 Its traders and trappers forged early relationships with many groups of American Indians, and a network of trading posts formed the nucleus for later official authority in many areas of Western Canada and the United States.The early coastal factory model contrasted with the system of the French, who established an extensive system of inland posts and sent traders to live among the tribes of the region.War broke out in Europe between France and England in the 1680s, and the two nations regularly sent expeditions to raid and capture each other's fur trading posts.