Borrowing and business in Australia

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 183051623X

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-222122

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Wood, Gordon L. http://d-nb.info/gnd/1239193688

Title:: Borrowing and business in Australia

Place of publication:: London

Publisher:: Oxford university press, H. Milford

Year of publication:: 1930

Scope:: xv, 267 Seiten; graph. Darst.

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Part II. Prosperty and crisis after the gold discoveries

Collection:: Economics Books

THE GOLD DISCOVERIES 23 acutely. The wheat harvest of South Australia was gathered only by the help of aboriginal labour: Tasmania was losing companies of its people by every boat that crossed the straits: the eyes of every man were turned towards the diggings to the exclusion of all else. The most outstanding effect was, of course, that on the wages and the standard of living.! The changed conditions were to have far-reaching effects upon the Australian worker, not the least of them being the growth of that spirit of in- dependence which has played so great a part in our later indus- trial history. - Every overseas ship brought men of all trades and professions to the country, the most adventurous and hardy types of all lands. In one month alone 152 ships arrived in Port Phillip bringing at least 12,000 immigrants, whereas in the previous decade the total increase in population had been but 215,000. In the ten years following the discoveries the population of the colonies increased by 750,000 and the total number of inhabitants other than aboriginals rose, in round numbers, to 1,145,600. Such an influx of people had many immediate effects, such as the impetus given to agriculture and sheep-farming owing to the increased demand for food-stuffs; but it wrought other serious changes in the social and economic structure that must be examined. The diggings attracted from every land and from every layer of society the men willing to take a risk; and, when all the circumstances of the time are considered, gold digging was supremely a speculation. The second colonization of Australia was effected by these types; and the old traditions of labour, authority, and trade, the last relics of the transportation system, were lost for all time. The influence of this change on the ‘make-up’ of the people can scarcely be overrated, more especially when the relative numbers of the old and the new Population are considered. Coghlan estimates that, of a total male population of 229,000 in Victoria and New South Wales, no less than 100,000, largely new-comers, were engaged in mining. The average earnings of these men are computed by ! The most complete and circumstantial account of the economic results following the gold discoveries is contained in Coghlan’s Labour and I ndustry in Australia, Pp. 744 et seq. Unfortunately this otherwise excellent work contains no references to sources consulted. -A shorter treatment will be found in 4 Statistical Account of Australia, Industrial Progress, p. 443, by the same author.

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