• Francis, Daniel and Toby Morantz. Partners in Furs: A History of the Fur Trade in Eastern James Bay, 1600-1870. Kingston; Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1983.
• Holm, Bill and Thomas Vaughan, eds. Soft Gold: The Fur Trade & Cultural Exchange on the Northwest Coast of America. Portland, Oregon: Oregon Historical Society Press, 1990.
• Krech, Shepard III. The Ecological Indian: Myth and History. New York; London: W.W. Norton & Company, 1999.
• Krech, Shepard III, ed. Indians, Animals, and the Fur Trade: A Critique of Keepers of the Game. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1981.
• Martin, Calvin. Keepers of the Game: Indian-Animal Relationships and the Fur Trade. Berkeley; Los Angeles; London: University of California Press, 1978.
• Malloy, Mary. Souvenirs of the Fur Trade: Northwest Coast Indian Art and Artifacts Collected by American Mariners, 1788-1844. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Peabody Museum Press, 2000.
• Ray, Arthur J. Indians in the Fur Trade: Their Role as Trappers, Hunters, and Middlemen in the Lands Southwest of Hudson Bay, 1660-1870. Toronto; Buffalo; London: University of Toronto Press, 1974.
• Vibert, Elizabeth. Trader’s Tales: Narratives of Cultural Encounters in the Columbia Plateau, 1807-1846. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997.

Social Histories: Women, Métis, Voyageurs[link]

• Brown, Jennifer S.H. Strangers in Blood: Fur Trade Company Families in Indian Country. Vancouver; London: University of British Columbia Press, 1980.
• Brown, Jennifer S.H. and Jacqueline Peterson, eds. The New Peoples: Being and Becoming Métis in North America. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 1985.
• Giraud, Marcel. The Métis in the Canadian West. Translated by George Woodcock. Edmonton, Canada: University of Alberta Press, 1986.
• Nicks, John. “Orkneymen in the HBC, 1780-1821.” In Old Trails and New Directions: Papers of the Third North American Fur Trade Conference. Edited by Carol M. Judd and Arthur J. Ray, 102-26. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1980.
• Podruchny, Carolyn. Making the Voyageur World: Travelers and Traders in the North American Fur Trade. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2006.
• Podruchny, Carolyn. “Werewolves and Windigos: Narratives of Cannibal Monsters in French-Canadian Voyageur Oral Tradition.” Ethnohistory 51:4 (2004): 677-700.
• Sleeper-Smith, Susan. Indian Women and French Men: Rethinking Cultural Encounter in the Western Great Lakes. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2001.
• Van Kirk, Sylvia. Many Tender Ties: Women in Fur-Trade Society, 1670-1870. Winnipeg: Watson & Dwywer, 1999.

Regional Histories[link]

• Allen, John L. “The Invention of the American West.” In A Continent Comprehended, edited by John L. Allen. Vol. 3 of North American Exploration, edited by John L. Allen, 132-189. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1997.
• Braund, Kathryn E. Holland. Deerskins and Duffels: The Creek Indian Trade with Anglo-America, 1685-1815. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 2008.
• Faragher, John Mack. “Americans, Mexicans, Métis: A Community Approach to the Comparative Study of North American Frontiers.” In Under an Open Sky: Rethinking America’s Western Past, edited by William Cronon, George Miles, and Jay Gitlin, 90-109. New York; London: W.W. Norton & Company, 1992.
• Gibson, James R. Otter Skins, Boston Ships, and China Goods: The Maritime Fur Trade of the Northwest Coast, 1785-1841. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1992.
• Gibson, Morgan Arrell. Yankees in Paradise: The Pacific Basin Frontier. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1993.
• Malloy, Mary. “Boston Men” on the Northwest Coast: The American Maritime Fur Trade 1788-1844. Kingston, Ontario; Fairbanks, Alaska: The Limestone Press, 1998.
• Ronda, James P. Astoria & Empire. Lincoln, Nebraska; London: University of Nebraska Press, 1990.
• Weber, David. The Taos Trappers: The Fur Trade in the Far Southwest, 1540-1846. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1971.
• Wishart, David J. The Fur Trade of the American West, 1807-1840: A Geographical Synthesis. Lincoln, Nebraska; London: University of Nebraska Press, 1979..

Papers of the North American Fur Trade Conferences[link]

The papers from the North American Fur Trade conferences, which are held approximately every five years, not only provide a wealth of articles on disparate aspects of the fur trade, but also can be taken together as a historiographical overview since 1965. They are listed chronologically below. The third conference, held in 1978, is of particular note; the ninth conference, which was held in St. Louis in 2006, has not yet published its papers.

• Morgan, Dale Lowell, ed. Aspects of the Fur Trade: Selected Papers of the 1965 North American Fur Trade Conference. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, 1967.
• Bolus, Malvina. People and Pelts: Selected Papers. Winnipeg: Peguis Publishers, 1972.
• Judd, Carol M. and Arthur J. Ray, eds. Old Trails and New Directions: Papers of the Third North American Fur Trade Conference. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1980.
• Buckley, Thomas C., ed. Rendezvous: Selected Papers of the Fourth North American Fur Trade Conference, 1981. St. Paul, Minnesota: The Conference, 1984.
• Trigger, Bruce G., Morantz, Toby Elaine, and Louise Dechêne. Le Castor Fait Tout: Selected Papers of the Fifth North American Fur Trade Conference, 1985. Montreal: The Society, 1987.
• Brown, Jennifer S. H., Eccles, W. J., and Donald P. Heldman. The Fur Trade Revisited: Selected Papers of the Sixth North American Fur Trade Conference, Mackinac Island, Michigan, 1991. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1994.
• Fiske, Jo-Anne, Sleeper-Smith, Susan, and William Wicken, eds. New Faces of the Fur Trade: Selected Papers of the Seventh North American Fur Trade Conference, Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1995. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1998.
• Johnston, Louise, ed. Aboriginal People and the Fur Trade: Proceedings of the 8th North American Fur Trade Conference, Akwesasne. Cornwall, Ontario: Akwesasne Notes Pub., 2001.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Fur trade

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Fur traders

External links[link]

• The Canadian Museum of Civilization - Great Fur Trade Canoes
• A Brief History of the Fur Trade
• History of the Fur Trade in Russia
• History of the Fur Trade in Wisconsin
• Museum of the Fur Trade, Chadron, Nebraska USA
• The Economic History of the Fur Trade: 1670 to 1870 (EH.Net Encyclopedia of Economic History)
• Fur trade in the Snake River Valley, Idaho
• The Fur Trade Revisited - Manitoba Historical Society

Trader in Germany, 16th century

San Juan de Dios Market in Guadalajara, Jalisco

Trade is the transfer of ownership of goods and services from one person or entity to another by getting something in exchange from the buyer. Trade is sometimes loosely called commerce or financial transaction or barter. A network that allows trade is called a market. The original form of trade was barter, the direct exchange of goods and services. Later one side of the barter were the metals, precious metals (poles, coins), bill, paper money. Modern traders instead generally negotiate through a medium of exchange, such as money. As a result, buying can be separated from selling, or earning. The invention of money (and later credit, paper money and non-physical money) greatly simplified and promoted trade. Trade between two traders is called bilateral trade, while trade between more than two traders is called multilateral trade.

Trade exists for man due to specialization and division of labor, most people concentrate on a small aspect of production, trading for other products. Trade exists between regions because different regions have a comparative advantage in the production of some tradable commodity, or because different regions' size allows for the benefits of mass production. As such, trade at market prices between locations benefits both locations.

Retail trade consists of the sale of goods or merchandise from a very fixed location, such as a department store, boutique or kiosk, or by mail, in small or individual lots for direct consumption by the purchaser.^[1] Wholesale trade is defined as the sale of goods or merchandise to retailers, to industrial, commercial, institutional, or other professional business users, or to other wholesalers and related subordinated services.^[2]

Trading can also refer to the action performed by traders and other market agents in the financial markets.

History of trade[link]

The neutrality of this article is questioned because of its systemic bias. In particular, there may be a strong bias in favor of European history. Please see the discussion on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until the issue is resolved. (August 2010)

Prehistory[link]

Trade originated with the start of communication in prehistoric times. Trading was the main facility of prehistoric people, who bartered goods and services from each other before the innovation of the modern day currency. Peter Watson dates the history of long-distance commerce from circa 150,000 years ago.^[3]

Ancient history[link]

A silver statuette of Mercury the Roman god of trade. Part of the Berthouville Treasures

Trade is believed to have taken place throughout much of recorded human history. There is evidence of the exchange of obsidian and flint during the stone age. Materials used for creating jewelry were traded with Egypt since 3000 BC. Long-range trade routes first appeared in the 3rd millennium BC, when Sumerians in Mesopotamia traded with the Harappan civilization of the Indus Valley. The Phoenicians were noted sea traders, traveling across the Mediterranean Sea, and as far north as Britain for sources of tin to manufacture bronze. For this purpose they established trade colonies the Greeks called emporia. From the beginning of Greek civilization until the fall of the Roman empire in the 5th century, a financially lucrative trade brought valuable spice to Europe from the far east, including India and China. Roman commerce allowed its empire to flourish and endure. The Roman empire produced a stable and secure transportation network that enabled the shipment of trade goods without fear of significant piracy.

The fall of the Roman empire, and the succeeding Dark Ages brought instability to Western Europe and a near collapse of the trade network in the western world. Trade however continued to flourish among the kingdoms of Africa, Middle East, India, China and Southeast Asia. Some trade did occur in the west. For instance, Radhanites were a medieval guild or group (the precise meaning of the word is lost to history) of Jewish merchants who traded between the Christians in Europe and the Muslims of the Near East.

Middle Ages[link]

During the Middle Ages, Central Asia was the economic center of the world.^[4] The Sogdians dominated the East-West trade route known as the Silk Road after the 4th century AD up to the 8th century AD, with Suyab and Talas ranking among their main centers in the north. They were the main caravan merchants of Central Asia.

From the 8th to the 11th century, the Vikings and Varangians traded as they sailed from and to Scandinavia. Vikings sailed to Western Europe, while Varangians to Russia. The Hanseatic League was an alliance of trading cities that maintained a trade monopoly over most of Northern Europe and the Baltic, between the 13th and 17th centuries.

Age of Discovery[link]

Vasco da Gama pioneered the European Spice trade in 1498 when he reached Calicut after sailing around the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of the African continent. Prior to this, the flow of spice into Europe from India was controlled by Islamic powers, especially Egypt. The spice trade was of major economic importance and helped spur the Age of Discovery in Europe. Spices brought to Europe from the Eastern world were some of the most valuable commodities for their weight, sometimes rivaling gold.

In the sixteenth century, the Seventeen Provinces were the centre of free trade, imposing no exchange controls, and advocating the free movement of goods. Trade in the East Indies was dominated by Portugal in the 16th century, Holland in the 17th century, and the British in the 18th century. The Spanish Empire developed regular trade links across both the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans.

Danzig in the 17th century

In 1776, Adam Smith published the paper An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. It criticised Mercantilism, and argued that economic specialisation could benefit nations just as much as firms. Since the division of labour was restricted by the size of the market, he said that countries having access to larger markets would be able to divide labour more efficiently and thereby become more productive. Smith said that he considered all rationalisations of import and export controls "dupery", which hurt the trading nation as a whole for the benefit of specific industries.

In 1799, the Dutch East India Company, formerly the world's largest company, became bankrupt, partly due to the rise of competitive free trade.

Berber Trade with Timbuktu, 1853

Age of Reason[link]

In 1817, David Ricardo, James Mill and Robert Torrens showed that free trade would benefit the industrially weak as well as the strong, in the famous theory of comparative advantage. In Principles of Political Economy and Taxation Ricardo advanced the doctrine still considered the most counterintuitive in economics:

When an inefficient producer sends the merchandise it produces best to a country able to produce it more efficiently, both countries benefit.

The ascendancy of free trade was primarily based on national advantage in the mid 19th century. That is, the calculation made was whether it was in any particular country's self-interest to open its borders to imports.

John Stuart Mill proved that a country with monopoly pricing power on the international market could manipulate the terms of trade through maintaining tariffs, and that the response to this might be reciprocity in trade policy. Ricardo and others had suggested this earlier. This was taken as evidence against the universal doctrine of free trade, as it was believed that more of the economic surplus of trade would accrue to a country following reciprocal, rather than completely free, trade policies. This was followed within a few years by the infant industry scenario developed by Mill promoting the theory that government had the "duty" to protect young industries, although only for a time necessary for them to develop full capacity. This became the policy in many countries attempting to industrialise and out-compete English exporters. Milton Friedman later continued this vein of thought, showing that in a few circumstances tariffs might be beneficial to the host country; but never for the world at large.^[5]

Twentieth century[link]

The Great Depression was a major economic recession that ran from 1929 to the late 1930s. During this period, there was a great drop in trade and other economic indicators.

The lack of free trade was considered by many as a principal cause of the depression. Only during the World War II the recession ended in the United States. Also during the war, in 1944, 44 countries signed the Bretton Woods Agreement, intended to prevent national trade barriers, to avoid depressions. It set up rules and institutions to regulate the international political economy: the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (later divided into the World Bank and Bank for International Settlements). These organisations became operational in 1946 after enough countries ratified the agreement. In 1947, 23 countries agreed to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade to promote free trade.

Free trade[link]

Free trade advanced further in the late 20th century and early 2000s:

• 1992 European Union lifted barriers to internal trade in goods and labour.
• January 1, 1994 the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) took effect
• 1994 The GATT Marrakech Agreement specified formation of the WTO.
• January 1, 1995 World Trade Organization was created to facilitate free trade, by mandating mutual most favoured nation trading status between all signatories.
• EC was transformed into the European Union, which accomplished the Economic and Monnetary Union (EMU) in 2002, through introducing the Euro, and creating this way a real single market between 13 member states as of January 1, 2007.
• 2005, the Central American Free Trade Agreement was signed; It includes the United States and the Dominican Republic.

Protectionism[link]

Protectionism is the policy of restraining and discouraging trade between states and contrasts with the policy of free trade. This policy often takes of form of tariffs and restrictive quotas. Protectionist policies were particularly prevalent in the 1930s, between the great depression and the onset of World War II.

Religion[link]

Muslim teachings encourage trading (and condemn usury or interest). By trade the whole society get benefits but interest makes rich more rich and poor more poor.^[6][7]

Judeo-Christian teachings encourage traders to avoid dishonest gain.^{[citation needed]}

Development of money[link]

Ancient Athenian Greek Drachma coin

Roman denarius

The first instances of money were objects with intrinsic value. This is called commodity money and includes any commonly available commodity that has intrinsic value; historical examples include pigs, rare seashells, whale's teeth, and (often) cattle. In medieval Iraq, bread was used as an early form of money. In Mexico under Montezuma^{[disambiguation needed ]} cocoa beans were money. [1]

Currency was introduced as a standardised money to facilitate a wider exchange of goods and services. This first stage of currency, where metals were used to represent stored value, and symbols to represent commodities, formed the basis of trade in the Fertile Crescent for over 1500 years.

Numismatists have examples of coins from the earliest large-scale societies, although these were initially unmarked lumps of precious metal.^[8]

Ancient Sparta minted coins from iron to discourage its citizens from engaging in foreign trade.

Current trends[link]

Doha rounds[link]

The Doha round of World Trade Organization negotiations aims to lower barriers to trade around the world, with a focus on making trade fairer for developing countries. Talks have been hung over a divide between the rich developed countries, represented by the G20, and the major developing countries. Agricultural subsidies are the most significant issue upon which agreement has been hardest to negotiate. By contrast, there was much agreement on trade facilitation and capacity building.

The Doha round began in Doha, Qatar, and negotiations have subsequently continued in: Cancún, Mexico; Geneva, Switzerland; and Paris, France and Hong Kong.

China[link]

Beginning around 1978, the government of the People's Republic of China (PRC) began an experiment in economic reform. In contrast to the previous Soviet-style centrally planned economy, the new measures progressively relaxed restrictions on farming, agricultural distribution and, several years later, urban enterprises and labor. The more market-oriented approach reduced inefficiencies and stimulated private investment, particularly by farmers, that led to increased productivity and output. One feature was the establishment of four (later five) Special Economic Zones located along the South-east coast.

The reforms proved spectacularly successful in terms of increased output, variety, quality, price and demand. In real terms, the economy doubled in size between 1978 and 1986, doubled again by 1994, and again by 2003. On a real per capita basis, doubling from the 1978 base took place in 1987, 1996 and 2006. By 2008, the economy was 16.7 times the size it was in 1978, and 12.1 times its previous per capita levels. International trade progressed even more rapidly, doubling on average every 4.5 years. Total two-way trade in January 1998 exceeded that for all of 1978; in the first quarter of 2009, trade exceeded the full-year 1998 level. In 2008, China's two-way trade totaled US$2.56 trillion.

In 1991 the PRC joined the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation group, a trade-promotion forum. In 2001, it also joined the World Trade Organization. See also: Economy of the People's Republic of China

International trade[link]

A series on Trade
World trade
Policy Import Export Balance of trade Comparative advantage Trade law Trade pact Trade bloc Trade creation Trade diversion Export orientation Import substitution Trade finance Trade facilitation Trade route Domestic trade Tax, tariff and trade
Restriction Trade barriers Tariffs Non-tariff barriers Import quotas Tariff-rate quotas Quota share Import licenses Customs duties Export subsidies Technical barriers Bribery Exchange rate controls Embargo Safeguards Countervailing duties Anti-dumping duties Voluntary export restraints
History Mercantilism Protectionism Laissez-faire Free trade Economic nationalism Economic integration
Organizations World Trade Organization World Customs Organization International Monetary Fund Preferential trading area Free trade area Customs union Single market Economic union Monetary union Fiscal union Customs and monetary union Economic and monetary union
Issues Intellectual property rights Smuggling Competition policy Government procurement Outsourcing Globalization Fair trade Trade justice Emissions trading Trade sanctions War Currency Customs Trade Trade and development
Lists Imports Exports Tariffs Largest consumer markets Leading trade partners
By Country Trade mission Trading nation United States Argentina Pakistan Romania Vietnam India
v t e

International trade is the exchange of goods and services across national borders. In most countries, it represents a significant part of GDP. While international trade has been present throughout much of history (see Silk Road, Amber Road), its economic, social, and political importance have increased in recent centuries, mainly because of Industrialization, advanced transportation, globalization, multinational corporations, and outsourcing. In fact, it is probably the increasing prevalence of international trade that is usually meant by the term "globalization".

Empirical evidence for the success of trade can be seen in the contrast between countries such as South Korea, which adopted a policy of export-oriented industrialization, and India, which historically had a more closed policy (although it has begun to open its economy, as of 2005). South Korea has done much better by economic criteria than India over the past fifty years, though its success also has to do with effective state institutions.

Trade sanctions[link]

Trade sanctions against a specific country are sometimes imposed, in order to punish that country for some action. An embargo, a severe form of externally imposed isolation, is a blockade of all trade by one country on another. For example, the United States has had an embargo against Cuba for over 40 years.

Trade barriers[link]

Although there are usually few trade restrictions within countries, international trade is usually regulated by governmental quotas and restrictions, and often taxed by tariffs. Tariffs are usually on imports, but sometimes countries may impose export tariffs or subsidies. All of these are called trade barriers. If a government removes all trade barriers, a condition of free trade exists. A government that implements a protectionist policy establishes trade barriers.

Fair trade[link]

The fair trade movement, also known as the trade justice movement, promotes the use of labour, environmental and social standards for the production of commodities, particularly those exported from the Third and Second Worlds to the First World. Such ideas have also sparked a debate on whether trade itself should be codified as a human right.^[9]

Importing firms voluntarily adhere to fair trade standards or governments may enforce them through a combination of employment and commercial law. Proposed and practiced fair trade policies vary widely, ranging from the common prohibition of goods made using slave labour to minimum price support schemes such as those for coffee in the 1980s. Non-governmental organizations also play a role in promoting fair trade standards by serving as independent monitors of compliance with fair trade labeling requirements.

Notes[link]

Bibliography[link]

Economics portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Trade

• Beckwith, Christopher I (2011) [2009]. Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present. Princeton: University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-15034-5. 
• Bernstein, William (2008). A Splendid Exchange: How Trade Shaped the World (2009 British ed.). London: Atlantic Books. ISBN [[Special:BookSources/9711843548034|9711843548034]]. 
• Davies, Glyn (2002) [1995]. Ideas: A History of Money from Ancient Times to the Present Day. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. ISBN 978-0-7083-1773-0. http://www.ex.ac.uk/~RDavies/arian/origins.html. 
• Nomani, Farhad; Rahnema, Ali (1994). Islamic Economic Systems. New Jersey: Zed Books. ISBN 1-85649-058-0. 
• Watson, Peter (2005). Ideas: A History of Thought and Invention from Fire to Freud. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 978-0-06-621064-3. 

Heather Mills
Photographed for PETA
Born	(1968-01-12) 12 January 1968 (age 44) Aldershot, Hampshire, England
Residence	Hove, East Sussex. Robertsbridge, East Sussex. Millstätter See, Austria. Velden, Austria.
Education	Usworth Grange Primary & Comprehensive School, Washington, Tyne and Wear. Hydeburn Comprehensive, London.
Occupation	Businesswoman and charity campaigner
Net worth	£24.3 million + (estimated)
Spouse	Alfie Karmal (m. 1989–1991) «start: (1989-05-06)–end+1: (1992)»"Marriage: Alfie Karmal to Heather Mills" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Heather_Mills) Paul McCartney (m. 2002–2008) «start: (2002-06-11)–end+1: (2008-03-18)»"Marriage: Paul McCartney to Heather Mills" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Heather_Mills)
Children	Beatrice Milly McCartney
Parents	John "Mark" Francis Mills and Beatrice Mary Mills, née Finlay (both deceased)
Relatives	Shane, Fiona (siblings) & Claire (half-sister)
Website
Official website

Heather Anne Mills (born 12 January 1968) is an English charity campaigner and former model.

Mills came to public attention in 1993, when a collision with a police motorcycle in London resulted in the amputation of her left leg below the knee. She continued to model using a prosthetic limb and sold her story to a tabloid newspaper, using the proceeds to establish the Heather Mills Health Trust, which recycles used prosthetic limbs to amputees unable to afford new ones and campaigns to remove and ban land mines.^[1]

She came to further public attention in 2000 when it was announced that she was dating the former Beatle, Sir Paul McCartney.^[2] They married in June 2002 and Mills gave birth to Beatrice Milly McCartney on 28 October 2003. The couple separated in 2006 and finalised their highly publicised divorce in 2008.

After her marriage to McCartney, Mills became involved in animal rights advocacy and as of 2012 is a patron of Viva! (Vegetarians' International Voice for Animals) and the Vegetarian and Vegan Foundation. She is also vice-president of the Limbless Association and skis in the British disabled ski team's development squad for the 2014 Winter Paralympic Games, winning several Gold medals in the interim.

Early life[link]

Heather Mills was born in Aldershot, Hampshire, to John "Mark" Francis Mills (a former British paratrooper), and his wife, Beatrice Mary Mills, née Finlay, who was the daughter of a colonel in the British Army.^[3] Her father was adopted at age seven and grew up in Brighton, where his foster parents had a grocery shop, although his foster-father also worked as a mechanic for a Grand Prix racing team.^[4] Her mother was born in India, during World War II, but was educated at English boarding schools. They met at Newcastle University, and were married against the wishes of Finlay's father, who did not attend the wedding and only saw his daughter once more before he died.^[4] Beatrice spoke several languages and played the piano, and Mark played banjo and guitar, liked photography (winning an Evening Standard award), and took part in numerous sports.^[4] He was very fond of animals (working for the RSPCA for a time), and Mills remembered her family always having a dog and a cat, as well as once having a pet goose and a white nanny goat that was allowed to roam the house owned by Mark's parents in Libanus, near Brecon.^[4] The Mills family spent their holidays in Libanus and also lived there for a time.^[5][6] When Mills was six years old, the family moved north to Alnwick, in Northumberland,^[4] but moved shortly after to a block of flats in Washington, Tyne and Wear, and then on to Cockshott Farm, in Rothbury, Northumberland.^[3][7] She attended Usworth Grange Primary school,^[8] and then Usworth Comprehensive school in Washington.^[9] She visited Usworth Comprehensive in 2003, as guest of honour at a prize-giving event and to support the school against plans for its closure.^[8]

Mills later wrote that she was kidnapped and sexually assaulted by a swimming pool attendant when she was eight years old,^[10] but her next-door neighbour, Margaret Ambler, who was sexually abused by the swimming pool attendant, alleged that Mills' story was "nothing what she made it out to be", that Mills was never a victim, and the pool attendant did not commit suicide, as Mills had written.^[11] Although having received a letter from Mills offering £10,000 to stop a court case, Ambler complained that the story had caused her deep discomfort by bringing the incident to national attention, so she sued for breach of privacy, accepting an out-of-court settlement of £5,000 in compensation, and £54,000 legal costs.^[12][13]

Beatrice left home when Mills was nine years old, which left her, her older brother Shane, and her younger sister, Fiona, in the care of their father.^[10] Mills said that her father once threw her brother against a window for making a mess on the carpet with crayons. The window broke and her brother had to be taken to hospital, where their father explained that the boy had fallen on some glass in the garden.^[4] Fiona said: "Our family were always short of money and our father demanded that we find food and clothes so we turned to shoplifting, learnt to hide from the bailiffs and became experts at domestic duties. I’m not ashamed to say that we were forced to steal because when you are a young child, you’d rather do that than face a beating from your father".^[6] (Their father disputed his daughters' allegations that he was violent towards them, later releasing home movies of family holidays in Wales, showing Mills playing happily).^[14] Mills later wrote that she often stole food from supermarkets as a child: "By ten I was an old hand. Pinching food was really quite easy I discovered".^[15] In 2006, she visited the Sainsbury's store in her home town and was refused entry by a member of staff because she had once been caught shoplifting there.^[15]

London and modelling[link]

When her father was jailed for 18 months after being convicted of fraud, she left home with her sister to live with her mother and partner (Crossroads actor Charles Stapley), in Clapham, London,^[10] although her brother went to Brighton to live with his paternal grandparents.^[6] She later wrote that at the age of 15 she ran away to join a funfair, and then lived in a cardboard box under Waterloo Station for four months, although Stapely denied this by saying that she occasionally left home at weekends to travel with a young man who worked for a funfair in London.^[10] During her stated period of homelessness, her school records indicate that she and her sister were both enrolled at Usworth comprehensive in Tyne and Wear until April 1983, and then at Hydeburn Comprehensive, in Balham, on 6 June 1983, where they both stayed until 2 July 1984. She remembered that a teacher at the Hydeburn once said, "there's no hope for her at all", and that she left school with no academic qualifications.^[16] In the same year, her father had another daughter, Claire Mills, with a new partner.^[17] Mills worked for a croissant shop, but was sacked, and vowed "never to work for anyone else again".^[18] She later wrote that the owner of a jewellery shop in Clapham gave her a job on Saturdays, but Jim Guy, the owner of Penrose Jewellers, later stated: "Everything she wrote about me was lies, I never gave her a job; she just hung around and made tea. She told me her father was dead. The only thing that was true was she nicked stuff from the shop", which Guy said was worth £20,000.^[18] She admitted that she had stolen some gold chains and sold them to buy a moped, and when Guy reported the theft, she was put on probation.^[10]

She was reconciled with her mother in 1989, but Beatrice died shortly after, during surgery for a minor thrombosis operation.^[19] Mills then worked at a casino, a sunbed salon, and the Bananas cocktail bar in London.^[6][20]

Alfie Karmal (the son of a Palestinian father and Greek mother), was ten years older than Mills when they met in 1986, while she was working as a waitress at the Bananas cocktail club in Wardour Street, London.^[21] Karmal bought her new clothes, Cartier jewellery and paid for cosmetic surgery when she complained that her breasts were sagging. She later said that she had had a breast reduction operation, reducing her bra size from a 34E to a 34C.^[16] She reached the final of the Cinzano Model of the Year Competition,^[18] so Karmal, who had moved into the computer industry, set up a model agency for her, ExSell Management,^[22] although it was not successful.^[10] Mills later tried to sell it for £5,000 but could not find a buyer.^[20] In 1987, Mills went to live in Paris,^[23] telling Karmal that a cosmetics company had given her a modelling contract, but became the mistress of millionaire Lebanese businessman George Kazan for two years^[21][24] and took part in a photo session for a stills-only German sex education manual called Die Freuden der Liebe (The Joys of Love),^[25] in which she was photographed explicitly simulating sex with an equally nude male model, Peter Wilson. She received about £150 for the session.^[26] She also modelled for full-frontal nude photographs.^[27][28][29]

After returning to London, Mills asked Karmal to marry her. Karmal said yes, but on one condition: "I told her I couldn't marry her until she did something about her compulsive lying, and she agreed to see a psychiatrist for eight weeks. She admitted she had a problem and said it was because she'd been forced to lie as a child by her father".^[30] Mills had told Karmal that she had a driving licence, and three A-levels, which Karmal later learned was not true.^[20] On 6 May 1989, Mills married Karmal (who had two sons from a previous marriage), and moved into a four-bedroom house in Dobbs Weir, Hertfordshire.^[20] Although Mills proposed to Karmal, she later said that every man she has been out with "has asked me to marry him within a week".^[31] While married to Karmal, she suffered two ectopic pregnancies,^[6][16] so Karmal paid for her to go on holiday to Croatia with his children and ex-wife (with whom Mills had become friends), in 1990,^[32] but Mills ended up living with her ski instructor, Miloš Pogačar, shortly before the Croatian War began.^[6][33] Mills then set up a refugee crisis centre in London, helping over 20 people to escape the war. She drove by herself to deliver donations to Croatia, taking modelling assignments in Austria on the way to pay for the trip,^[10] later saying that she "worked on the front line in a war zone in the former Yugoslavia for two years where there were mines everywhere that weren't marked".^[31] Karmal and Mills were divorced in 1991,^[20][34] and Karmal now lives in Vancouver, Canada.^[35] Mills was later engaged to Raffaele Mincione (a bond dealer for the Industrial Bank of Japan) in 1993.^[36]

Accident and amputees[link]

Anti-personnel mines, against which Mills campaigns

On 8 August 1993, Mills and Mincione walked to the corner of De Vere Gardens and Kensington Road, London, but while crossing Kensington Road Mills was knocked down by a police motorcycle (the last in a convoy of three),^[37] which was responding to an emergency call.^[38] Mills suffered crushed ribs, a punctured lung, and the loss of her left leg 6 inches below the knee; a metal plate was later attached to her pelvis.^[39] In October 1993, she had another operation which further shortened her leg.^[23] Mills was awarded £200,000 by the police authority as recompense for her injuries, even though the police motorcyclist, PC Osbourne, was later cleared by magistrates of driving without due care and attention.^[40][41] After the accident, Mills sold her story to the News of the World, and gave other interviews, saying she earned £180,000.^[23] She used the money to set up the Heather Mills Health Trust which delivers prosthetic limbs to people, particularly children, who have lost limbs after stepping on landmines.^[10] Mills often shows people her prosthetic leg; once taking it off during an interview on the American talk show Larry King Live, in 2002.^[42]

Mills booked herself into the Hippocrates Health Institute in Florida,^[43] which put her on a raw food vegan diet,^[16] using wheat grass and garlic poultices to heal her wound.^[6] After an operation, Mills discovered that she had been previously identified as having an O rhesus negative blood type, when in fact she was A rhesus negative, which had interfered with her attempts to follow the so-called blood type diet.^[16] As her prosthetic leg had to be replaced on a regular basis (because the size of the amputated stump kept changing as it healed), she had the idea to collect thousands of discarded prosthetic limbs for amputees in Croatia,^[44] persuading the Brixton prison governor to get inmates to dismantle and pack them before being transported,^[45] resulting in 22,000 amputees obtaining limbs^[46] in addition to the Croatian citizens who were already supplied with prosthetic limbs by the Croatian Institute for Health Insurance, which paid for the fitting of limbs and rehabilitation of patients.^[47] The first convoy of limbs arrived in Zagreb in October 1994 and Mills travelled with the convoy to film interviews with some of the recipients for the Good Morning with Anne and Nick daytime TV show.^[48] She received an award in 2001 from Croatia's prime minister for the money she raised to help clear that country of landmines.^[49]

With the help of ghostwriter Pamela Cockerill, Mills wrote a book about her experience: Out on a Limb (1995), which was republished in America as A Single Step (2002).^[50] Extracts from Out on a Limb were serialised in The Daily Mail in March 2000.^[36] Mills handed all the proceeds from the book to Adopt-A-Minefield,^[9] and stated that it was one of "the few charities that 100% of their donations goes to clear minefields and survivor assistance".^[31] In 1995, Mills got engaged to British media executive Marcus Stapleton, after being together for only 16 days,^[36] and was then engaged to respected documentary filmmaker Chris Terrill in 1999,^[51][52] after only 12 days in Cambodia, where they were making a film about landmines.^[53] Mills ended their relationship five days before their planned wedding day, later telling friends in the media that she had called the wedding off because Terrill was gay,^[54] an MI6 agent,^[55] and that his mission was to undermine her anti-landmine work.^[19][56] Terrill had once told Mills that he had been interviewed by the intelligence services when he was thinking of a career with the Foreign Office, but later said, "I soon realised that Heather [Mills] had a somewhat elastic relationship with the truth, which she was able to stretch impressively sometimes".^[57] Terrill also claims that although Mills stated she was a vegetarian at the time, she often cooked her speciality dish for him; Lancashire hotpot^[56] (which contains lamb) and her ex sister-in-law, Dianna Karmal, claims that Mills only became a vegetarian after meeting McCartney.^[58][59] In 2003, the Open University awarded her an honorary doctorate for her philanthropic work on behalf of amputees.^[60]

Relationship with Paul McCartney[link]

Mills met McCartney at the Dorchester Hotel,^[22] during the Pride of Britain Awards event in April 1999,^[61] which McCartney had attended to present an award to an animal rights activist.^[36] Mills presented the Outstanding Bravery Award to Helen Smith; also making an appeal on behalf of the Heather Mills Health Trust.^[62][63] McCartney also presented an award dedicated to his late wife, Linda McCartney. McCartney talked to Mills about donating to her charity – later giving her £150,000.^[23][64] In the autumn of 1999, Mills and her sister recorded "VO!CE"; a song they wrote to raise funds for Mills' charity, with McCartney agreeing to sing backing vocals.^[65] After recording the song in Greece (where Mills’ sister lived, running the independent label Coda Records), the sisters stayed overnight at McCartney's estate in Peasmarsh, Sussex, in early November, where McCartney added vocals to the song.^[36][66] Having sparked the interest of the tabloids about his appearances with Mills at events, McCartney appeared publicly beside her at a party in January 2000 to celebrate her 32nd birthday.^[67][68]

While on holiday in the Lake District, McCartney proposed to Mills on 23 July 2001, giving her a £15,000^[18] diamond and sapphire ring he had purchased in Jaipur, India, while they were both there on holiday.^[23][69] Former escort Denize Hewitt, then a friend, claimed that Mills had said she would give McCartney an ultimatum to marry her, and threaten to leave him if he refused.^[12] Mills stipulated that McCartney had to agree to stop smoking cannabis before she agreed to marry him, complaining that he used the drug "as regularly as others drink cups of tea", and that she had never taken any illegal drugs in her life.^[70]

Marriage[link]

Mills and McCartney were married on 11 June 2002, four years after McCartney's first wife had died of breast cancer. The McCartney/Mills wedding was an elaborate ceremony at Castle Leslie (once the home of Shane Leslie), in the village of Glaslough in County Monaghan, Ireland.^[71] A song specially composed by McCartney, called "Heather", was played, which had been included on the 2001 album, Driving Rain.

Mills said that she liked to cook traditional (but meat-free) Christmas dinners for McCartney and as many of his family as possible, and that McCartney had encouraged her to give up her self-confessed addiction to chocolate and Snickers bars.^[16] When asked by chat-show host Larry King (in 2003), how life was with McCartney, Mills replied "Great, really great," but also said that she was surprised at how tidy McCartney was: "He always cleans up before the cleaner comes. So I said for a while that's crazy, but what's good is if I cook the dinner, he'll clean everything up."^[31]

Mills, McCartney and Vladimir Putin during a tour of the Kremlin in 2003.

In 2003, McCartney played a concert in Red Square, Russia. Vladimir Putin gave the couple a tour of the Kremlin.^[72] Mills went on every tour with McCartney during their marriage, as McCartney insisted on her accompanying him, with Mills saying that she helped to design the stage sets and lighting, and also helped McCartney to write songs.^[73] McCartney later said that Mills' contribution was giving him an acrylic fingernail to protect a finger on his left hand that often bled after playing guitar.^[74] McCartney admitted that Mills inspired him, as "Being in love with her makes me want to write songs", such as "Too Much Rain" on Chaos and Creation in the Backyard,^[75] and "See Your Sunshine" ("She makes me feel glad/I want her so bad") from Memory Almost Full.^[76] Another composition inspired by Mills was used as the bridal march at their wedding.^[77]

During a Parkinson chat show on 22 February 2003, host Michael Parkinson asked if it was because of McCartney that Mills did not give any interviews, and she replied that she wanted to protect McCartney, his children, and their privacy.^[78] On the same show she said that her previous ectopic pregnancies had damaged her fertility, and that her chances of getting pregnant were small,^[78] although the couple announced that they were expecting their first child in May 2003.^[31][79] Mills gave birth to Beatrice Milly McCartney on 28 October 2003, who was named after Mills' mother, and McCartney's aunt.^[80] It was later revealed that Mills had suffered a miscarriage in the first year of marriage to McCartney.^[80] Mills was invited by Larry King to interview Paul Newman, which was broadcast by CNN on 17 April 2004.^[81][82] McCartney had arranged for Newman to be interviewed by Mills, but critical reactions to the show were mixed.^[83] Mills appeared on other TV programmes, such as BBC1's Question Time and GMTV, and persuaded McCartney to join her on ITV's Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?^[84]

Although stating that they had a good sex life, Mills started complaining about the marriage to friends, saying that McCartney was "a boring old fart", and wondering why he had no social life, as well as saying "He has no friends and it's driving me mad". She did not like living at the remote McCartney home in Peasmarsh: "The only thing he [McCartney] ever does is occasionally go to the pub with his roadie. We never have parties or do fun things".^[84] After some time apart, Mills and McCartney separated on 17 May 2006.^[85] In November 2007, Mills gave a number of interviews, saying that the breakdown of the marriage was caused by her husband's daughter, Stella, whom she described as "jealous" and "evil".^[86][87] Mills had previously talked with New York magazine, saying Stella had once issued a press release confirming how much she liked her new stepmother, although Stella's publicist denied that such a statement had ever been issued.^[9]

After dismissing Anthony Julius, a Mishcon de Reya lawyer,^[88] Mills stated she would represent herself in the upcoming divorce hearing,^[89] with help from her sister Fiona, David Rosen (a solicitor-advocate), and Michael Shilub, an American attorney.^[90] In leaked documents, Mills complained that McCartney was often drunk, smoked cannabis, stabbed her with a broken wine glass, pushed her over a table, and pushed her into a bathtub when she was pregnant.^[19][91] Referring to her part in the marriage, Mills said that she had been a full-time wife, mother, lover, confidante, business partner and psychologist to McCartney.^[92] McCartney’s lawyers studied Mills’ book: Life Balance: The Essential Keys to a Lifetime of Wellbeing (published on 25 May 2006), as it contradicted many of her claims, such as when she praised McCartney for "Bringing me breakfast in bed every morning, no matter how he feels, and I do the dinner, so we’ve got that agreement. It’s thoughtfulness".^[93][94] Mills' father reconciled with his daughter after meeting her and McCartney, when they introduced him to his granddaughter, Beatrice.^[95] After their separation, he said that it "took guts to represent yourself at the High Court", and that he was proud of his daughter, even though he thought she would be "torn to shreds" by McCartney's lawyers.^[96]

Divorce[link]

The case was heard in court 34, at the Royal Courts of Justice in London.^[97][98] At the start of the proceedings Mills asked for £125 million, but McCartney offered £15.8 million.^[99] Before the court case, Mills had employed the accountancy firm Lee and Allen to examine McCartney's publishing company, business assets and properties, saying that she had a tape recording of McCartney admitting his true worth, but the presiding judge, Mr Justice Bennett, turned down numerous requests for information by Lee and Allen.^[100] The judge accepted McCartney's assets as being £450 million, and not £800 million, as had been suggested.^[101]

The hearing took six days, finishing on 18 February 2008, with the judgment being made public on 17 March 2008.^[23] Mills was eventually awarded a lump sum of £16.5m, together with assets of £7.8m, which included the properties she owned at the time.^[102] The total was £24.3 million, plus payments of £35,000 per annum, for a nanny and school costs for their daughter.^[103] In his judgment, Justice Bennett described Mills as a "kindly person" who argued her case with a "steely, yet courteous, determination", but concluded that much of her evidence was, "not just inconsistent and inaccurate but also less than candid", and that overall she was a "less than impressive witness".^[23] The divorce was granted on 12 May 2008, and the preliminary divorce decree was finalised six weeks later.^[104][105] Mills applied unsuccessfully to keep the full judgment secret, saying that it could make her vulnerable to "crazed" fans of The Beatles.^[106] She later considered trying to have the injunction stopping her talking publicly about the case lifted, as the sections released were against her wishes, saying that it would "perhaps be better for the public to see everything".^[107] Mills later vowed to continue her legal fight to get full transcripts of the divorce court case made publicly available.^[108]

After the decision, Mills talked about McCartney: "I will never get over it. I will always love Paul. He is the father of my child, but I just have to move on and deal with it and there is nothing I can do ... I have never spoken badly about my husband. I never will, he is the father of my child".^[109] Mills later threatened to release tapes of McCartney in therapy talking about problems with his late wife, portraying him as a drug and alcohol addict, and researching McCartney's assets to prove he has more than £400 million.^[110] A High Court injunction preventing Mills talking about McCartney's family life could have led to a prison sentence if she breached it. McCartney said: "There'll be no more nagging, no more chaos, no more Heather ... bliss. I have peace at last".^[111]

During their marriage she was known as Heather Mills McCartney, but after her divorce she reverted to Heather Mills, although she should still be correctly referred to as Lady McCartney; as the former wife of a Knight, she technically retains that title.^[112] She was addressed as such by Lord Justice Leveson, during the Leveson Inquiry.^[113][114]

Daughter[link]

When McCartney planned a holiday with his daughter, Beatrice, at La Gazelle d'Or hotel in Morocco during April 2008, Mills faxed eight pages of instructions to the hotel on what she should and cannot eat. She was insistent that Beatrice’s strict vegan diet should be adhered to, and was "driving the hotel staff mad, faxing both the head chef and manager instructions and recipe suggestions for Bea". McCartney was furious, as he had successfully brought up his children as vegetarians.^[115] McCartney suggested taking Beatrice on a world tour in 2008, but Mills insisted on rules that would have to be followed: she would accompany her daughter for the 14 months in a private jet and no swearing would be allowed by musicians or road crew in front of her daughter.^[116]

Activism[link]

Mills campaigns against seals being clubbed to death

In 2005, Mills became a patron of the British animal rights organisation Viva!, and the Vegetarian and Vegan Foundation, which are both run by Juliet Gellatley.^[117] In 2006, Mills and Gellatley attended a debate on fur at the Oxford Union, where she presented a video depicting the skinning of a dog.^[118] She posed with her own dog in an anti-fur advertisement for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), which read: "If you wouldn't wear your dog, please don't wear fur".^[119]

In March 2006, Mills and McCartney travelled to Canada to bring attention to the country's annual seal hunt.^[120] Sponsored by the Humane Society of the United States, they complained that the hunt was inhumane, and called on the Canadian government to put an end to it.^[121] Their arrival on the floes sparked much attention in Newfoundland and Labrador, where 90 percent of the sealers live. Mills and McCartney protested against seals being clubbed to death, pierced with boat hooks and sometimes skinned alive.^[121] Newfoundland and Labrador's Premier, Danny Williams, debated the issue with them on Larry King Live, the issue being that seals are no longer hunted that way, and have not been for a while.^[122] Mills joined a Viva! film team at a pig farm in Somerset, in February 2007, to publicise the use of restrictive farrowing crates, which are used for sows who are suckling piglets.^[123] A video of the investigation was made available on the Internet.^[124]

Mills' relationship with PETA ended in 2007, when McCartney's daughter, Mary, said she would not continue to take photographs for the organisation if Mills was involved with them.^{[125][126][127]} A PETA representative told the New York Post: "Heather's exposé of the Chinese fur industry remains one of most popular videos on our site, but we don't have any imminent campaigns planned with her".^[128]

Mills spoke in Hyde Park, London, on 19 November 2007, wearing a green t-shirt saying, "Vegan, you can't get greener",^[129] arguing in favour of veganism on the grounds that livestock create more carbon emissions than transport (although she drove a Mercedes four-wheel drive car to the press conference, keeping the engine running for part of the morning).^[129] Mills said: "Eighty percent of global warming comes from livestock and deforestation. I'm not telling people to go vegan overnight. But if they stop drinking their cows' milk lattes, maybe this sort of thing won't have to happen".^[130] She went on to say: "You have 25 other alternate milks in many health stores and supermarkets. It's kind of bizarre. Why don't we drink rat's milk or dog's milk or cat's milk? You know, there are many, many other options".^[129] This led The Daily Telegraph, among others, to report the press conference under the headline, "Drink Rats' Milk, says Heather Mills".^[131]

In 2008, an old video surfaced of Mills wearing a mink coat she had owned in 1989, but explained to reporters that she had bought it years before becoming involved in animal rights organisations or vegetarianism.^[132] Although she had separated from McCartney, Mills said: "It's only since I met Paul [McCartney] that I really got to understand how vegetarianism not only benefits your health massively but also makes a huge difference to the planet, to animals, and to feeding the world".^[133] In August 2008, she was honoured by the organisation Farm Animal Rights Movement (FARM), with the Celebrity Animal Activist Award, presented at the Animal Rights National Conference.^[134] On 28 August 2009, at the Celebrity Catwalk event in Hollywood, Mills showed off her new "recycled clothes from charity shops" range, called Be@one. It has not been well-received by either critics^[135] or the public. After her divorce, Mills pledged to give a "large portion" of her £24.3 million divorce settlement to Adopt-A-Minefield, but the charity has not received any to date.^[136] In June 2008, Mills was asked to talk at a New York party about the cruelty of puppy farms and to promote her book about animals, but was angry about the guests speaking over her speech, saying: "Listen up at the back. I haven’t been up for 24 hours and flew here from London to be ignored".^[137] Mills' former publicist of four years, Michele Elyzabeth, decided to cease representing her on 25 July 2008.^[138][139]

Commercial interests[link]

On 4 July 2009, Mills opened a vegan restaurant called VBites^[140][141] at Hove Lagoon, Hove, Sussex, on the site of the old Big Fish Cafe, which she is reported to have purchased for £140,000.^[142] Mills is quoted as saying that she intends it to be the first in a worldwide chain of vegan restaurants.^[143] Whilst promoting the restaurant, Mills gave an interview to the BBC, stating that she'd been very proactive in the building stages and, now that it was open, would give as much time to it as she could – working it around her charity work.^[144]

Mills bought the vegan food company Redwood Foods in 2009. The company, which is located in Corby, Northants, sells 50 meat-free products, under the brand names Cheatin', VegiDeli, and Cheezly.^[145]

Media image and criticism[link]

Mills' relationship with McCartney triggered considerable media interest,^[146][147] but after her divorce, the attitude of the British media was hostile, as Mills was accused of embellishing her life story, being a former prostitute, a shoplifter, and of having married McCartney for his money.^[148] Mills frequently accuses the press of misquoting her, and of using material out of context to give a negative impression of her, telling the Evening Standard that the claims that she had married McCartney for his money were more hurtful than losing her leg.^[149]

Mills has been accused by several newspapers of having embellished her life story: journalist Heather Mills, then at The Observer, accused Mills of impersonating her for over a year in the late 1990s, showing people cuttings of articles the journalist had written,^[150] which helped Mills secure a job presenting The General TV show, which was a BBC programme about Southampton General Hospital.^[151] There were also doubts about Mills’ claim that she had been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize (because the Heather Mills Health Trust had given away thousands of prosthetic limbs to landmine victims), but the nomination cannot be proven because the identities of all nominees remain secret for 50 years.^[9]

Stapely (Mills' stepfather) disputed Mills' statement that her mother had nearly lost a leg in a car crash, after Mills said, "her leg was only hanging on by a tiny flap of skin and flesh ... miraculously the surgeons managed to insert a metal plate and reattach it".^[56] Stapely said that Mills' mother had suffered a leg injury after a car crash, but recovered and was "a keen tennis player"^[56] and that Mills, "is simply a very confused woman for whom reality and fantasy have become blurred". He died in January 2011.^[152]

Mills said that she had once been asked to stand for parliament by the three main political parties,^[9] and had been offered a peerage in 2001 (to become Baroness Mills) by the then British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and a certain "Lord Macdonald". An ITV documentary (McCartney vs McCartney: The Ex Files) interviewed three Lord Macdonalds, but not one of them could remember ever meeting Mills. British journalist Jasper Gerard, to whom Mills made the claims, also says she told him that she had cancelled a meeting with Bill Clinton in case her endorsement affected a US election outcome. Mills stated that she was once awarded the Outstanding Young Person of the Year award by the British Chambers of Commerce,^[153] but did not challenge newspapers after they discovered there was no such award.^[9]

In 2006, Adnan Khashoggi, the Saudi billionaire businessman and Kerry Packer, the Australian media tycoon, were named in the News of the World as former clients of Mills from the time when she allegedly worked as an escort girl. Packer's son denied that his late father had been involved.^[154] The newspaper provided an affidavit from escort girl Denise Hewitt (who was paid £50,000 for the story), who said she worked with Mills providing sexual services and that Mills boasted of earning up to £10,000 in a single night.^[155] Mills often requested to work with two girls at a time "... to do a 'girlie scene'. By this I knew she meant lesbian sex" said Hewitt "I thought at the time that Heather may have been bisexual".^[155] To substantiate its claims, the News of the World questioned Abdul Khoury, who was Khashoggi's personal secretary from 1977 to 2005. Khoury affirmed the veracity of reports that Mills "had sex with him [Khashoggi] on a number of occasions in return for money. Mr Khashoggi was always very pleased with Heather's performance. She was very athletic in bed".^[155] The Daily Mail produced accounts of another escort girl, Petrina Montrose and of other friends confirming that Mills had worked with them as an escort girl on many occasions.^[155] Montrose said that once "when all three of them were in the bedroom, Heather had ‘tried it on' with [escort girl] Joanna and suggested lesbian sex".^[156] Through her lawyers, Mills denied ever having been an escort girl and said she would sue as soon as her divorce was concluded. This has not happened.

In October 2006, Mills announced her intention to sue The Daily Mail, The Sun and the Evening Standard.^[157][158] All the newspapers said that the stories "were obtained by proper methods and in accordance with good journalistic practice".^[159] The Sun, which regularly refers to Mills as "Mucca" - a play on McCartney's nickname "Macca" - responded by asking her to "tick the boxes" on a series of allegations the newspaper had made, stating, "It is not clear what exactly she plans to sue us about". Underneath the open questions, The Sun listed six allegations about her, with a blank box beside each one. The words beside the boxes read: "Hooker, Liar, Porn Star, Fantasist, Trouble Maker, Shoplifter".^[148]

In December 2006, Mills told the BBC that she had received death threats, and on 17 December 2006, police stated that a "non-specific threat" had been made to her safety.^[160] This led to more criticism that she was calling out the emergency services too often. In March 2007, Kevin Moore, Chief Superintendent of Sussex Police, said that Mills was running "the risk of being treated as the little boy who cried wolf",^[161] and added, "We do have to respond to a disproportionate high volume of calls from Heather Mills McCartney because of the situations she finds herself in, and this is regrettable as it takes officers away from other policing matters". Mills responded that the police had told her to contact them whenever she was being harassed.^[162][163]

During a 5-day trial in July 2007, it was revealed that Mills had been physically assaulted by a Jay Kaycappa in Brighton. Kaycappa was a notorious paparazzo trying to photograph Mills while on shifts for a national newspaper and a regional press agency. Kaycappa, who had 132 previous criminal convictions, including perverting the course of justice, obtaining property by deception, driving offences and using ten aliases, was found guilty and sentenced to a 140-hour community order and ordered to pay Mills £100, plus £1,000 court costs.^[164][165]

During several interviews in October 2007, Mills accused the media of giving her "worse press than a paedophile or a murderer".^[166] She also criticised the media over the treatment of Diana, Princess of Wales - who, according to Mills, was "chased and killed" by paparazzi - and of Kate McCann.^[167] Immediately before giving these interviews, her PR adviser, Phil Hall (the ex-Editor of the News of the World), quit.^[168] In 2008, a survey commissioned by Marketing magazine showed Mills as one of the top five most hated celebrity women, along with Amy Winehouse, Victoria Beckham and Kerry Katona.^[169]

In December 2008, the Channel 4 television comedy series Star Stories broadcast a satirical mockumentary of Mills' life story from her point of view. In 2009, after petitioning the Press Complaints Commission in the UK about being lied about in the press, five British tabloids (The Sun, The Daily Express, News of the World, Sunday Mirror and Daily Mirror) publicly apologised to Mills about printing false, hurtful or defamatory stories about her. Another tabloid (the Daily Mail), sent a private letter of apology. The stories in question were not those alleging prostitution, lying, or being a fantasist, but more recent untrue stories concerning her daughter, false allegations of a romantic relationship, false suggestions regarding cosmetic surgery, and false accounts of her spending.^[170] On 4 May 2009, The Sun published a small paragraph saying that they have been asked to make clear that Mills "denies spending £10 million of her settlement; trying to sell her home to her ex-husband; masterminding a smear campaign against him; spending £1 million on a swimming pool, £0.5 million on staff wages and £6 million on properties as they had reported" and they regretted "the misunderstanding".^[171] Mills has complained that over 4,400 abusive articles about her have been published.^[172]

Criticism of press coverage[link]

In 2002, Mills accepted damages of £50,000 plus costs from the Sunday Mirror, after a false report that the Charity Commission had investigated her about the money she raised for the Indian earthquake victims appeal in 2001.^[173][174] The extent and nature of the British press coverage of Mills has been criticised, as in May 2003, when Guardian columnist Matt Seaton wrote a piece declaring "There is little that is edifying in the symbolic lynching of Heather. The poisonous judgmentalism that drives it is in the worst tradition of small town gossip. It is prurient, spiteful, hypocritical, and we should cry 'shame' on it".^[31] Publicist Mark Borkowski wrote in the Independent on Sunday, on 23 March 2008: "Not since the cult of Myra Hindley have we encountered so much vitriol aimed at one woman".^[175] Feminist writer Natasha Walter has compared the coverage to that of Britney Spears.^[77] Terence Blacker wrote that public figures who are young, female, pretty and fair-haired, are often subjected to public bullying which is explained as "intense media interest", such as Diana, Princess of Wales, Paula Yates, Ulrika Jonsson and Mills.^[176]

Kira Cochrane, in The Guardian, said that "every misogynist epithet available" has been used against Mills. "She has somehow become the vessel through which it is acceptable for both pundits and the public to express their very worst feelings about women".^[77] Joan Smith, writing in The Independent, said that newspaper "Bullies love a weakling"; quoting the Daily Mirror's front page headline: "Lady Liar" and The Sun newspaper writing "Pornocchio"^[177] over Mills' face (in reference to Pinocchio's nose getting longer when he lied and her past photographs).^[178] Smith went on to say that Mills had "dreamt of becoming the wife of a famous man but did not realise that he had fantasies of his own, marrying an attractive younger woman when he hadn't got over the loss of his first wife. Mills behaved foolishly when the marriage failed but she does not deserve the treatment she has had in the mass-market press. It is merciless bullying of an unstable, vulnerable woman".^[178] In 2009, Mills reported a bogus charity was set up to extract information about her marriage. News Corp, owned by Rupert Murdoch, is alleged to have set up the sting.^[179] The British tabloid newspaper the Daily Mirror ran the headline, "Macca marriage to Heather was mistake of the decade" following an interview McCartney gave to Q magazine. McCartney immediately moved to deny this statement and then went on to publicly print the original transcript on his official website to prove the Daily Mirror article was false.^[180]

Celia Larkin, writing on 12 February 2012 in the Irish Sunday Independent, said "There was something very satisfying about Heather Mills finally having her voice heard above the roar of the Red Tops. If you actually take the time to listen to Mills, I mean listen, not just read what's written about her, you'll see she is a strong, sincere, independent women. She didn't lie down under the weight of McCartney's fame and wealth, she continued to plough her own furrow, campaigning for her charities, maintaining a strong individuality. And that, it seems, is the greatest sin of all. Is it any wonder she was reduced to tears in the October 2007 GMTV interview? Did we feel sympathy for her then? No. 'Heather Mills has Melt Down' screamed the headlines, so now she had lost her marbles to boot. And if that wasn't enough, Carole Malone of the Sunday Mirror, one of the papers that was relentless in its attacks on Mills, accused her of staging an act on live TV in order to further her cause in the upcoming divorce hearing. How cruel can you get?^[181]

Phone hacking[link]

On 5 May 2011, The Guardian reported that Mills met with officers from the London Metropolitan Police who showed her evidence, seized from private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, which could form the basis of a claim against the News of the World for breach of privacy over alleged phone hacking. Mills' name and private mobile phone number were listed in Mulcaire's notes along with those of her friends and associates.^[182] Mills later alleged that a journalist working for the Mirror Group had admitted to her in 2001 that he had hacked her phone.^[183] Appearing as a witness at the Leveson Inquiry on 9 February 2012, Mills was asked under oath if she had ever made a recording of Paul McCartney's phonecalls or answerphone messages and had ever played it to Piers Morgan or "anybody else", she replied, "Never."^[184] Giving evidence in December 2011, Morgan, who bragged in a newspaper column for the Daily Mail in 2006 about hearing the message, refused to say who had played him the recorded message of the call, saying he was protecting a source. Mills told the inquiry that Morgan was "a man that has written nothing but awful things about me for years and would have relished telling the inquiry if I had played a personal voicemail message to him."^[185]

TV[link]

Mills was one of the celebrity performers showcased during the US television series Dancing with the Stars in 2007, with dancing partner Jonathan Roberts.^[186][187] On 21 December 2009 she was revealed as one of the contestants on the fifth series of Dancing on Ice^[188] and was paired with Matt Evers. She has stated that she would take part in the show in order to support the charities she frequently donates to, and also to show that disabled people can do more than people think.^[189] A subsequent campaign to get Mills removed from the show began online, despite being the favourite to leave first, she was not voted off in the initial show.^[190] Mills has also claimed that she turned down an offer of £350,000—the same figure given to participant Vinnie Jones—to appear on the final series of the UK's Celebrity Big Brother.^[191] On 12 January 2010, her 42nd birthday, she was involved in a minor car accident following a rehearsal for the TV show Dancing on Ice. She was not hurt.^[192]

Present life[link]

Mills has homes in Robertsbridge (worth £3.2 million),^[193] Hove (worth £1.5 million),^{[194][195][196]} a ski-chalet in Millstätter See in the Austrian Alps (bought for £1.4 million)^[197] and an apartment in the grounds of the 400-year-old Schlosshotel Velden in Austria (bought for £1.5 million),^[198] having recently sold her condominium in Manhattan, at 173 Perry Street in West Village, for $5 million (bought for $4.9 million) and her apartment on The Bishops Avenue, Hampstead for £3.75 million (bought for £2.4 million).^[199][200]

She continues to campaign for amputees, in addition to promoting the distribution of prostheses around the world and has been involved with the development of the Heather Mills McCartney Cosmesis,^[201] which gives amputees in America the chance to wear a Dorset Orthopaedic cosmesis, without having to travel to the UK.^[31][202] Mills is also vice-president of the Limbless Association.^[203][204] In 2004, she received a "Children in Need" award from the annual International Charity Gala in Düsseldorf and in the same year, the University of California, Irvine, gave her their 2004 Human Security Award and created the Heather Mills McCartney Fellowship in Human Security to support graduate students conducting research on pressing human security issues.^[205] She is a former Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Association Adopt-A-Minefield programme.^{[9][206][207]}

On 4 June 2010 a claim for compensation alleging sexual and maternity discrimination and constructive dismissal brought by a Sara Trumble, who had been employed since April 2004 as nanny to Mills' daughter, was dismissed unanimously at Ashford Employment Tribunal Centre, Kent. The tribunal concluded that all of the claims were unfounded. Employment judge Steven Vowles said that "Mills's kindness towards Miss Trumble showed that she genuinely cared about her as both an employee and a friend".^[208]

British disabled ski team[link]

On 17 December 2010, it was announced that Mills has been offered a trial in the British disabled ski team's development squad for the 2014 Winter Paralympic Games to be held in Sochi, Russia and in April 2011, she bought a ski ­chalet near Goldeck am Millstätter See, in the Austrian Alps, for £1.4 million as a base for her Winter Paralympic Games training.^[209]

The Daily Mail reported, on 12 May 2011, that Mills had been airlifted to hospital by helicopter, "after her right shoulder blade broke in several places", following a skiing accident in which she collided with a frozen plastic pole while training with the British Disabled Ski Team’s development squad on the Mölltaler glacier in Austria.^[210][211] In May 2011, Hello! magazine ran an article about her ambitions for the 2014 Paralympic Games as well as her efforts to stay fit and healthy with her vegan lifestyle following the accident.^[212] On 27 November 2011 it was reported that Mills had again had a skiing accident on the Mölltaler glacier, this time injuring the stump of her partly amputated left leg, as well as breaking her thumb. Austria's daily Kleine Zeitung newspaper quoted her as saying that two male teenagers came to her rescue, but "when I took off my artificial leg they screamed in terror, because they thought the leg had come off in the accident". She was told that it will take five weeks before she can resume training.^[213]

According to the Daily Mirror, she won the Gold Medal at the Austria Cup Super G Ski Speed Race at Innerkrems on 12 February 2012, competing for the British disabled ski team, despite still suffering from a fractured shoulder and broken thumb^[214] and in March 2012, at the United States' Adaptive Alpine Skiing National Championships World Cup event held in Aspen, Colorado, she won a further 4 Gold medals on the formidable Tiehack speed course (two Super G ski speed races and two downhill events) despite having to compete wearing a plaster cast to protect a broken thumb.^[215]

Notes[link]