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Julia Winn
Professor M. Thomas
USEM 1580: Australia
12 September 2010
British Sea Power: Economic Motives for Settling Australia
Australia has long been thought to have been founded simply as a penal colony for
Britain. However, more recently, controversy has arisen regarding the motives behind Australian
settlement. Historians hold several viewpoints. The traditional view supports the theory that
Australia served as a “dumping ground” for convicts. The opposing view claims that the British
held further aspirations in mind when deciding to settle Australia. This side believes that the
British settled Australia not merely for convict deportation, but also for more sophisticated
underlying economic reasons. At the turn of the 19th century, Britain was one of the world’s
naval superpowers along with Russia. Territorial gains in Australia could strengthen Britain as a
sea power in various ways. The British settled Australia not only to establish a penal colony, but
also as a way to improve trade and strengthen their navy.
Australia’s plentiful natural resources contributed to the desirability of it as a settlement.
A variety of important substances grew in Australia, all of which would improve either the ships
in England’s navy or serve as tradable commodities. Flax, a fibrous plant used in the
manufacturing of rope, especially motivated colonization. James Maria Matra proposed in 1783
that “in naval equipment [flax] would be of the greatest importance” (Barton 424). Rope created
from flax would be used on ships, and “by proper operating it would serve the various purposes
of hemp, flax, and silk, and it is more easily manufactured than any of them” (Barton 424). Prior
to the discovery of flax on Australia, Britain gained most of its flax from Russia. However,
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relations between Russia and England were strained around the turn of the 1800s. Britain’s
recent tension with Russia “was sufficient to make her interested in sources of flax and hemp
which did not depend…on peaceful relations with Baltic nations” (Martin 112). Arthur Phillip,
governor of New South Wales, tells settlers to “attend to its cultivation” as flax had “superior
excellence for a variety of maritime purposes” in his instructions for settlement (Barton 485).
John Call also mentions in his proposal for settlement that “most valuable of all, is the Flax
Plant, which grows more luxuriant than in New Zealand” (Frost 321). Flax influenced the British
greatly in their interest in settling Australia. Timber that grew on Australia could also help
strengthen the navy. Historian Alan Frost writes that “the operation of British squadrons was
much hampered in the decades about the turn of the century by shortage of masts, spurs, and
naval timbers” (324). Lord Sydney wrote that Australian timber would be “fit for Naval purposes
particularly masts” (Martin 55). Thus, the British were excited by the availability of timber on
Australia in order to replenish their dwindling sources of ship wood. Potential goods to trade also
motivated Britain’s Australian venture. Matra believed Australia was “fitted for the production
of…sugar cane, tea, coffee, silk, cotton, indigo, tobacco, and other articles of commerce that
have been so advantageous to the maritime powers of Europe” (Barton 423). Matra also noted
that the climate and soil were both conducive to crop growing, which could become a new
industry for England (423). New sources of materials to trade could only strengthen the British
economy, and inspired the colonization of Australia. Flax, timber, and tropical goods would all
lead to an increase in naval power, whether by improving ships or bolstering trade.
Australia’s location and proximity to trade routes also motivated the British to settle
there. Historian K.M. Dallas explains that England’s power “depended on the gain from foreign
trade; foreign trade depended on possession of strategic harbours for safe refuge, for assembling
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convoys and for attack on enemy shipping” (Martin 40). Thus, Australia’s location as an island
near many different countries made it prime property for trade. Routes to China, Java, and even
South America were mentioned in various documents leading up to the settlement of Australia.
For example, Matra wrote in his proposal for settlement that “should this settlement be made, we
may enter into a commerce that would render our trade to China…very favourable” (Barton
425). Dallas supports this claim saying that “[Captain] Cook’s second voyage showed the new,
quicker and safer route” to China from Australia (Martin 420). This route circumnavigated the
monsoons of the East Indies and lessened the risk of attack by privateers (Martin 460). Sir
George Young believed that “there [was] no doubt that a lucrative trade would soon be opened
with the Creole Spaniard for English manufactures” by settling Australia (Barton 429). Matra
also believed “[Britain] might…make naval incursions on Java and the other Dutch settlements,
and… might with equal facility invade the coasts of Spanish America, and intercept the Manilla
ships laden with the treasures of the West” (Barton 427). Dallas states that the British colonizers
were motivated by “possibilities of the trade with China and the islands, of the trade with the fur
lands of north-west and South America, and the rising value of the southern whale fishery”
(Martin 41). By settling Australia, all these trade routes could be opened. Young measured
distances from Australia and found that “from the coast of China it lies not more than about one
thousand leagues, and nearly the same distance from the East Indies, from the Spice Islands
about seven hundred leagues, and near a month’s run from the Cape of Good Hope” (Barton
430). Thus, in distance, Australia was not necessarily close to other trade posts but was certainly
closer than Britain. Ports in Australia would then bring in even more trade for England and
strengthen their economy.
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Even the settlement of Australia as a penal colony could strengthen Britain’s economic
and naval power. England spent a great amount on convicts. The British had a “problem…to find
another market for convict labour as well as to avoid the high cost of maintaining the ‘criminals’
awaiting transport in the hulks” (Martin 40). Matra elaborates on the expense of the convicts
stating that “the charge to the public for these convicts has been increasing for the last seven or
eight years, and…now amounts to more than £20,000 per anuum” (Barton 428). Young agrees,
stating that the British government annually spent a great deal on transporting and punishing
felons (Barton 431). Thus, deporting convicts to Australia would decrease the burden on Britain
economically. The convicts also provided an able-bodied work force in Australia, which could
be used to strengthen the navy. Most of the convicts were young men, with “68 percent of the
sample group…aged under thirty, [and] 91 percent under forty” (Frost 315). The British saw
these young men as potential builders of a naval base. Frost writes that “Pitt came more and
more to the idea of using the convicts to create a naval base that would assist British shipping
moving to and from the East, and increase Britain’s capacity to defend her position therein any
future war” (Frost 326). Thus, a new naval base built by convicts would serve both an economic
and militaristic purpose. The British created a penal colony in Australia with economic rather
than social intentions.
Though Australia obviously was originally settled by convicts, the motives behind
expansion into Australia were more complex. Britain was at the height of its empire in the late
1700s to early 1800s, and naturally wanted to continue to expand. As with their previous
colonization of India and Africa, the British sought commercial benefit from Australia. Since
Britain derived its wealth through sea trade, motives for settling Australia were primarily to
strengthen their power in trade and naval prowess.
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