Abstract
The state played a central role in Harper’s co-operative vision because he believed that neither the state nor the co-operators could achieve the desired rapid economic development of Western Australia if each acted alone. Specifically, the amount of capital formation that was required to settle a large number of agriculturalists on an expansive landmass could only be realised if, first, the government used its monopoly over collecting future tax revenues to gain credit from the London loan markets, and, second, the co-operators contributed to this grand settlement scheme by working in concert to build and maintain a proportion of this capital. The second source of capital formation and maintenance was particularly important in Harper’s eyes, since he also believed, rightly or wrongly, that co-operators could exploit their local knowledge to reduce the inefficiencies, rent seeking and moral hazards normally associated with government activity. Harper, in short, believed that the state and the co-operators needed to stride forward in tandem, and he was sufficiently confident that this was the appropriate course of action that he devoted a significant part of his own time, treasure and skills to ensuring it happened.
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Notes
- 1.
Note that colonial socialism was obviously not a common expression prior to its coinage by Butlin in 1959. It nonetheless captures a mind-set that drove debate and policy formation during Harper’s era, and herein I have used the term to describe state-sponsored economic development in Western Australia.
- 2.
- 3.
Railway development, road building, telegraph development, subsidised postal services and harbour development and management are significant examples of this type of activity undertaken by government rather than privately. Additionally, activities such as the construction of public buildings and assisting immigration were significant roles assumed by governments (Boot 1998, p. 89).
- 4.
Although Tregenza focuses primarily on the period 1890–1914, he describes socialism as having passed through three stages: the utopian stage (early nineteenth century), the scientific socialism stage (mid-nineteenth century and focusing on Marxian thought) and the practical stage of state socialism (later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries). He fails to distinguish between state socialism and colonial socialism in his analysis.
- 5.
Anderson (1858–1941) was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and, after migrating to Australia in 1886, became a noted teacher at Sydney University where he held the prestigious position of Challis Professor of Logic at that institution (O’Neil 1979).
- 6.
Anderson, F. (1907), “Liberalism and Socialism”, Presidential Address to Section G of the Australian Association for the Development of Science. In this address, Anderson sought to make a case that state socialism superseded even the “scientific socialism” of Marx. He believed that, by 1907, when he gave the address, many considered that state socialism had reached an “advanced stage” in Australian political practice (Tregenza 2012, p. 92). There is no evidence that Harper was aware of Anderson’s activities.
- 7.
St Ledger (1909, p 129) emphasised this dichotomy in Australian economic thinking as follows: “In no State Parliament has the Socialist party ever come forward with a definite proposal for the nationalization of any single industry…It dare not face the electors with such a proposal”. He added: “The elector has an instinctive, that is, a natural horror of being taxed for unremunerative state enterprises, and still holds that speculation is the province, as it is the risk, of the individual and not the state”. He also believed that liberals and socialists had found some common ground in Australia, since the liberals considered it was the responsibility of parliament as well as employers to improve the standard of living (1909, p. 29).
- 8.
Interestingly, Sharkey and Campbell (1945, pp. 8–10), then president of the Australian Communist Party and Director of the Marx School respectively, also identified this foundation stage of Australian economic development and argued that the increased public ownership of assets and government involvement in enterprise was just a logical extension of the existing state of affairs.
- 9.
For instance, both Western Australia and South Australia were settled as free colonies. However, the near failure of these colonies in economic terms relatively soon after they were established placed pressure on the Imperial and local governments to provide resources and step in as an economic actor (Stannage 1981; Statham-Drew 2003; Bolton 2008). In Western Australia, the convict system was introduced in 1850, but in South Australia convicts were never introduced (Hasluck 1965).
- 10.
The period of initial settlement (from 1788 to 1815) also coincided with the Napoleonic Wars. The additional demands imposed on Britain by these wars meant that Imperial officials struggled to develop appropriate regulatory, administrative and supervisory systems for what was, in effect, a new style of convict colony at Botany Bay. The practice of government and military officers undertaking business interests in the convict settlement also meant that they had considerable conflicts of interest in terms of the arrangements put in place to allocate public assets, such as labour and land. Once the Napoleonic Wars were concluded in 1815, the Imperial government had more resources and capacity to oversee the Sydney colony and subsequent colonies (Bunn and Gilchrist 2013).
- 11.
Gerschenkron (1962, p. 6) posited that, while it was commonly accepted that the history of an advanced industrial nation presents a road map for developing countries to follow, the speed, character and structure of the growth trajectory in a developing country can be different for a number of reasons. This is because the developing country can access the economic knowledge and experience of the developed country to avoid the mistakes made, to solve the particular problems faced by the developing nation and to side-step the long and costly period of acquiring the economic knowledge and experience.
- 12.
The published verbatim record of Parliamentary and Committee debates.
- 13.
For example, Western Australia allocated about 55% of its capital toward the establishment of railways during the 1880s (Lamb 1972, p. 252).
- 14.
This is an important but separate issue to that being discussed in this narrative. Although there is an ongoing interest in the causes and effects of Australian colonial socialism, I am concerned here with Charles Harper’s thinking and his rationale for the support he provided to various instances of colonial socialism. However, as an aside, it would be interesting to examine the voting patterns of parliamentarians in relation to proposals for government investment and government operation of businesses, as against the costs and benefits derived. The extent to which government investment in capital formation served to crowd out private sector actors is also an important area of debate. However, again, it is outside the scope of this book, since I am concerned with Harper’s thinking and Harper did not consider this issue. It is useful consulting Butlin (1959, 1994), Boot (1998, 2000), McLean (2004) and Frost (2000).
- 15.
Pioneer Service Railways were light railways with a narrow gauge that were used for the timber lines already introduced earlier. They were easily moved from one forest to the next according to need.
- 16.
Harper held the same view when considering the role of drovers in maintaining wells established by government (WAPP No. 12 (v. 2) 1894). He argued that government resources could legitimately be used to construct the infrastructure but that it was the drovers’ role to maintain it and, in fact, he suggested they form a co-operative for the purpose.
- 17.
For instance, the government required the Commissioner for Railways to use Collie Coal as a matter of policy notwithstanding the Commissioner could access better and cheaper coal from Queensland on the other side of Australia. Water usage was also expensive for the state railway due to the need to pay for the supply of water to the Goldfields and the South West. That is, the railway subsidised the cost of water for Goldfields and South West residents (Pratt 1908, pp. 78–81).
- 18.
Born in Adelaide in 1869, Jacoby died in Perth in 1915 (Black and Bolton 1990; Black and de Garis 1992). His interest in agriculture was established when he became a viticulturist in Mundaring in 1893. In many other respects, he had very different political and social views to those held by Harper and was, arguably, more orientated towards state socialism, seeing colonial socialism as a subset of this economic structure. While Harper was a member of the ruling elite and a conservative, Jacoby was politically inclined towards universal suffrage and especially the democratic election of both Houses of Parliament. He was particularly concerned that, as all of the taxpayers funded the Legislative Council, it was unacceptable that only a section of the taxpayers were granted the right to elect members to that chamber. However, very much like Harper, he was keenly interested in things agricultural. Further, Jacoby and Harper were almost in full agreement with regard to policy prescriptions in this area. Notwithstanding his preference for co-operation above all, in reviewing Jacoby’s comments, it would seem that he was much quicker to invoke direct government support than Harper.
- 19.
The fact that Jacoby found political affinity with members of this group, who were essentially established as a result of the actions of unionised agricultural labourers in the eastern states, and were, if not antipathetic to the labour movement, seeking mutual protection from what they saw as the excessive demands of labour, serves to emphasise the lack of political drive of agriculturalists of this time. Jacoby would be recognised today as a socialist rather than a political liberal in the Australian sense of that term. However, the political affinity to be found between members of the nascent Country Party was based in the need for the mutual defence of their interests against labour rather than any coherent political programme they had developed and agreed. Initially, it was a party of self-defence rather than a party of offence.
- 20.
The media of the day were not entirely supportive of the idea. Responding to Harper’s notion that farmers needed cheap money in order to be successful, one journalist opined that, indeed, that was all anybody needed (The West Australian 15th June 1894).
- 21.
The Committee also recommended that the Bank provide advances for the purchase of cattle and sheep stock (which was very expensive in Western Australia due to the transport costs from the eastern states). It was reckoned that such advances would allow for the opening up of around one million acres of new land to pastoral grazing. (WAPP A33 (v. 4) 1901–02).
- 22.
Additional considerations were also reviewed by the Committee to ensure that the protective qualities of the tariff were retained. This included the recommendation that tariffs be specifically determined in absolute terms rather than via an ad valorum tax (WAPP No. 22 1893). This was a pragmatic recommendation in that, if a particular good was to carry a tariff because it was being dumped in the local market, the striking of an ad valorem amount may not necessarily make the good equal in price or more expensive than the local alternative, whereas via the striking of a tax of an absolute value the price could be made to do so. Additionally, the striking of a specific value would also allow the tariff to be reduced as the price of the good plus the tax gradually met the commercial price of the good produced locally. That is, as described earlier, the protection was not intended to be open-ended, but was a method of levelling the field so that local industry could compete.
- 23.
In giving evidence at the Select Committee hearings held to examine the possibility of placing the Bureau under a minister of the crown, Harper expressed his concern that the Bureau had no one to speak for it in the Parliament (WAPP 1897 V. 2 A4, p. 11) and that while he was a member of parliament, it was inappropriate for him to speak in that place on the business of the Bureau because he was also the Bureau’s chairman. He was concerned that the Bureau was “… liable to all sorts of attacks without being able to say a word in defence … that is the weak point with regard to the [the Bureau’s] political position …” (WAPP 1897 V. 2 A4, p. 79).
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Gilchrist, D.J. (2017). Australian Colonial Socialism in Word and Deed: The Socialisation of Economic Problems in Colonial Australia. In: Imperial Theory and Colonial Pragmatism. Palgrave Studies in the History of Economic Thought Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62325-2_6
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