Economics and the Dreamtime: A Hypothetical History by N G Butlin

Book Description

Secondhand. Very good condition. Minor wear to book corners and edges. Previous owner has placed white stickers over signature on half-title page.

It is a common perception that the influence of the Aborigines on British settlement in Australia was minimal. The economic significance of Aboriginal culture for the colonisers is rarely addressed and until now, has not been closely studied by an economic historian.

This imaginative book presents a concept of a pre-European Aboriginal economy. It shows how an Aboriginal presence over millennia shaped the local environment and responded to it so that the Aboriginal economy developed into an ordered system of decision-making able to satisfy the wants of the people.

The book closely analyses the processes which allowed economic control of a country to pass from Aboriginal to European hands within 60 years of settlement. Professor Butlin's presentation of the contrast between one of the world's most ancient economies and one of its youngest is both illuminating and exciting. (back cover)

Contents:

Part I: The palaeoeconomic history of Aboriginal migration

Part II: Development, structure and function of Aboriginal economy

Part III: Disease, economics and demography

Part IV: The establishment of a bridgehead economy: 1788-1810

Part V: The takeover process: 1788-1850