The Canadian Commonwealth by Agnes C. (Agnes Christina) Laut
page 80 of 266 (30%)
page 80 of 266 (30%)
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comes. The men now coming are the land-seekers--of the blood and type
that settled England and New England and Virginia--of the blood and type, in a word, that make nations. Hard on the heels of the land-seekers have come yet another type--the type that binds country to country in bonds tighter than any international treaty--the investors of surplus capital. III It is possible to keep a record of American investments in Canada; because possessions are registered more or less approximately at ports of entry and in bills of incorporation; but the English investor has acted through agents, through trust and loan companies, through banks. He is the buyer of Canada's railway stocks, of her municipal, street railway, irrigation and public works bonds. Of Canadian railroad bonds and stocks, there are $395,000,000 definitely known to be held in England. Municipal and civic bonds must represent many times that total, and the private investments in land have been simply incalculable. The Lloyd George system of taxation was at once followed by enormous investments by the English aristocracy in Canada. These investments included large holdings of city property in Montreal and Winnipeg and Vancouver, of ranch lands in Alberta, town sites along the new railroads, timber limits in British Columbia and copper and coal mines in both Alberta and British Columbia. The Portland, Essex, Sutherland and Beresford families have been among the investors. It does not precisely mean the coming of an English aristocracy to Canada, but it does mean the implanting of an enormous total of the British aristocracy's capital in Canada for long-time investment. |
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