<Tr> <Th> Website </Th> <Td> www.hbc.com </Td> </Tr> <P> The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; French: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson), is a Canadian retail business group . A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada, the United States, and parts of Europe, including Belgium, The Netherlands, and Germany . The company's namesake business division is Hudson's Bay, commonly referred to as The Bay (La Baie in French). Other divisions include Galeria Kaufhof, Gilt, Home Outfitters, Lord & Taylor, and Saks Fifth Avenue . HBC's head office was in the Simpson Tower in Toronto, but it relocated northwest of Toronto to Brampton, Ontario . The company is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol "HBC". </P> <P> The company was incorporated by English royal charter in 1670 as The Governor and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson's Bay . It functioned as the de facto government in parts of North America before European states and later the United States laid claim to some of those territories . It was once the world's largest landowner, controlling the area of the Hudson Bay watershed, known as Rupert's Land, which has 15% of North American acreage . From its long - time headquarters at York Factory on Hudson Bay, the company controlled the fur trade throughout much of the English and later British - controlled North America for several centuries . Undertaking early exploration, its traders and trappers forged relationships with many groups of aboriginal peoples . Its network of trading posts formed the nucleus for later official authority in many areas of Western Canada and the United States . In the late 19th century, with its signing of the Deed of Surrender, its vast territory became the largest portion of the newly formed Dominion of Canada, in which the company was the largest private landowner . </P> <P> By the mid-19th century, the company evolved into a mercantile business selling everything from furs to fine homeware . They "quickly introduced a new type of client to the HBC--one that shopped for pleasure and not with skins"; the retail era had begun as the HBC began establishing stores across the country . In July 2008, HBC was acquired by NRDC Equity Partners, which also owns the upmarket American department store Lord & Taylor . From 2008 to 2012, the HBC was run through a holding company of NRDC, Hudson's Bay Trading Company, which was dissolved on 23 January 2012 . Since 2012, the HBC directly oversees its Canadian subsidiaries Hudson's Bay (formerly The Bay) and Home Outfitters, in addition to the operations of Lord & Taylor in the United States . </P>

When did the hudson's bay company start