Refinement and Refutation: N. G. Butlin’s 1959 Monograph 'Colonial Socialism in Australia' and Explanations for Public Capital Formation, 1850 to 1890

Abstract

In 1959, an edited volume entitled The State and Economic Growth was published. It consisted of papers presented at a 1956 conference related to the same topic. Of interest here was the inclusion of N. G. Butlin’s paper entitled “Colonial Socialism in Australia”. The existence of colonial socialism has never been in doubt; nor has its importance to the development of the Australian economy ever been seriously questioned. What has been the subject of considerable contention has been the questions pertaining to what caused colonial socialism to be established in Australian colonies during a period of pronounced liberal thinking and what effects (good and bad) did the existence of colonial socialism have on Australian economic development generally and the development of private enterprise particularly? In this paper I review the position established by Butlin in his 1959 contribution and explore the subsequent discussion it generated both in terms of refinement and refutation. In doing so, I concentrate my discussion by reviewing the areas of employment, finance sourcing and railway investment in the context of the effects this activity had on the capacity of the private sector to develop in such an environment.