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

Usage license:: Get license information via the feedback formular.

Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Part III. The boom of 1890 and its economic consequences

Collection:: Economics Books

30 IMPORTATION OF CAPITAL INTO The unusual character of these statistics calls for some further comment. In the case of Victoria we have a progressive increase from £1:59 millions to £51:724 millions. Until 1891 no serious check to borrowing had occurred, and we are able to see up to this point the uninterrupted play of British investment. Although the halt was called earlier in New South Wales, the check had not yet become at all pronounced. In Queensland, on the other hand, the more varied nature of production in that colony enabled, under heavy pressure it is true, not merely a cessation of borrowing but also repayment of principal to the extent of nearly five millions in one year alone. Even more remarkable in its bearing upon the differences in the weight of the debt between different states is the rate of the per capita increase, the variations during the successive phases of the period, and the differences as among the various colonies. In Victoria the rate of borrowing had grown from nearly £2 per head in the first phase to nearly £38 in the last, in New South Wales it increased from £7 5s. per head to nearly £26 and then dropped back to less than £4, in Queensland it rose from £4-75 per head to £34-65 and then changed abruptly to a repayment of nearly £14-5 per head, or a difference in the ‘living fund’ representing nearly £250 for every family of five in the colony! But the mere volume of capital introduced, or even the rate of new debt per head, constitutes no adequate criterion by which to judge the economic advantage of such importation. The real test must lie in a comparison of new capital with the growth of population, on the one hand, and with the increase in pro- ductivity on the other. Comparing the capital imports with the population in each of the eastern colonies the following analysis is obtained. Tare XI New Capital and Increase of Population Period. 1877-81 . | 1882-86 . . 1887-91 VICTORIA. NEW SOUTH WALES. QUEENSLAND. New cap. per 1,000. Pop. inc. per cent. New cap. ' Pop. inc. ner 1.000. per cent. New cap. ner 1,000. Pop. inc. per cent. L 1,883 13,220 24.165 FS x 93 n523 | 27 4,745 14 25,958 | 27% 34,657 153 3.982 173 le12.497 19 51 10 + Net loss.

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