Struggle for economic viability : a study in the development of the New Zealand economy in the nineteenth century

Abstract

This work is a qualitative analysis of the New Zealand economy in the nineteenth century. It covers the period of colonisation and the subsequence struggles to establish the economy on a satisfactory footing. It sets out basically to answer the questions: how did people make a living, and why were they obliged to make it in the way they did? A statistical approach has been used in endeavouring to kind an answer to these questions. A framework of official statistics covering such things as exports, imports, population both human and animal, occupations and crop acreages, has been built up. Upon this has been sketched the growth of the major export step is industries, the rise of the internal economy, and the interplay and evolution of goverment economic activity, against a background of changing overseas conditions.