The three main reasons the Fur Trade began are listed as follows. To start one of the main reasons fur trade began is that men wanted new fashions, so they wanted beaver pelts to make hats. The Europeans stumbled over the indians and fur trade when they where looking for the Northwest Passage not because they where looking for fur to make hats out of. In the process of trading for beaver pelts they killed off a HUGE number of beavers and almost made them extinct. The Europeans, after a while in the fur trade buisness, finally came across another material to make there fancey hats out of ; silk. Since Europeans started to use silk instead of beaver the Indians started to lose trade with the Europeans. In the end it worked out to the Europeans having silk, and the Natives having some "let me stress this" some European goods.