Settler economies in world history [Book Review]

Christopher Lloyd, Jacob Metzer, Richard Sutch (eds.) (2012) Settler Economies in world history Leiden: Brill.Reviewed by Charles CrothersNew Zealand clearly fits into a settler/colonial society framework, alongside obvious comprador countries such as Australia, Canada - and perhaps (Western) USA, South Africa, Israel-Palestine, overland extensions of Russia and the 'Southern cone' Latin America societies, so a major edited volume which is based on an international economic history network seems likely to be a useful source for advancing - or at least consolidating - theoretical work around this category. Comparative analytical history which endeavours to theorise as well as provide typologies and extensive empirical grounding is a welcome prospect. This should reveal the key explanatory drivers which shape the trajectories of this category of societies.However, on closer examination there are limitations which flow from its slow publication time-path which meant, amongst other changes since the originating conferences were held, that the work of Belich is only partly confronted and that of other theorists, especially Lorenzo Veracini (e.g. 2010 and the journal he has founded) not at all.Early typological chapters call attention to the range of examples of settler societies and note some of their key characteristics, but it is not until Lloyd's closing chapter that a more theoretical perspective put forward using a convergence/divergence framework to trace developments over time in this set of countries. In between, there is treatment, across an array of 19 chapters, of a range of important topics including paths of development, inequalities, settler-indigenous relations, labour and migration, financial and capital flows, trade and investment and institutional development. However, the cumulative impact of all this work is somewhat undercut by the rather bewildering and differing range of comparisons made and statistics used, not to mention methodological approaches deployed.New Zealand is covered in several comparative case studies (with Canada, Australia and Uruguayan paired comparisons and inclusion in several further more broadly spanning studies). But, errors in the treatment of New Zealand data (especially in chapters focusing on Maori issues) is annoying and suggests inadequate editing/refereeing. Tough and Dummer's treatment adequately summarises existing studies of the Native Land court as a mechanisms for atavistic transfer of land to Europe but ignores the usually more-willing selling of land before this date and the extensive confiscations of the 1860s (some one-third of the land acquired over that decade). Ward thinks that Maori sold to offset their economic difficulties (no doubt true in some cases although often those gaining were unscrupulous with dubious claims to title), and also thinks - wrongly - that there were sales not confiscations. Later, Meredith suggests that Maori rural labour was 'coerced' which is partially correct although for the most part Maori rural workers competed on the same footing as other New Zealanders. Ward suggests (p254) that there is no information concerning Maori agricultural activities and yet the earliest Official Yearbook has an account (drawn from the 1891 census) of acreages and livestock numbers of Maori farming! Finally, Lloyd suggests that landed gentry never arose in New Zealand despite the work of several New Zealand historians establishing this, albeit confined to some regions. …

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