The Pacific Fur Company is founded June 23, 1810, in New York City.

Half of the stock of the company is held by the American Fur Company, owned exclusively by John Jacob Astor, and Astor provides all of the capital for the enterprise.

The other half of the stock is ascribed to working partners or kept in reserve.

In 1811, the company establishes a trading post at present-day Astoria, Oregon.

Astor's grand plan includes a permanent American settlement at the mouth of the Columbia River, and a trade ring that includes New York City, the old Oregon Country, Russian Alaska, Hawaii and China via Guangzhou (Canton).

Indian trade goods would be loaded at New York; produce, provisions (and some Hawaiians) would be taken on at the Hawaiian Islands for the Northwest Coast; furs and pelts would be acquired from the Columbia and Russian Alaska; Canton, China was the best market for furs in those years, and they would be exchanged for porcelain, silk and other cloth, spices, etc., which would then be transported, via Hawaii, back to New York.

Two initial expeditions were sent to the Columbia River, one by sea and the other by land.