TORONTO - Two of Canada’s wealthiest families want to team up to make an $18 million bid for the royal charter that formed Hudson’s Bay Company and donate it to a group of museums to ensure the historic document’s preservation.

Court documents filed late Friday say holding companies belonging to the Thomson and Weston families have joined forces to put an even higher price tag on the 1670 document that created the fur-trading business-turned department store.

Media baron David Thomson and his firm, DKRT Family Corp., previously offered $15 million for the charter, after the Westons, of Loblaw Cos. Ltd. fame, offered $12.5 million through their company, Wittington Investments Limited.

The joint offer is aimed at buying the document so it can be shared among the Archives of Manitoba, the

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