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The Family Compact is the epithet applied by their opponents to a small closed group of men who exercised most of the political, economic and judicial power in Upper Canada (modern Ontario) from the 1810s to the 1840s. It was the Upper Canadian equivalent of the Château Clique in Lower Canada. It was noted for its conservatism and opposition to democracy. The term ''Family Compact'' first appeared in a letter written by Marshall Spring Bidwell to William Warren Baldwin in 1828. "Family" did not mean relations by marriage, but rather a close brotherhood. Lord Durham noted in 1839 "There is, in truth, very little of family connection among the persons thus united".〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Compact-Canadian History )〕〔Sir John G. Bourinot, ''Canada under British Rule 1790—1900'', Toronto, Copp, Clark Company, 1901〕 The Family Compact emerged from the War of 1812 and collapsed in the aftermath of the Rebellions of 1837. Their resistance to the political principle of responsible government contributed to its short life.〔Robert C. Lee, ''The Canada Company and the Huron Tract, 1826–1853''. Toronto: Natural Heritage Books, 2004. p. 149〕 At the end of its lifespan, the Compact would be condemned by Lord Durham as "a petty corrupt insolent Tory clique".〔 =="Gentlemanly capitalism" and British colonialism== (詳細はmixed monarchy" model. Mixed monarchy is a form of government that integrates elements of democracy, aristocracy, and monarchy. Upper Canada, however, had no aristocracy. The methods pursued to create one were similar to that used in the United Kingdom itself. The result was the Family Compact. Cain and Hopkins point out that "new money", the financiers rather than the industrial “barons”, were gradually gentrified through the purchase of land, intermarriage and the acquisition of titles. In the United Kingdom, the control exercised by the aristocracy over the House of Commons remained undisturbed before 1832 and was only slowly eroded thereafter, while its dominance of the executive lasted well beyond 1850.” Hopkins and Cain refer to this alliance of aristocracy and financiers as “gentlemanly capitalism”: “a form of capitalism headed by improving aristocratic landlords in association with improving financiers who served as their junior partners." A similar pattern is seen in other colonial empires, such as the Dutch Empire. This same process is seen in Upper Canada. Historian J.K. Johnson’s analysis of the Upper Canadian elite between 1837 and 1840 measured influence according to overlapping leadership roles on the boards of the main social, political and economic institutions. For example, William Allan, one of the most powerful, “was an executive councilor, a legislative councilor, President of the Toronto and Lake Huron Railroad, Governor of the British American Fire and Life Assurance Company and President of the Board of Trade.” Johnson’s conclusion contests the common assertion that “none of the leading members of the Compact were business men, and… the system of values typical of the Compact accorded scant respect to business wealth as such.” The overlapping social, political and economic leadership roles of the Family Compact demonstrates, he argues, that “they were not a political elite taking political decisions in a vacuum, but an overlapping elite whose political and economic activities cannot be entirely separated from each other. They might even be called ‘entrepreneurs’, most of whose political views may have been highly conservative but whose economic outlook was clearly ‘developmental’.” The Family Compact's role in the Welland Canal is one example. It is important to closely examine the ways in which elite Upper Canadians sought "gentility" including the acquisition of landed estates, roles as Justices of the Peace, military service, the pursuit of "improved farming", grammar school education, ties to the Church of England – all in combination with the acquisition of wealth through the Bank of Upper Canada amongst others. It is through the pursuit of gentility that the Family Compact was born. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Family Compact」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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