Perhaps you are curious as to the kinds of things Ashley brought to that first rendezvous. Because he knew what the trappers wanted, he came well stocked.
In his packs, he brought supplies of powder, lead, and knives; ample quantities of tobacco, coffee, and sugar; lots of trade goods, such as colored beads, bright-colored cloth, finger rings, earrings, ribbons, sleigh bells, red paint, tomahawks, needles, awls, buttons, combs, scissors, thread, fish hooks, and gun flints.
These goods were sold at mountain prices! coffee and sugar, $l.50 per pound; knives at $2.50 each; tobacco, $2.00 per pound; scissors at $2.00 apiece; cloth, $6.00 per yard, and so on.
Beaver skins (plews) were credited at an average of $5.00 apiece, or $3.00 per pound. Ashley's "take" from that first rendezvous amounted to nearly 9,000 pounds of beaver skins, which would be sold in St. Louis for more than $50,000. Ashley became a wealthy man.
