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Agricultural Development in the World Periphery pp 467–492Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Technological Change and Productivity Growth in the Agrarian Systems of New Zealand and Uruguay (1870–2010)

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Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Economic History ((PEHS))

Abstract

New Zealand and Uruguay were typical settler economies and were similar in many ways, but there were also major differences in how they developed. Chapter 18 aims to describe the New Zealand and Uruguayan livestock systems by analysing their technological trajectories as they sought to raise land productivity. We use a systematic case-oriented comparison and an evolutionary theoretical approach to technological change to understand the process in both pastoral systems in the long term (1870–2010). In the nineteenth century Uruguay had more favourable conditions for pastoral production and, until the 1930s, higher production volumes per hectare. New Zealand had higher growth rates in all livestock physical productivity indicators from 1870 to 1970, and overtook Uruguay’s levels by the mid-twentieth century.

This article summarizes some results of one chapter of my PhD dissertation in economic history. I would like to thank my tutor Luis Bértola for his guidance and ongoing support. I am also grateful for the valuable comments of the dissertation committee members: Geoff Bertram, Eduardo Miguez, Gabriel Oddone and Miguel Sierra. I would also like to thank the participants in the session “Agriculture and economic development in the periphery, 19th and 20th centuries”, 17th World Economic History Congress, Kyoto, Japan, 3–7 August 2015, and the participants of the workshop “Agricultural development in the world periphery: a global economic history approach”, Zaragoza, 29–30 March 2017, in which I presented a previous version of the text and received very useful comments and suggestions. I am grateful for the valuable comments of Vicente Pinilla, Miguel Martin-Retortillo and Henry Willebald that helped to improve the final version. Finally, I would like to thank the CSIC, University of the Republic, Uruguay and Stout Research Centre for New Zealand Studies, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, for supporting my research activities.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    After the 1970s the share of livestock production in total exports fell dramatically in both countries, because wool exports sank and because there was a substantial diversification of exports which increased the share of other agricultural products such as grains, horticulture, viticulture and forestry.

  2. 2.

    Between 1870 and 1930, the volume of exported goods of New Zealand and Uruguay grew in similar ways, on average 3.3 % annually for the former and 3.4 % for the latter. But between 1930 and 1970 Uruguayan exports stagnated, showing a growth rate of −0.3 %, while New Zealand’s exports grew at a rate of 2.5 %. Between 1970 and 2010 the performance of Uruguayan exports improved, but their growth rate remained lower than for New Zealand: 1.9 and 3.1 respectively, based on Alvarez (2014, p. 64, Graph III.11).

  3. 3.

    In English “diabolical blessing”.

  4. 4.

    In an earlier paper we analysed the institutional framework of the agrarian innovation systems in New Zealand and Uruguay in the long run (Alvarez & Bortagaray, 2007). We show that agrarian innovation systems (interactions between agricultural research institutions, universities and the state) were denser in New Zealand than in Uruguay in term of functions and structure.

  5. 5.

    In the thirteenth century, New Zealand ’s native forests covered about 23 million hectares (approximately 85% of the surface area), but by the mid-nineteenth century this had been reduced to 15.4 million hectares (57% of the surface area). However, the greatest change has taken place in the last 150 years, when the area of forest has shrunk to 6.2 million hectares (23% of the surface area) and was largely replaced by grassland for livestock production (Taylor & Smith , 1997; Condliffe , 1959).

  6. 6.

    It is estimated that from 1950 and 1953 the area fertilized with this technique increased from 19,500 to 500,000 hectares, and by 1970 had reached 3.2 million hectares (Tennant, 1978, p. 192, Table 6.2).

  7. 7.

    Dynamic stagnation refers to the stagnation of agricultural production with important changes in the composition of livestock (sheep and cows), in the context of technological stagnation. These changes responded —among other factors—to the reaction of landowners to the evolution of the international prices of the main livestock products for export, such as beef and wool.

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  1. Social Sciences Faculty, University of the Republic, Montevideo, Uruguay

    Jorge Álvarez Scanniello

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  1. Department of Applied Economics and Economic History, Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain

    Vicente Pinilla

  2. Department of Economics, Universidad de la República, Montevideo, Uruguay

    Henry Willebald

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Scanniello, J.Á. (2018). Technological Change and Productivity Growth in the Agrarian Systems of New Zealand and Uruguay (1870–2010). In: Pinilla, V., Willebald, H. (eds) Agricultural Development in the World Periphery. Palgrave Studies in Economic History. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66020-2_18

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66020-2_18

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