Graduate Students

Lee, Robert C. - M.A

The Canada Company, 1826-1853. A Study in Direction - Dr. Masters, advisor

         During the past two years, four theses--three Master of Arts and one Master of Science--directly relating to the Canada Company have been presented. Three have dealt primarily with specialized topics within the framework of the company's operation in Canada, namely$ Guelph as an approach to resource development, transportation and development in the eastern section of the Huron Tract, 2 and political controversy in the Goderich area from 1835 to 1841.3 The fourth "The Foundations of the Canada Land Company, 1823-1845 4 while resembling perhaps most closely the present writer's topic, has dealt only superficially with the relationship of the directors to the commissioners in the early period and the lack of the company's general success during .the 1830's. None has focused on the relationship between the directors in London and the commissioners in Canada, nor have they taken into sufficient account the problems faced by the directors in England during the early period of the company in the light of lost shareholder support, the cholera epidemic of the early 1830's or the rebellion period of 1837-38. Furthermore, none has dealt with the company in detail from Frederick Widder's appointment as commissioner in 1839 to company commissioner Thomas Mercer Jones's dismissal in 1852. With Widder's appointment the company bad emerged from the trying period of the 1830's and was moving into an era of sophisticated management. By the time of Jones's dismissal the company's financial worries had all but passed and the political squabbles of the 1840's were very much in the background. Operations had been consolidated in Toronto and the Goderich office had been closed. The company had come of age.
         The part played by the commissioners was vital to the success (or failure) of the company. The directors were approximately 3,000 miles or ten-weeks-by-return-mail away from them. There had to be a mutual trust and understanding on both sides. Through its commissioners, the company had to endeavour to maintain a "middle-of-the-road" policy in the colony between government and settlers. It was never easy.