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Prices, Wages, and Welfare in Early Colonial South Australia, 1836-1850

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  • Edwyna Harris
  • Sumner La Croix

Abstract

From first settlement of South Australia in November 1836, the colony underwent a series of crises due to delays in surveying and distributing lands, producing crops, and employing new migrants. Histories of this period emphasize that a combination of high food prices and high wages burdened the government and new farms. To check and refine standard explanations for early colonization crises, we employ a number of sources, including South Australian newspapers and colonial government blue books, to develop monthly series for prices, wages, and the cost of “respectable” and “bare bones” consumption baskets over the 1838-1850 period. We use Corden’s model of a booming economy with traded and non-traded goods to understand how various shocks, including the 1840 stop in immigration and the 1844/1845 copper discoveries, could have affected the SA economy. We find that the model’s implications are consistent with changes in our newly developed SA data series.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
  • Handle: RePEc:mos:moswps:2019-07
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Luis Felipe Zegarra, 2020. "Living Costs and Real Wages in Nineteenth Century Lima: Levels and International Comparisons," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 60(2), pages 186-219, July.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Adelaide; colonization; welfare ratio; standard of living; South Australia; relief; Wakefield; migrants;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • N47 - Economic History - - Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation - - - Africa; Oceania
    • N57 - Economic History - - Agriculture, Natural Resources, Environment and Extractive Industries - - - Africa; Oceania
    • N97 - Economic History - - Regional and Urban History - - - Africa; Oceania
    • R30 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Real Estate Markets, Spatial Production Analysis, and Firm Location - - - General
    • D44 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Auctions

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