Government and the Colonial Economies

Author: Boot, H.M.

Source: Australian Economic History Review, Volume 38, Number 1, March 1998 , pp. 74-101(28)

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Abstract:

From the time of Macquarie the beneficial effects of government came less from material support than from the recognition of an emerging free society, dependent for its success on the rule of law, the strengthening of property rights, improved administration, low taxation, and an environment of confidence and opportunity that encouraged voluntary flows of people and capital from Britain and Ireland. After 1860, the value of the government contribution to growth was reduced by the destabilizing and growth-distorting consequences of public investment. The economic contribution of colonial governments in thi later period was found less in their willingness to construct public capital assets and more in the provision of a favourable and permissive environment in which private decision-makers were to a large extent free to pursue their own private ends.

Document Type: Original article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-8446.00025

Affiliations: 1: Australian National University

Publication date: 1998-03-01