The Spread of the Multinational Economy, 1871–1914

Simon Ville and David Merrett ()
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David Merrett: University of Melbourne

Chapter Chapter 5 in International Business in Australia before World War One, 2022, pp 81-104 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract The Australian colonial economies were advancing rapidly by the final quarter of the nineteenth century. The growth of the population, its human capital skills and its living standards facilitated economic expansion and business diversification into new activities (Seltzer 2015, 179, 193; Shanahan 2015). As we saw in Chap. 1 , Australia had the highest standard of living among major economies and a pattern of activity that was shaped by domestic—urbanisation, manufacturing—and international—trade, migration and finance —forces. Wool and mining remained the dominant exports for the remainder of the century although other agricultural products—wheat, fruit, dairy and frozen meat—were growing in importance. Resource exports were supported by services such as finance, insurance, shipping and commodity trading. However, diversification into new industries and the expansion of the colonial capitals, especially Sydney and Melbourne, were becoming prominent domestic drivers of growth.

Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1007/978-981-19-0481-3_5

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