Canada and the Fall of the "Old Colonial System"

Abstract

The conversion of British policy toward the free trade was accompanied by the fall of the "Old Colonial System" based on protection and restriction and the establishment of the "Free-trade Empire". This paper is an attempt to reinterpret Canadian Confederation, 1867, as a direct result of this transformation of the British Empire. From this point of view, one of the most important examples of British colonial control under the "Free-trade Empire" would be demonstrated by reviewing Canadian crisis caused by the fall of the old system and her being reorganized into the new system by British policy. The fall of the "Old Colonial System," especially the repeal of the Corn Law in 1846, was the greatest shock to Montreal merchants who were the ruling class in Canada and having benefited from the export of wheat and timber to England. At the same time, their vital commercial route the St. Lawrence waterway, had been defeated in their competition with American Erie canal route. Consequently Canada fell to the commercial depression which was so serious that some of Montreal merchants dared to declare the Annexation Manifesto in 1849. But the mother country who didn't want to abandon colonies commenced to reorganize them into the new system by granting responsible government and repealing the Navigation Act. Moreover, accepting Canadian special conditions and demand, Britain made Canada possible to conclude the Reciprocity Treaty with the United States and gave great aid to Canadian railway construction. These British assistances not only recovered Canadian economy from the depression but also strengthened its economic dependency to the mother country. By the end of the 1850's, Canada was set to be established as "Central-Canadian Empire" in the British "Free-trade Empire," and Confederation of Canada in 1867 was nothing but the accomplishment of this reorganization.