Pacific market-places : a collection of essays

Abstract

Town and country meet and mingle in the urban produce markets of the Pacific region. From here economic forces operate to diffuse new forms of production and organisation throughout the region. These new forms are, however, superimposed on the traditional trading exchanges of the Pacific peoples; full understanding of them requires consideration of the whole social and economic environment, of trading practices and their economic motivation. This book presents a snapshot of urban marketing in the Pacific in the 1960s against such a background. The five market studies, ranging from small incipient markets in New Guinea to larger, more complex urban markets in the Solomons and Samoa, are empirical, each independently prepared. The editor draws them together with a discussion of the wider aspects of produce marketing in the Pacific, and places them within the context of a theoretical approach to urban markets in developing areas.