Document generated on 09/28/2021 3:06 p.m. Ontario History A Farmer's Alliance The Joint Stock Companies of the Home District and the Economic Roots of Deliberative Democracy in Upper Canada Albert Schrauwers Volume 99, Number 2, Fall 2007 Article abstract This article addresses the economic roots of the fight for democratic reform in URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1065739ar Upper Canada, and the role of a small religious sect, the Children of Peace, in DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/1065739ar particular. The Children of Peace were critical players in a number of “joint stock companies” such as the Farmers’ Store House (a co-operative farm See table of contents produce marketing company) and the Bank of the People. Joint stock companies lacked a charter or limited liability for their shareholders, and this made them models of “responsible government.” These companies, and their Publisher(s) directors, helped found the democratic reform political union, the Canadian Alliance Society, and build its meeting place “Shepard’s Hall.” The Ontario Historical Society ISSN 0030-2953 (print) 2371-4654 (digital) Explore this journal Cite this article Schrauwers, A. (2007). A Farmer's Alliance: The Joint Stock Companies of the Home District and the Economic Roots of Deliberative Democracy in Upper Canada. Ontario History, 99(2), 190–219. https://doi.org/10.7202/1065739ar Copyright © The Ontario Historical Society, 2007 This document is protected by copyright law. Use of the services of Érudit (including reproduction) is subject to its terms and conditions, which can be viewed online. https://apropos.erudit.org/en/users/policy-on-use/ This article is disseminated and preserved by Érudit. Érudit is a non-profit inter-university consortium of the Université de Montréal, Université Laval, and the Université du Québec à Montréal. Its mission is to promote and disseminate research. https://www.erudit.org/en/ 190 ONTARIO HISTORY Farmer’s Alliance The Joint Stock Companies of A the Home District and the Economic Roots of Deliberative Democracy in Upper Canada by Albert Schrauwers thin ribbon of unsurfaced road, ing, sixty feet square, and seventy-five Yonge Street, stretched between feet high, was “calculated to inspire the “Muddy York,” Upper Canada’s beholder with astonishment; its dimen- Acapital, and the shores of Lake Simcoe sions – its architecture – its situation – and the village of Hope. Hope was set- are all so extraordinary.”1 The Children of tled by followers of a Quaker schismatic, Peace were economic and political inno- David Willson, who had formed a group, vators as well, and helped form Canada’s the Children of Peace, in the midst of the first farmers’ cooperative and credit un- Photo by Mark Fram ©1993 Fram Mark by Photo War of 1812. Called by a vision to “orna- ion. The primary purpose of the temple ment the Christian Church with all the was not as a place of worship. The Chil- glory of Israel,” the Children of Peace re- dren of Peace gathered there just once a built Solomon’s temple, the seat of their month to collect alms for the poor. The “New Jerusalem.” This three-tiered build- Children of Peace, having fled a cruel and 1 Colonial Advocate, 18 September 1828. Ontario History / Volume XCIX No. 2 / Autumn 2007 191 Abstract uncaring pharaoh, This article addresses the economic roots of the fight for democratic reform viewed themselves in Upper Canada, and the role of a small religious sect, the Children of as the new Israelites Peace, in particular. The Children of Peace were critical players in a number lost in the wilder- of “joint stock companies” such as the Farmers’ Store House (a co-operative farm produce marketing company) and the Bank of the People. Joint stock ness of Upper Can- companies lacked a charter or limited liability for their shareholders, and ada. And yet they this made them models of “responsible government.” These companies, and remained tethered their directors, helped found the democratic reform political union, the to the old order by Canadian Alliance Society, and build its meeting place “Shepard’s Hall.” Yonge Street, a mili- R�sum�: Des raisons �conomiques sont aussi à��������������������������� l’origine de la lutte pour tary road, and the l’introduction de r�formes d�mocratiques dans le Haut-Canada. C’est 2 à ces raisons que nous nous attachons dans cet article, notamment en road to market. �tudiant l’influence d’une petite secte religieuse, « Les Enfants de la This article is Paix ». Cette secte jouait un rôle important dans de nombreuses ‘so- about the political ci�t�s par actions’, telles que la Farmers’ Store House (une compagnie implications of their responsable de la vente des produits provenant de fermes coop�ratives), ou la Bank of the People. Dans la mesure où dans les statuts de ce type egalitarian econom- de compagnies, il n’y avait pas de provisions limitant la responsabilit� ic vision. The Chil- des actionnaires en cas de dettes, ces soci�t�s se voulaient des mod�les de dren of Peace played « gouvernement responsable ». Elles, et leurs administrateurs, ont no- a critical, though tamment contribu� à la formation de la Canadian Alliance Society, unrecognized role in soci�t� ayant pour but la promotion de r�formes d�mocratiques en po- litique, et à la construction de son lieu de r�union, Shepard’s Hall. the organization of both the democratic reform and an allied cooperative move- meetings for worship. There, according ment in Upper Canada. David Willson to the Tories, Willson preached of “the was a radical democrat who sought to injustice practised towards the world by protect the weak. The temple was built all those who possess an abundant share four square, symmetrical on each side, of the good things of life. That they are to symbolize the equality of all people all usurpers and tyrants; that there ought who entered. The Children of Peace neither to be masters nor servants; that were avid supporters of newspaper pub- all mankind are equal; and that it is the lisher and reform leader William Lyon duty of the poor to pull down the rich.”3 Mackenzie. Willson, and other members Given the general absence of effective such as Samuel Hughes, were key organ- democratic institutions in the colony, it is izers of the Canadian Alliance Society, important to ask how democratic skills and the reform political organization. They values were fostered such that the reform were also central to the building of “radi- movement could plausibly enlist public cal hall,” a meeting place for reformers support in the face of widespread violent in Toronto where they frequently held opposition. Why should more democ- 2 Albert Schrauwers, Awaiting the Millennium: The Children of Peace and the Village of Hope 1812- 1889 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1993), 108-129. 3 D. Wilkie, Sketches of a Summer Trip to New York and the Canadas (Edinburgh, 1837), 203-205. 192 ONTARIO HISTORY racy seem the answer to the colony’s woes McNairn has little to say, however, to men like David Willson and Samuel about the role of voluntary economic Hughes? In his sweeping study of deliber- associations, thereby implicitly agreeing ative democracy in Upper Canada, Jeffrey with Colin Read’s assertion that “histo- McNairn has drawn our attention to the rians argue that shifts in Upper Canada’s role of voluntary associations of all types political culture stemmed from a deep in the creation of a viable public sphere structural change, the development of – the sphere of public discussion required capitalism. Oddly, none really explore for democratic debate and the formation that key notion.”5 This article, in con- of ‘public opinion’: “They brought people trast, looks specifically at the role of one together to pursue common projects, in- economic institution, the Farmers’ Store- structing them in the public use of their house – and the religious group, the Chil- reason.” He points to the role of voluntary dren of Peace, that helped organize it – in associations as “experiments in democratic fostering deliberative democracy in Up- sociability” in which per Canada. The transition to a capitalist Upper Canadians grew accustomed to com- market economy in North America is too ing together to further common goals; to frequently viewed as the product of the working with others of different social, occu- entrepreneurial action of individuals. The pational, religious or national backgrounds; to devising and abiding by mutually agreed corporate aspect of the economy remains upon rules; to discussing topics of common relatively undocumented. But some com- concern; to speaking in front of others; to panies, as collectivities of shareholders, listening to others with opposing views; and were equally “experiments in democratic to disagreeing without attacking the speaker, offending others, or trying to mandate uni- sociability.” Joint stock companies like formity. In voluntary associations people the Farmers’ Storehouse played a critical learned and practised the norms of reasoned role in fomenting the reform movement discussion and mutual respect vital to sus- in the Home District of Upper Canada 4 tained public deliberation. and in giving it its populist and co-opera- McNairn carefully documents the roles tivist character. of a variety of these voluntary associa- In 1833, Patrick Shirreff, a Scots tions in the formation of a culture of “de- farmer, set out on a tour of North Ameri- liberative democracy”, including literary ca with the aim of evaluating its prospects clubs, reading rooms, Freemason lodges, for emigrants, and more particularly, for Mechanics Institutes, agricultural socie- his younger brother. He traveled widely ties, and benevolent associations. within Upper Canada, including taking 4 Jeffrey L. McNairnThe Capacity to Judge: Public Opinion and Deliberative Democracy in Upper Canada 1791-1854 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000), 63.