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Australian squatters, convicts, and capitalists: dividing up a fast‐growing frontier pie, 1821–71

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  • Laura Panza
  • Jeffrey G. Williamson

Abstract

Compared with its competitors, Australian GDP per worker grew exceptionally quickly from the 1820s to the 1870s, at a rate about twice that of the US and three times that of Britain. Did this rapid growth produce rising inequality, following a Kuznets curve? Using a novel dataset, this article offers new evidence that provides unambiguous support for the view that, in sharp contrast with the US experience and with globalization‐inequality views concerning late nineteenth‐century frontiers, Australia underwent a revolutionary levelling in incomes up to the 1870s. This assessment is based on trends in many proxies for inequality, as well as annual estimates of functional income shares in the form of land rents, convict payments, free unskilled labour incomes, free skilled labour and white collar incomes, British imperial transfers, and a capitalist residual.

Suggested Citation

  • Laura Panza & Jeffrey G. Williamson, 2019. "Australian squatters, convicts, and capitalists: dividing up a fast‐growing frontier pie, 1821–71," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 72(2), pages 568-594, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ehsrev:v:72:y:2019:i:2:p:568-594
    DOI: 10.1111/ehr.12739
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    Cited by:

    1. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. Edwyna Harris & Sumner La Croix, 2019. "Prices, Wages, and Welfare in Early Colonial South Australia, 1836-1850," Monash Economics Working Papers 07-19, Monash University, Department of Economics.
    4. 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.
    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. Kym Anderson, 2022. "Structural transformation in growing open economies: Australia’s experience," Departmental Working Papers 2022-13, The Australian National University, Arndt-Corden Department of Economics.
    7. Seltzer, Andrew J., 2021. "Globalisation, migration, trade and growth: honouring the contribution of Jeff Williamson to Australian and Asia-Pacific economic history—Guest Editor's introduction," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 111038, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    8. 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.

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