Who granted exclusive trading rights to the Hudson's Bay Company in 1670?

Discover Canada records this in one direct sentence. The guide writes: In 1670, King Charles II of England granted the Hudson's Bay Company exclusive trading rights over the watershed draining into Hudson Bay. For the next 100 years the Company competed with Montreal-based traders. The Sovereign the test wants is therefore King Charles II.

1670 is foundational to Canadian commerce. Discover Canada commits to 1670 as the year of the Hudson's Bay Company royal charter. So the company that would dominate the fur trade in the Canadian northwest received its monopoly from King Charles II — predating Confederation by nearly two centuries.

The grant covered an enormous territory. Discover Canada writes that the Company received "exclusive trading rights over the watershed draining into Hudson Bay." So the Company was given commercial control over a watershed area covering most of what is now central and northern Canada — millions of square kilometres. This was the foundation on which the Company built its trading-post network: Fort Garry (Winnipeg), Fort Edmonton, Fort Langley (near Vancouver), and Fort Victoria — "trading posts that later became cities."

The Company shaped Canadian geography. Discover Canada writes that the Hudson's Bay Company "with French, British and Aboriginal employees, came to dominate the trade in the northwest." The company's trading-post sites in major modern Canadian cities, the beaver as its emblem (now seen on the five-cent coin and elsewhere), and the historic transfer of the company's vast territories to Canada in 1869 all trace back to King Charles II's 1670 charter. So when the test asks who granted the Hudson's Bay Company its trading monopoly, the answer is the English king of the day — Charles II.

The question is testing whether new citizens know who granted the Hudson's Bay Company's 1670 trading monopoly. Discover Canada commits to one Sovereign: King Charles II of England. The right test answer matches that.

The wrong answer choices each pick a different English king. The first option reigned earlier than 1670 — before the HBC charter. King George III reigned much later — well after 1670 — and is named in the guide for the 1763 Royal Proclamation, not the 1670 HBC charter. The fourth option reigned even earlier in the 1500s. Only King Charles II — the English king of 1670 — matches the source.