The capture of York Factory exposes a garrison problem

The French siege captured York Factory within eight days, and the post's normal population was only around fifty or sixty people. The factory was surprisingly well built, yet it still needed much stronger fortifications to make an assault difficult. Its small surrounding population could not supply the manpower needed to turn walls into sustained resistance. The East India Company could acquire and remodel existing forts amid supporting communities, while the Hudson's Bay Company had to import nearly everything needed to build, arm, and sustain its posts. That combination made both reinforcement and replacement especially expensive.