Powerhouse economies of the pacific: a comparative study of nineteenth century Victoria and California
Creators: name: Frost, Warwick
Publisher: name: Figshare
Year: 2017
Subjects: Uncategorized

description: The comparative method is a useful tool for understanding the development of the countries and regions of
the Pacific. It has especially been used for comparing and contrasting the regions of recent European
settlement, which include the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. However, the comparative method
has rarely been used for the (eastern) Pacific coast of Australia and the (western) Pacific coast of the USA*.
In particular the two powerhouse economies of the nineteenth century Pacific, Victoria and California, have
only occasionally been the subjects of comparative studies. The cause of this is mainly teleological.
Looking backwards from the dawn of the twenty-first century, California appears too advanced, too rich and
too 'Californian' to be compared with anywhere else in the Pacific, or on Earth. Victoria may also be
Western, advanced and wealthy, but nowhere on the scale or style of California and indeed in the twentieth
century it has lost its Australian pre-eminence to New South Wales. Such a loss of domination is
unthinkable for California. Australian scholars may think of comparisons for Victoria, but it is very hard for
those on the other side of the Pacific to consider California as anything but unique and therefore beyond
comparison. An example of this view is Rothstein who argued that due to gold, for a short time, 'in the
1850s the Pacific slope resembled Australia's more than it did the other sections of the United States', but
from the 1860s onwards the comparison was no longer valid as the American Pacific Slope progressed far
more rapidly than the Australian Pacific Slope (Rothstein, 1975: 273-4).
The few comparative studies of California with Victoria tend to concentrate on specific themes in which the
two states share a common history. Two recent examples illustrate this. The first is David Goodman's Gold
Seeking: Victoria and California in the 1850s, (1994). California (1848 onwards) and Victoria (1851
onwards) were the two great Gold Rushes of world history and thrust these two isolated underdeveloped
pastoral economies into the world spotlight. Goodman's interest is in how the participants in these rushes
thought about the social impact of these revolutionary events. Significantly, Goodman is inclined to dwell
on the differences between the two Gold Rushes rather than the similarities, especially the different types of
society and the different customs which developed.
The second is Lionel Frost's The New Urban Frontier: urbanisation and city building in Australasia and the
American West, (1991). Frost argues that nineteenth century Victoria and California saw the development
of 'Pacific Cities', low density spacious cities which contrasted to the crowded European style cities which
had previously developed in regions of recent European settlement. Melbourne and Los Angeles were the
best examples of these new style cities (others included Denver, Oakland, Auckland, Vancouver and
Adelaide). Due to high incomes generated through providing services to their rich hinterlands, the
inhabitants of these cities were able to afford suburban housing and lifestyles, parks and wide streets and to
avoid overcrowding and slums.
The purpose of this article is to argue that the potential of the comparative tool extends well beyond these
two topics. To further illustrate the value of comparison, this article presents two case studies. The first is
the effect of gold on the economic and population growth of California and Victoria. The second is the
wheat industry, particularly the decline of wheat growing in California and the central part of Victoria.