The book first explains the background on French development of the North American trade, and the establishment of early Michigan posts in Sault Ste. Marie, Michilimackinac, and Fort St. Joseph. Founded in 1701, Detroit becomes “The Great Depot of Trade”. The British take over Michigan and its fur trade in the 1760s, and continue to dominate both into the 1790s, even though Great Britain had formally surrendered Michigan to the U.S. in the Paris Peace Treaty of 1783. When the British finally departed the fur trade was continued for decades by American companies like John Jacob Astor’s.