Australian Economic History : An Alternative View

1983 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 17-19
Author(s):  
D. Broadbent
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Aboriginal People ◽  
History Textbooks ◽  
Alternative View ◽  
Aboriginal Education ◽  
History Of ◽  
Economic Texts ◽  
Area Of Concern ◽  
Economic Landscape

The 1980 National Aboriginal Education Conference went on record as saying it saw that as an ‘area of concern’ history textbooks on Aborigines are racist.Australians’ economic history is racist in that standard economic texts do not discuss Aborigines at all, or mention them only peripherally.The economic history of Australia is usually written from one or two perspectives, both European. The first involves the flow of external capital, labour and entrepreneurship into what was essentially an empty land awaiting exploitation. This has led to emotive pictures of Australia’s economic development in terms of hardy pioneers driving sheep and cattle into remote parts, and hard-working men clearing land for crops, both groups subject to the usual environmental hazards of droughts, floods and natives.The second view has led to the picture of the country riding on the sheep’s back. In economic terms this meant that the profits earned by wool exports (and later gold) generated capital within the country for economic expansion. This is the Staple theory of economic growth. Neither viewpoint takes into account the Aboriginal people. Nor could they, because they are theories of Capitalism, and nineteenth century Capitalism did not have a human face. The profit motive was supreme. Aborigines were not seen as being at all useful to the process of economic growth once it had got under way.Up to a point, however, the Aborigine was useful. He could guide settlers and explorers across inhospitable landscapes and lead them to water. Having done this, he had outlived his usefulness and was hounded to the edges of the new economic landscape – to extinction in many places.

The Economic History of South Africa 1948–94

2021 ◽  
pp. 46-65
Author(s):  
Bill Freund ◽  
Vishnu Padayachee
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Economic History ◽  
History Of ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
Global And Local ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Way

This chapter addresses the unfolding economic history of South Africa in the apartheid era (1948–94). The chapter is organized according to a periodization with 1971–73 as a marker of the break, and along specific thematic lines. These include a discussion of the way in which this history has been studied and through what theoretical lenses, before engaging with the main issues, including the impact of Afrikaner nationalism on economic growth, the way in which the minerals energy sector, which dominated early perspectives of South African economic history and perspectives, is impacted in this era of National Party rule. An analysis of the role of one major corporation (Anglo American Corporation) in shaping this economic history is followed by an assessment of the impact of the global and local crisis after c.1970 on the South African economy. An abiding theme is that of race and economic development and the way in which the impact of this key relationship of apartheid South Africa on economic growth has been studied.

scholarly journals A Review of Gregory Clark's A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World

2008 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 946-973 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert C Allen
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Living Standards ◽  
Preventive Check ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of

A Farewell to Alms advances striking claims about the economic history of the world. These include (1) the preindustrial world was in a Malthusian preventive check equilibrium, (2) living standards were unchanging and above subsistence for the last 100,000 years, (3) bad institutions were not the cause of economic backwardness, (4) successful economic growth was due to the spread of “middle class” values from the elite to the rest of society for “biological” reasons, (5) workers were the big gainers in the British Industrial Revolution, and (6) the absence of middle class values, for biological reasons, explains why most of the world is poor. The empirical support for these claims is examined, and all are questionable.

The Uruguayan Economy: Its Basic Nature and Current Problems

1965 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 316-330 ◽  
Author(s):  
Herman E. Daly
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
South America ◽  
Economic Activity ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Gross National Product ◽  
Turn Of The Century ◽  
Economic Dimension ◽  
History Of ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
The Welfare State

The economic history of Uruguay from the turn of the century up to the early 1950's is characterized by economic growth, by extensive governmental involvement in economic activity, and by an ardent secularist faith in the welfare state ideals of the great José Batlle y Ordóñez and the Batllista tradition which lived on after him. Its small size, stable democracy, and apparent aloofness from the problems of the rest of the continent have earned la Republica Oriental del Uruguay such sobriquets as the “Switzerland” or “Utopia” of South America. Beginning in the early 1950's, however, there were signs that this country which had for so long been a model laboratory for progress and reform to its crisis-ridden neighbors, was itself about to face a crisis. The economic dimension of the Uruguayan crisis is that the annual per capita gross national product (currently about 500 dollars) has not risen for over a decade, and has in fact declined slightly in the last several years.

Financial Aspects of Korea's Economic Growth under Japanese Rule

1986 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 793-820 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mitsuhiko Kimura
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Interest Rates ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Trade Expansion ◽  
Financial Variables ◽  
Meiji Restoration ◽  
Financial Cooperatives ◽  
History Of ◽  
Yi Dynasty ◽  
The One

Feeling strong pressure from Western Powers Japan abandoned her seclusion policy in 1854 and inaugurated serious efforts to modernize her society and economy after the Meiji Restoration in 1868. She, in turn, forced Korea who had been keeping the seclusion policy on her own to open the door in 1876. The feudal Korean government (the Yi Dynasty, 1392–1910) was impelled to embark on social and economic reforms by opening the door. Yet, after nearly thirty years’ struggle to make reforms and to secure the independence of the country, Korea was converted into a protectorate of Japan in 1905 and was officially annexed to her in 1910. The Japanese government recognized that the creation of modern monetary and banking systems in Korea was the precondition for trade expansion between the two countries (for Japan, rice imports on the one hand and textile exports on the other) and thus started its colonial rule over Korea by establishing a central bank, development banks and financial cooperatives. This paper aims at setting forth an analysis of a more or less unexplored field in the study of the economic history of Korea, that is, the financial aspects of her economic growth under Japanese rule. Particularly, emphasis will be placed on quantitative analysis of major financial variables represented by money, interest rates and bank credit. Before proceeding to the main subject, it may well serve to review some of the financial problems in the late Yi Dynasty period.

Towards a History of Aboriginal Education in New South Wales

1984 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 24-32
Author(s):  
David Huggonson
Keyword(s):  
Aboriginal People ◽  
Aboriginal Education ◽  
Detailed Knowledge ◽  
Moral Code ◽  
European Contact ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Written Form ◽  
History Of ◽  
Aboriginal Society ◽  
Aboriginal Languages

A common misapprehension still prevalent in Australia is that traditional Aboriginal society had no organized educational system. This misapprehension seems based on the ethnocentric concept of British nationalism reinforced by the belief that Christianity was sacrosanct and provided an unassailable moral code. When coupled with the profit motive of capitalism, this belief justified the wholesale destruction of Aboriginal society (Rowley 1970, Reynolds 1981). Prior to European contact most of the instruction of children was carried out by women, and both sexes gained a detailed knowledge of their physical environment. Women were also responsible for the complete spiritual instruction of girls and of boys up to the age of puberty. A boy’s uncle assumed a mentor role during his adolescence (Cowlishaw, 1981). These educational methods were successful in that children were prepared for the particular way of life of their tribe, and there were very few ‘drop outs’, or failures in this system (Hart, 1969).The tragic deaths of the British explorers, Burke and Wills, demonstrated the worthlessness which the Europeans attached to Aboriginal knowledge. Burke habitually chased Aboriginal people away from his camp with his revolver (Woolf, 1974). The earlier explorer, Charles Sturt had been saved from death by scurvy because the surgeon, John Browne, fed him salt bush berries after observing the Yandruwandra people collecting and eating this source of Vitamin C.The British believed English to be the language of enlightenment and viewed the 633, (Reed 1969) different Aboriginal languages and dialects as immoral and primitive. The British made little attempt to learn any Aboriginal languages and the fact that the languages did not exist in a written form further enforced the view of their worthlessness. Contemporary linguistic studies show Aboriginal languages are grammatically complex and that most species of plants and animals to be found in a tribe’s country were represented in their language’s detailed vocabulary (Robertson, 1983). Obviously, if Burke and Wills had been less impatient and arrogant they would not have perished even in the arid lands of Central Australia. They could have survived by developing a rapport with local Aborigines. However, if one’s object is to take possession of a people’s land by exterminating them, it is better to view them psychologically as sub-human or a relic from a different evolutionary era, as many social Darwinists did, than to develop an empathy with them (Fromm, 1942).

The Role of the Railroads in United States Economic Growth

1963 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 477-521 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul H. Cootner
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Economic Growth ◽  
Economic History ◽  
The United States ◽  
History Of

The railroads played an important role in the economic history of the United States. It was an epic role, involving enterprise on a grand scale, evoking heated passions, and rich in anecdote and drama.

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