What does "trade" mean?

[tamara]

Newbie question:

I see "trade gun" or "trade rifle" all the time. What exactly does "trade" mean in this context?

 

Pieces made for the fur trade whether for Indians or White trappers. Usually cheap no frills guns and rifles but made very serviceable for frontier service. The finer peices mad for the trade were PRESENTATION peices for gifts at Treaty negotiations, as in a "Chiefs grade Trade gun."
Don

 

[TANSTAAFL]

And Mackinaw guns were preferred above all others by the plains/Northwest Indians.

 

[tamara]

Thank you very much for the information! :v

 

To add to what has been already said "Trade Guns" were also the guns mass manufactured, and sold in hardware, and general stores to the people moving west The Henry family of Pa., Lyman, Deringer of Philly, were among the producers of these guns, not only to the fur trade, but to the Dept. of Indian Affairs, and to the general mercantile trade of the 1830's, 40's and into the late 80's. Flint guns were produced up to the 1880's for indian trade, while percussion pretty much became common in the middle to late 1830's, as caps became more readily available in St Louis and westward. Bill