Bourgeois

From BWCAWiki

The Bourgeois were the agents and partners of the fur trade companies such as the North West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company. Essentially upper level management, they would nevertheless be required to travel to distant outposts on business and so often traveled in canoes with the Voyageurs, who were the laborers. Bourgeois did not paddle or carry packs over portages -- they were simply passengers when it came to operating the canoe. Most of the written accounts of the fur trade and of the Voyageurs came from Bourgeois.