The “Instigation of the Hide Trade” is part one of a six-part series entitled “Hide Business.” episode one written and produced by Mike King provides a partial background of what leads up to the Buffalo Hide Trade. The story narrated by Brad Smalley describes the beginning of the fur trade in Kansas and how the expansion West over this vast prairie becomes a slaughtering ground of the American Bison. The “Instigation of the Hide Trade” conveys how one hide dealer by the name of Charles Rath becomes one of the first speculators for securing hides for the development of factory belts. Through the speculation of the hide trade Charles Rath a future citizen of Dodge City establishes himself as a habitus to the birth of the industrial age.