[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hai/wpaper/201910.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Prices, Wages, and Welfare in Early Colonial South Australia, 1836-1850

Author

Listed:
  • Sumner La Croix

    (University of Hawaii)

  • Edwyna Harris

    (Monash University)

Abstract
From first settlement of South Australia (SA) in November 1836, the colony underwent a series of crises due to delays in surveying and distributing lands, producing crops, and employing new migrants. Histories of this period emphasize that a combination of high food prices and high wages burdened the government and new farms. To check and refine standard explanations for early colonization crises, we employ a number of sources, including SA newspapers and colonial government blue books, to develop monthly series for prices, wages, and the cost of “respectable†and “bare bones†consumption baskets over the 1838-1850 period. We use Corden’s model of a booming economy with traded and non-traded goods to understand how various shocks, including the 1840 stop in immigration and the 1844/1845 copper discoveries, could have affected the SA economy. We find that the model’s implications are consistent with changes in our newly developed SA data series.

Suggested Citation

  • Sumner La Croix & Edwyna Harris, 2019. "Prices, Wages, and Welfare in Early Colonial South Australia, 1836-1850," Working Papers 201910, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:hai:wpaper:201910
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.economics.hawaii.edu/research/workingpapers/WP_19-10.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2019
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Williamson, Jeffrey G. & Panza, Laura, 2017. "Australian Exceptionalism? Inequality and Living Standards 1821-1871," CEPR Discussion Papers 11756, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    2. W. Max Corden, 2012. "Dutch Disease in Australia: Policy Options for a Three-Speed Economy," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 45(3), pages 290-304, September.
    3. Allen, Robert C. & Murphy, Tommy E. & Schneider, Eric B., 2012. "The Colonial Origins of the Divergence in the Americas: A Labor Market Approach," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 72(4), pages 863-894, December.
    4. Ian W. McLean & Stephen J. Woodland, 1992. "Consumer Prices in Australia 1850-1914," School of Economics and Public Policy Working Papers 1992-04, University of Adelaide, School of Economics and Public Policy.
    5. Ohad Raveh, 2013. "Dutch Disease, factor mobility, and the Alberta Effect: the case of federations," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 46(4), pages 1317-1350, November.
    6. Michel Beine & Serge Coulombe & Wessel N. Vermeulen, 2015. "Dutch Disease and the Mitigation Effect of Migration: Evidence from Canadian Provinces," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 125(589), pages 1574-1615, December.
    7. Michel Beine & Serge Coulombe & Wessel N. Vermeulen, 2015. "Dutch Disease and the Mitigation Effect of Migration: Evidence from Canadian Provinces," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 125(589), pages 1574-1615, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Luis Felipe Zegarra, 2020. "Living Costs and Real Wages in Nineteenth Century Lima: Levels and International Comparisons," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 60(2), pages 186-219, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Luis Felipe Zegarra, 2020. "Living Costs and Real Wages in Nineteenth Century Lima: Levels and International Comparisons," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 60(2), pages 186-219, July.
    2. Edwyna Harris & Sumner La Croix, 2021. "Australia’s Forgotten Copper Mining Boom: Understanding How South Australia Avoided Dutch Disease, 1843–1850," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 97(318), pages 424-439, September.
    3. Burnard, Trevor & Panza, Laura & Williamson, Jeffrey, 2019. "Living costs, real incomes and inequality in colonial Jamaica," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 55-71.
    4. Vincent Geloso & Peter Lindert, 2020. "Relative costs of living, for richer and poorer, 1688–1914," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 14(3), pages 417-442, September.
    5. James Roumasset, 2020. "Clubs, Coase, and the role of government," Philippine Review of Economics, University of the Philippines School of Economics and Philippine Economic Society, vol. 57(1), pages 1-17, June.
    6. Edwyna Harris & Sumner La Croix, 2020. "South Australia’s Employment Relief Program for Assisted Immigrants: Promises and Reality, 1838-1843," CEH Discussion Papers 03, Centre for Economic History, Research School of Economics, Australian National University.
    7. Edwyna Harris & Sumner La Croix, 2020. "South Australia’s Employment Relief Program for Assisted Immigrants: Promises and Reality, 1838-1843," Working Papers 202008, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Economics.
    8. Laura Panza & Jeffrey G. Williamson, 2017. "Australian Exceptionalism? Inequality and Living Standards 1821-1871," Department of Economics - Working Papers Series 2027, The University of Melbourne.
    9. Trevor Burnard & Laura Panza & Jeffrey G. Williamson, 2017. "The Social Implications of Sugar: Living Costs, Real Incomes and Inequality in Jamaica c1774," NBER Working Papers 23897, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Luis Felipe Zegarra, 2024. "Wages, prices and living standards in Spanish America: evidence from Lima," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 18(3), pages 837-867, September.
    11. Boško Mijatović & Branko Milanović, 2021. "The real urban wage in an agricultural economy without landless farmers: Serbia, 1862–1910," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 74(2), pages 424-448, May.
    12. Robert C. Allen, 2015. "The high wage economy and the industrial revolution: a restatement," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 68(1), pages 1-22, February.
    13. Andrés Calderón-Fernández & Héctor García-Montero & Enrique Llopis-Agelán, 2017. "New research guidelines for living standards, consumer baskets, and prices in Madrid and Mexico," Working Papers 097, "Carlo F. Dondena" Centre for Research on Social Dynamics (DONDENA), Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi.
    14. Robert C. Allen, 2015. "The high wage economy and the industrial revolution: a restatement," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 68(1), pages 1-22, February.
    15. Allen, Robert C., 2014. "American Exceptionalism as a Problem in Global History," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 74(2), pages 309-350, June.
    16. Paul Caruana-Galizia, 2015. "Strategic colonies and economic development: real wages in Cyprus, Gibraltar, and Malta, 1836–1913," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 68(4), pages 1250-1276, November.
    17. Vincent J. Geloso, 2019. "Distinct within North America: living standards in French Canada, 1688–1775," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 13(2), pages 277-321, May.
    18. Robert C. Allen, 2021. "The Interplay among Wages, Technology, and Globalization: The Labour Market and Inequality, 1620-2020," Working Papers 20210065, New York University Abu Dhabi, Department of Social Science, revised Jun 2021.
    19. Robert C. Allen, 2019. "Real wages once more: a response to Judy Stephenson," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 72(2), pages 738-754, May.
    20. Julio Martínez-Galarraga & Marc Prat, 2014. "Wages and prices in early Catalan industrialisation," UB School of Economics Working Papers 2014/305, University of Barcelona School of Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Adelaide; colonization; welfare ratio; standard of living; South Australia; relief; Wakefield; migrants;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • N47 - Economic History - - Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation - - - Africa; Oceania
    • N57 - Economic History - - Agriculture, Natural Resources, Environment and Extractive Industries - - - Africa; Oceania
    • N97 - Economic History - - Regional and Urban History - - - Africa; Oceania
    • R30 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Real Estate Markets, Spatial Production Analysis, and Firm Location - - - General
    • D44 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Auctions

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hai:wpaper:201910. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Web Technician (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deuhius.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.