Capitalism and colonial development : studies in the economic history of Fiji, 1874-1939

Abstract

The thesis examines the spread, functioning and impact of capitalism in Fiji during the first sixty-five years of British colonial rule, 1874-1939. At the outset, two distinguishing features of the Fiji experience are emphasised. First, rapid sugar export growth occurred in 1880-1913, when most sugar colonies were stagnating. Second, nineteenth century colonial governors sought a pattern of development which simultaneously ensured financial self-sufficiency for the colonial administration and a minimal disintegrative effect on indigenous society. Colonial economic policy accordingly encouraged a gentle growth in supplementary cash-cropping by Fijians and a faster growth in plantation production based on imported Indian labour and transnational - largely Australian - capital. (Chapter 1). A quantitative analysis of growth and instability of exports serves as a capsular history of Fiji's growth and then depression in the period 1875 to 1939. Expansion of the regional sugar economy was founded on exploitation of indentured Indian labour, and on technological innovation by the dominant company, CSR; and survival on transition to a peasant mode of production and export sales in a sheltered market. The regional copra economy grew more slowly and white planters especially suffered the full effects of external price fluctuation. (Chapter 2). Contrary to some opinion, Fijians were not isolated from the development process. They became increasingly, though still marginally, involved in monetary activity, and generally in a way which was compatible with maintenance of a distinctively Fijian domain. (Chapter 3). In contrast, hopes for a permanent European sugar planter society were lost in the vulnerability that complete specialisation, Indian peasant competition, and CSR indifference brought. (Chapter 4). Foreign corporate capital developed, and held an effective, profitable monopoly over, Fiji's shipping services; and like CSR, the shipping companies were naturally metropole-oriented and unprepared to encourage white settler development in Fiji at the expense of profits. (Chapter 5). Merchant capital became concentrated to the point where a few foreign-owned companies marketed and wholesaled the bulk of the colony's export and import goods. These companies did not exercise the market control or achieve the high profits attributed to them by some observers because they had to adjust to world prices and the presence of competitive Indian and Chinese firms. (Chapter 6). Two Australasian banks constituted Fiji's banking system; and their attempt to formulate exchange rate policy during the Great Depression serves to illustrate the strategic strength of CSR, merchants and government, and the political impotence of white copra planters. (Chapter 7). Finally the impact of colonial export growth, particularly on long-term economic development prospects, is empirically analysed. The findings are related to the popular general proposition that the development of rich countries causes the underdevelopment or impoverishment of poor countries. It is concluded that the proposition is simplistic and founded on fanciful counterfactuals; and that in the case of Fiji there was capitalist "development of development". By its nature, the latter was constrained, unhappy, and unequal; but it was the least unhappy of plausible alternatives open at the beginning of the colonial period. Show more