The Maori and the economic frontier : an economic history of the Maori of New Zealand, 1769-1840

This dissertation investigates the evolution of New Zealand Maori institutions of livelihood and movement of goods which was engendered by pre-colonial contact with Europeans. Data were collected from letters, journals, and official records of vessels, missionaries, traders, colonial officials, and visitors to New Zealand. The primary sources along with later secondary sources provided contrasting analysis and interpretation of Maori social process, change, and innovation which had to be considered in the development of the investigation. The roles of chiefs, warriors, women, and slaves changed in response to European trade in iron, white potatoes, and firearms within their traditional frame of reference. Inter-tribal relations changed with changes in the volume of foodstuffs grown, the strategy of warfare, the volume of goods transacted, and the extent of regular gift relations. A new layer of transactional institutions developed to manage the flow of goods and services to and from Europeans. Missionaries, whalers, traders, and visiting vessels were viewed as separate groups, desiring and providing different goods. Each group was transacted with by different sets of rules. Both Europeans and Maori interpreted the actions and conduct of the other within their own traditional frames of reference.