Reciprocal Investments: John Galt, the Periodical Press, and the Business of North American Emigration

When John Galt resigned from the Canada Company in 1829, he returned to England penniless. This article explores how Fraser's Town and Country Magazine enabled Galt to capitalize on his failure as a businessman by writing about his experiences in Upper Canada. Galt originally imagined his work in the colonial project taking place through a land distribution and emigration company; instead, he promoted emigration through the press. Galt offers a unique perspective on the industry of emigration and the labour found not in the act of emigrating itself but in the largescale apparatus surrounding emigration and the settlement of British colonies, which included the British periodical press.