Andrew Smith discusses the role of British investors in Canadian Confederation, covering the period from the construction of the Grand Trunk Railroad in the 1850s to Canada's purchase of Rupert's Land in 1869-70. He describes how some investors lobbied the British government for the policies that made Confederation possible, working closely with the Fathers of Confederation, many of whom were participants in the same trans-Atlantic crony-capitalist system. British factory owners with classical liberal beliefs, however, disliked Confederation because they believed it would delay the political independence of the North American colonies, something they saw as beneficial.

Andrew Smith is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Liverpool and author of British Businessmen and Canadian Confederation: Constitution Making in an Era of Anglo-Globalization. Recently, he has published on the co-evolution of political institutions and organizational cultures in other regions of the British Empire, such as Hong Kong, India, and the Caribbean.

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