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The Contribution of the Whaling Industry to the Economic Development of the Australian Colonies: 1770-1850

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The Contribution of the Whaling Industry to the Economic Development of the Australian Colonies: 1770-1850 The Contribution Of The Whaling Industry To The Economic Development Of The Australian Colonies: 1770-1850 John Ayres Mills Bachelor of Arts (University of Sydney) Master of Professional Economics (University of Queensland) Doctor of Philosophy (Griffith University) A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the The University of Queensland in 2016 School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry Abstract Many of the leaders in the colonial communities of New South Wales and Tasmania, and in British trade and commerce, were convinced that the colonies’ economic future depended on the discovery and exploitation of “staples”. In the original formulation of staple theory in economics, staples were export commodities which generate income in excess of meeting needs for local consumption, leaving a surplus available for reinvestment. They were also likely to have strong links to industries which supported them, and the development of which, at least in part, was catalysed by the staple’s growth. The very first staples in the Australian colonies were sealskins, seal oils and bay whales. By 1820, it had become clear that the level of their natural stocks put severe limits on product availability, and therefore they would not achieve the goal of becoming a staple. From the early 1820s, New South Wales began to export colonial-grown wool in increasingly significant quantities, and with marked improvements in quality. At the same time, well established whaling industries, principally the British, began to make substantial investment in deep-sea hunting for sperm whales in the Southern Whale Fishery, which encircled Australia. An Australian whaling fleet began to emerge. As with wool, annual export revenue from whaling increased significantly from the start. Some thought that whaling had the potential to develop as the Australian colonies’ primary staple. After ten years of jostling for export sales leadership, wool emerged as the primary staple by 1835. While exports of both commodities increased, wool’s rate of increase was greater than that of whaling. By 1850 export values from “fisheries” had massively declined, while wool’s were still increasing. Although the home-grown whaling fleet out-competed the British fleet, by 1850 both were outperformed by the American fleet. Because of measurement difficulties it is hard to be precise about the extent to which the whaling industry catalysed the growth of ship-servicing industries – shipbuilding, repair and maintenance in particular. However available data enables the conclusion that at 1850 those industries were still organised on a cottage basis, largely because they lacked the volume needed to sustain bulk output. Technological change in markets also played a large part in the demise of the whaling industry, with the substitution of coal gas for whale oil in large-scale industrial lighting applications, and mineral oils for domestic lighting. Whaling made a significant contribution to Australia’s economic development in the period 1800 to 1850, and particularly in the period 1830 to 1845. Together with oil it generated almost all of Australia’s surplus from external trade until 1850, By then its contribution had almost fallen from sight. i This thesis is distinctive for both its methodology and conclusions. As to the former, it is the first study of the history of the Australian whaling industry considered from a global perspective. Further, it analyses primary data which has been available in one case since 1963 and another since 1983, but which have not been rigorously mined until now. In doing so, it is also the first to estimate the dimensions of the relative sizes and economic contributions of the domestic whaling fleets, and the fleets of America, Britain and France. A simple mathematical model has been devised for this specific purpose. On the latter, the conclusions leave little if any doubt that whaling was Australia’s premier staple commodity but for a short time. This is in part because of a second finding: that the whaling industry had not developed to a point where it could be a significant catalyst to the growth of a local ship- building industry. ii Declaration by Author This thesis is composed of my original work, and contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference has been made in the text. I have clearly stated the contribution by others to jointly-authored works that I have included in my thesis. I have clearly stated the contribution of others to my thesis as a whole, including statistical assistance, survey design, data analysis, significant technical procedures, professional editorial advice, and any other original research work used or reported in my thesis. The content of my thesis is the result of work I have carried out since the commencement of my research higher degree candidature and does not include a substantial part of work that has been submitted to qualify for the award of any other degree or diploma in any university or other tertiary institution. I have clearly stated which parts of my thesis, if any, have been submitted to qualify for another award. I acknowledge that an electronic copy of my thesis must be lodged with the University Library and, subject to the policy and procedures of The University of Queensland, the thesis be made available for research and study in accordance with the Copyright Act 1968 unless a period of embargo has been approved by the Dean of the Graduate School. I acknowledge that copyright of all material contained in my thesis resides with the copyright holder(s) of that material. Where appropriate I have obtained copyright permission from the copyright holder to reproduce material in this thesis. iii Publications during candidature No publications Publications included in this thesis No publications included Contributions by others to the thesis No contributions by others Statement of parts of the thesis submitted to qualify for the award of another degree None iv Acknowledgements Post-graduate students are often told that the subject of their dissertation may ultimately differ from the student’s original interests and intent, and indeed that this may be more often the rule rather than the exception. If so, my case is typical. I set out to demonstrate that the interface between the steel wheel and the steel rail was the point at which the greatest potential productivity gain became available in railway systems. It became clear that progressing this issue required a higher level of mathematics and econometric expertise than I possessed and, at age 70, was ever likely to. Consistent with my interest in transportation in colonial economics, I searched for an alternative. I found one. I hypothesized that until reliance from wool became the largest single source of export revenue, the revenue from products derived from whales (including products derived from seals) would be the greatest single source of export revenue to the Australian colonies. Putting the hypothesis was easy; demonstrating its validity quite another. It turned out that there were very large gaps in primary data sources, both in quantity and quality. This in turn meant that it became necessary to build a mathematical model which so far as reasonably possible replicated the way in which the Southern Whale “Fishery” worked – bearing in mind that the whaling industry was one of the first multi-national industries in the industrial era, and that it had been in operational dominance by European countries from as early as the twelfth century. It now seems clear that the whaling industry in Australia in the nineteenth century worked on a significantly larger scale than might have been imagined, and perhaps for a shorter time. These realizations were painful. The two anonymous external examiners of the first version of this dissertation were unforgiving in their criticism, but they were also constructive, so much so that they recommended I be given an opportunity to repair the dissertation’s manifest short-comings. They both volunteered to enlist for a reappraisal of the revised work. They were just two of the many people who were unstinting in their support. It would have been impossible for me to have produced this dissertation without the support of my wife, Margaret. She was both a financial and a production partner. She found the word-processing of uncountable drafts as tedious as I found their writing, but carried on. She was very seriously ill throughout the preparation of this thesis. I am deeply in her debt. v Emeritus Professor. Peter Spearritt was my Principal Adviser. He has been wonderfully stimulating in this role, forever goading for improved performance. It is to my great regret that I was never able to force him into argument, despite some healthy debate. Adjunct Prof Ruth Kerr, also an Adviser, has been consistently critical of content, and a meticulous provider of editorial comment and archival advice. I have learnt much from them both. I am grateful to Bill Beach, then Senior Manager of the Social Science and Humanities Library, and to Alison Stewart, and her staff at the University of Queensland library. Mark Cryle and his team at the Fryer Research Library, have been unfailingly good humoured and helpful, as have been their counterparts in the National Library of Australia. My research benefited greatly from help from Helen McMonagle and Robert Mills. I am very grateful for the additional sources they enabled me to uncover, as well as for the editorial expertise of the latter. I held discussions and/or placed questions with a number of people regarding the availability and interpretation of Australian (and other nations) whaling records and other issues. These included Michael Dyer, Research Librarian at the New Bedford Whaling Museum, Elizabeth Oldham of the NHA Research Library Nantucket, author Glanville Allen Mawer, Mathew Stephens, the Research Librarian of Sydney Living Missions, and Dr.
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