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Conquest by Contract: Wealth Transfer and Land Market Structure in Colonial New Zealand

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

Stuart Banner
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Abstract

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Much of the British empire was acquired by purchase rather than conquest, but indigenous peoples usually acquired little wealth despite extensive land sales. Explanations of where the money went tend to blame either the imprudence of indigenous sellers or the duplicity of British buyers. This article suggests that a focus solely on the conduct of the individuals operating within the land market rests on a poor theoretical understanding of the relationship between law and markets, an understanding that blinds historians to the allocative effects of markets' constitutive rules. Using New Zealand as an example, the article shows how the British modified the structure of the land market over the 19th century, sometimes intentionally and sometimes inadvertently, to transfer wealth from the Maori to themselves.

Type
Articles
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 34 , Issue 1 , 2000 , pp. 47 - 96
Copyright
Copyright © 2000 by the Law and Society Association

Footnotes

The author thanks Janet Horncy and the staff at the Alexander Turnbull Library, Carol Rose and John Bowen, and participants in workshops at Washington University and the University of Chicago.

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