The rural entrepreneurs: A history of the stock and station agent industryin Australia and New Zealand

摘要

The publication of this book will leave many people wondering why it has taken so long for anyone to write the history of such an important element in rural life on both sides of the Tasman. Simon Ville, Reader in Economic History at the ANU, has presented a very detailed examination of a unique Australasian institution, why and when it developed, its important role in marketing the produce of isolated farmers, lending them carry on and development funds and providing practical advice on markets and finance. No one can deny the laborious research of Ville and his two assistants. The evidence is there -- in the text, the footnotes and the bibliography -- of long hours poring over company recc 'ds and histories. But unfortunately this does not guarantee a good read. The book is dull; there are no outstanding characters, no charlatans or shenanigans. It could have been commissioned by the stock and station companies. They are perennial good guys doing the right thing by the farmers and graziers since day one. The primary producers, loosely termed 'farmers', were generally hostile to the middlemen and wanted to replace them with statutory marketing boards under the control of farmers. They were very successful in the twentieth century with the establishment of the Wheat Marketing Board, the Barley Board, the Dried Vine Fruits Board, the Sugar Board and, among others, a Wool Board that operated a disastrous fixed floor price late in the century.