Land, Power, and Economics on the Frontier of Upper Canada examines Ontario's formative years, focusing on Essex County in Ontario from 1788 to 1850. Upper Canadian attitudes to land and society are shown to have been built on contemporary visions of the cosmos. John Clarke examines the actions of individuals from the perspective of the political culture and its manifestations, doing so within the constraints of geography and the cultural baggage of the settlers. Placing human action in the context of economics and laissez-faire capitalism, Clarke shows how almost unbridled acquisitiveness, and its concomitant land speculation, could promote or hinder development.

From 1763 to 1867 the land system of Upper Canada was one of the most important questions in the development of the new country. This detailed study of the subject examines Great Britain's plans for Canada after the conquest, the problems created by the royal "promise" of land to the loyalists, Lord Durham's Report, and the failure of the land policies to reach their economic and political objectives. In addition it covers the land problems in Canada after responsible government was achieved: Clergy Reserves, untenanted and abandoned land, settlement duties, speculation, wild land tax and assessment, and the activities of squatters. Based on Colonial Office depsatches, legislative records, the Crown Land Papers, newspapers and various private collections of documents, this work offers an accurate account of the social, economic and political aspects related to land policy in nineteenth-century Upper Canada.