- Canada Company
The Canada Company was a large private chartered British land development company, incorporated by an act of British parliament on July 27, 1825, to aid the colonization of
Upper Canada . Canada Company assisted emigrants by providing good ships, low fares, implements and tools, and inexpensive land. Scottish novelist, John Galt, was the company's first Canadian superintendent. The government of Upper Canada sold the company 10,000 km² of land for 341 000 pounds. Slightly less than half of the land that was purchased comprised what would become theHuron Tract , located on the eastern shore ofLake Huron , the remainder, located in other areas of Upper Canada, becameClergy reserves under the control of theClergy Corporation . Galt selectedGuelph, Ontario as the company's headquarters. The company surveyed and subdivided this massive area, built roads, mills, and schools and advertised it to buyers inEurope . The company then assisted in the migration of new settlers, bringing them to the area by means of a boat, which the company also owned, onLake Ontario .The company's mismanagement and corruption, and its close alliance with the
Tory elites, known as theFamily Compact was an important contributing factor to theUpper Canada Rebellion in 1837.The company was dissolved on December 18, 1953.
Bibliography
H. B. Timothy, 1984."The Galts, a Canadian odyssey",Toronto:
McClelland and Stewart . ISBN 0-7710-8457-9Online References
* [http://www.archives.gov.on.ca/english/interloan/canco.htm Canada Company fonds] at the Archives of Ontario
* [http://www.collectionscanada.ca/immigrants/021017-2121.03-e.html Moving Here, Staying Here: The Canadian Immigrant Experience] atLibrary and Archives Canada ee also
*
British-American Land Company , theLower Canada equivalent of the Canada Company
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