Forming a Colonial Economy
Australia 1810–1850

This 1995 book provides a comprehensive account of the development of Australia's colonial economy before the gold rushes.

Noel George Butlin (Author)

9780521445818, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 1 January 1994

272 pages, 20 b/w illus. 55 tables
25.4 x 17.8 x 1.5 cm, 0.48 kg

"This volume is perhaps most original for its foray into the largely unexplored topics of early public finance in Australia and the effect of British fiscal policies. It adds appreciably to the corpus of Butlin's work." American Historical Review

This broad-ranging 1995 book provides a comprehensive account of the development of Australia's colonial economy before the gold rushes. Noel Butlin's analysis of the developing economy includes background discussion of eighteenth-century British social, economic, and military history and a detailed demographic analysis of the Australian population over a period of sixty years. He goes on to explore the role of private investment in the economy and the way in which dependence on the British public purse was replaced by dependence on private British capital inflow. A key focus of the book is the extent to which the Australian economy was independent or externally driven, that is, the level of synergism between Australia and Britain. Within this framework, Noel Butlin discusses the central issues of human capital and funding and their impact on the formation of the Australian economy. Forming a Colonial Economy does for the period to the 1840s what Noel Butlin's previous landmark economic histories have done for Australia from the 1860s to the 1890s. It is an ambitious and imaginative book that marks the culmination of a life's work.

List of tables
List of figures
Acknowledgements
Part I. Forming an Economy: Introduction
Part II. The Colonial Peopling of Australia: 1788–1850: 1. Introduction
2. Gross additions to the Australian population
3. The colonial population stock
4. Human capital in convicts
Part III. Public Funding of Colonial Development: 1788–1850: 5. Introduction
6. British fiscal characteristics
7. The imperial fisc in New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land
8. Broad relations between British and Australian fiscs to 1821
9. The beginning of local budgeting: real and subterranean budgets
10. The conventional legal fisc in NSW: 1822–1950
Part IV. The Colonial Australian Economy 1810–40: A Historical, Statistical and Analytical Account: 11. Summary and questions
12. Towards a private market economy in Australia 1810–40
13. Structural adjustment and development 1810–40
14. Growth performance
15. Instability with special reference to the Depression of the 1840s and recovery
Bibliography
Appendices
Index.

Subject Areas: Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], Australasian & Pacific history [HBJM]