Which would you prefer, the East India Company or the Hudson's Bay Company?
Short answerThe Hudson's Bay Company, whose unrealized possibilities included conflict over Alaska and a larger governing role in Canada.
NotesA viewer asks whether the East India Company or the Hudson's Bay Company would be preferable. The answer chooses the Hudson's Bay Company because of its potential for an unusually consequential North American history. It might have tried to take Alaska from Russian control and once had some chance of administering Canada. These are unrealized possibilities, not events that occurred. The exchange shows how a commercial company could possess enough territorial reach to invite state-scale counterfactuals.