Not in Narrow Seas
The definitive economic history; the long context for the 1984 rupture.
Summary
The reference has not verified this book in detail; the summary states only what the title, author and subject establish.
Brian Easton wrote this as a long economic history of New Zealand, covering the period from Maori settlement and European contact through the colonial economy, the refrigeration revolution that created the pastoral export economy, the twentieth-century regulated economy, the loss of preferential British market access, the reforms after 1984, and the present.
Easton's approach is to treat economic structure as the driver of social and political development rather than as a separate subject. The organising claim is that New Zealand's economy has been shaped throughout by its dependence on a small number of commodity exports to distant markets, and that the country's politics have repeatedly been about how to manage that exposure.
The reference has not verified this book in detail, and this entry reflects its established scope and Easton's known positions as a critic of the post-1984 reform programme rather than a close reading. The book is long and aimed at readers with an interest in New Zealand specifically.
Key takeaways 5
- New Zealand's economic history has been determined by dependence on a small number of commodity exports to distant markets.
- Refrigerated shipping from the 1880s created the pastoral export economy on which the country's prosperity was built.
- Britain's entry into the European Economic Community removed the preferential market access that had underpinned New Zealand's terms of trade.
- Easton treats the post-1984 liberalisation as more radical than the country's problems required.
- Economic structure rather than political ideology has driven New Zealand's policy shifts across its history.
Who should read it
Readers wanting a long-run economic history of New Zealand from a critic of its reform period, with the caveat that this entry is not verified in detail.
Where it sits in the reference 2
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