State control of the local marketing of apples and pears in New Zealand

Abstract

State control in the field of marketing is not a recent innovation in the New Zealand economy. The period between 1914 and the early twenties was one in which, as in other countries, war conditions led to a number of experiments both in the regulation of individualistic marketing and in the formation of state-controlled marketing organisations. Although most of these experiments were designed to meet the particular situation of the time and were allowed to lapse with the passing of the war-time economy, the success of many of the schemes for organised marketing left its impression on the minds of both producers and consumers. Partly as a result of this, the twenties and early thirties saw the setting up, by legislation, in a number of primary industries, of producers' boards with varying powers of control. It is only since the advent to power in 1935 of the Labour Government, however, and the subsequent formation of the Marketing Department, that the State has once more begun to take an active part in marketing. A large measure of state control of trade was found desirable between 1914 and 1918 for three reasons. These were, firstly, the commandeer by the Imperial Government of New Zealand's exportable surplus of the main primary products - an action which upset normal channels of trade and the operation of normal economic forces; secondly, the desire to prevent war-profiteering; and thirdly, the need to minimise price fluctuations and to ensure adequate supplies to the local market. The sudden imposition of a war economy on a country means such a violent change in the ends to which economic activity is directed that normal economical forces are quite incapable of securing a rapid and balanced transition. The state must take steps to see that all necessary changes in the economic structure are made as rapidly as possible, and that the system of production does not break down in the consequent state of disequilibrium.