Abstract
This article provides a new perspective on the links between British imperialism and metropolitan finance by showing how formal power reinforced ‘money power’ at a formative stage in the political development of the colony of Queensland. In 1866, despite the contraction of the bridgeheads of formal British authority in eastern Australia, local imperial representatives quickly aligned with private interests when British investments appeared to be threatened by a proposal to introduce a fiduciary note issue. Subsequently, Queensland politicians continued to contest the control of money and the scope of government intervention in the colonial economy. Ultimately, however, the inflow of British capital created new bridgeheads of British power in Queensland, re-constituting it as a ‘colonial place’ in the informal empire of investment and influence.
Highlights
This article provides a new perspective on the links between British imperialism and metropolitan finance by showing how formal power reinforced ‘money power’ at a formative stage in the political development of the colony of Queensland
The early decades of responsible government in eastern Australia were marked by a series of deep crises in public finance which were often associated with the colonists’ growing involvement in the British capital market
In Victoria, a reforming government attempted to face down the Legislative Council’s opposition to its tariff increases by carrying on without supply;1 in New South Wales, a large deficit and the failure of a London loan forced the colony into emergency local borrowing and sharp increases of taxation;2 in Queensland, the Macalister ministry resigned when the governor refused to sanction an issue of inconvertible paper money intended to save the colony from insolvency
Summary
The man selected to fill the post, Sir George Ferguson Bowen (1821-99), was the son of an Anglican clergyman. After reading for the bar and serving four years as president of the Greek University of Corfu, he returned to the Ionian protectorate in 1854 as chief secretary to the lord high commissioner There, his chances of becoming minister in Athens were spoiled by his strong views over constitutional reform and marriage to the Countess Diamantina Roma, the daughter of a prominent local aristocrat and politician. The Colonists are up in arms at once against any interference from home in their internal affairs; but they will stand a great deal from a Governor, who identifies himself with their interests, and who is actively zealous for their welfare.31 His moral authority would be preserved, as he elaborated in a later despatch to the secretary of state, by scrupulously avoiding partisanship and deferring to his ministers and the legislature; : ‘by a judicious use of the influence rather than of the authority of his office, a Governor may exercise a powerful control over the entire course of affairs’.32. This meant (as Bowen insisted when dealing with the Catholic bishop of Brisbane over matters of precedence): ‘he was bound “to obey his Instructions”’ as the imperial representative.
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