Exceptional Auckland? Why the Development of Auckland’s Business Economy between the 1880s and 1914 was Different from the Rest of New Zealand

Abstract

This thesis can be broadly classified as an economic history of Auckland city and province during the thirty or so years preceding the First World War. That period was characterised by significant economic, social and political change in New Zealand and Auckland. New Zealand’s economic growth during those years propelled it amongst the top nations in the world, on an income per capita basis, by the early twentieth century. During that period Auckland emerged as the pre-eminent commercial and population centre in the country. The thesis aims to fill a gap in our historiography as no comprehensive, thematic or chronological business history, with an Auckland city or regional focus, exists for any era. An economic history of Auckland is necessary because, as this thesis will argue, Auckland’s economic development in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was different from the rest of the country. It was also exceptional, if for no other reason than the magnitude of its growth during this period, which saw it emerge as the largest economic and population centre in New Zealand. This thesis sets out to examine exactly how different Auckland’s economy was, and how those differences developed. It will focus initially on Auckland’s economic foundations and its mercantile ‘roots’. Lacking the pastoral economy of the other regions it relied on its overseas and local trade, which saw it become the largest importing centre in the country. The thesis will then look at Auckland’s reliance on its natural resources, such as gold and timber that made the province unique in the extent of its economic reliance on extractive industries. But what the thesis will highlight is that above all the other reasons for the different Auckland, the driver that made the greatest difference was people. It was the concentration of more and more people in the Auckland province and city during the thirty years prior to the Great War that drove the economic growth that made Auckland different. Their increased spending power, derived from being citizens in a leading world economy, gave rise to increasing demands for all the goods and services necessary to improve their lives. This resulted in the emergence of a burgeoning consumer supply economy in Auckland that made it the pre-eminent commercial centre in the country by 1914, a position which it has maintained ever since.