Markets and Governments in Economic History. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2019. xiii, 389 pp. (Tables, B&W photos, illustrations.) US$60.00, cloth. ISBN 978-0-226-59209-1.
Sumner La Croix’s consideration of the intersections between the political order and property rights in Hawai‘i contributes to an understanding of contemporary contests over collective and individual rights in real property in Hawai‘i and elsewhere. The book’s 12 chapters provide a chronological account of the changing value of property. La Croix examines the ways and means by which those in positions of power were able to utilize various schemes in land distribution to maintain political order. From a historical perspective, La Croix traces these various redistributions in ritualized contexts throughout the book, interconnecting local political and economic changes that were taking place in Hawai‘i with larger changes that were occurring globally (economic, climate-related, and political). La Croix’s account is not exhaustive, as he recognizes the extensive and excellent previous scholarly work on Hawai‘i in his preface.
The work draws from historians, anthropologists, and economists, including the author’s own previous academic works and explorations of Hawai‘i. La Croix makes the case for a model for political orders which is explicitly stated in the book’s appendix. While La Croix recognizes the limitations of such models, they are nonetheless good to think with, or as the author puts it, “the use of models also forces us to identify those factors that loom particularly large in human decision making across different times and societies and to consider carefully how those important factors work together to generate outcomes” (279). La Croix then notes that the model’s application is contingent upon two key assumptions: first, that decision makers were rational and second, that the “[p]eople in Hawai‘i maximized their own well-being and that they made the best of their opportunities as mandated by their ideology, conventions, and rituals of their overall society surrounding them, regardless of whether they were chiefs, prayer specialists, warriors, or workers in the fields” (279–280). Hence, La Croix reflexively considers the potential limitations and assumptions inherent in the application of a model which bridges Hawai‘i’s past and present political and economic circumstances.
Chapter 1, “The Short History of Humans in Hawai‘i,” provides a succinct account of Hawai‘i’s political and economic history, outlining subsequent chapters which chronologically and thoroughly review many aspects of Hawaiian history. In chapter 2, “Voyaging and Settlement,” the author discusses the inception of Hawaiian history with the arrival of Polynesians, and the rapid population growth from 1260 to 1500 due to social and ecological factors. Chapter 3, “The Rise of Competing Hawaiian States,” focuses on the time period of isolation as a result of external factors and the importance of internal factors in shaping Hawai‘i, particularly the role of agricultural surpluses (notably ponded taro farms), the development of Hawaiian states, warfare between Hawaiian states, and slowing population growth.
The isolation of Hawai‘i from Polynesia and the outside world was broken in 1778. Mirroring earlier works on contact and materialism, chapter 4, “Guns, Germs, and Sandalwood,” begins with King Kamehameha’s political consolidation of Hawai‘i including the use of land redistribution to maintain his rule. The chapter focuses on sandalwood’s importance in transforming Hawai‘i’s economy, including an account of property rights in sandalwood, population decline, labour costs, and transformations in sandalwood trade. Chapter 5, “Globalization and the Emergence of a Mature Natural State,” discusses the major historical shifts of the early 1800s, including population decline, the influence of New England missionaries, and the integration of Western institutions. Here La Croix covers the process of and reasons for Māhele (division) of land away from the traditional use system to one of exclusive and transferable rights in the 1840s and 1850s, subsequent laws, and increased government capacity with the “emergence of the mature natural state” (105).
Chapter 6, “Treaties, Powerful Elites, and the Overthrow,” discusses the asymmetrical power relations between the US and Hawai‘i beginning in 1826, and continuing through a series of less-favourable treaties for Hawai‘i, as economic dependence on the US increased over time. La Croix presents economic evidence and analysis through economic theory, “to show how the U.S.-Hawai‘i reciprocity treaty [particularly the third iteration of 1876 and its renewal in 1883] ultimately led to annexation” (114) by transforming the economics and politics of Hawai‘i. Chapter 7, “Colonial Political Economy: Hawai‘i as a U.S. Territory,” discusses continued economic and political transformations, marked by confiscation of Crown lands via the 1898 Newlands Resolution and the 1900 Organic Act. La Croix notes that the Republican Party, following the lead of Hawai‘i’s previous rulers, distributed economic rents to the Hawaiian electorate and the Big Five corporations in order to maintain their domination of the Hawaiian legislature from 1900 to 1954. Here La Croix also touches on the military’s domination of Hawai‘i until 1944 and the rise of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union in 1945.
During the early 1900s, struggles over power included Native Hawaiians, who were increasingly aware of their continued marginalization with the overthrow and annexation of Hawai‘i, and in response, began to collectively organize and advocate for themselves. Chapter 8, “Homes for Hawaiians,” discusses one of the resultant changes that was brought about by this advocacy, including the development of programs to transfer properties to Native Hawaiians. These programs and initiatives never achieved their full promise; as chapter 9, “Statehood and the Transition to an Open Access Order,” makes clear, they were emblematic of the systemic marginalization of Native Hawaiians, particularly as they represented a diminishing percentage of the voting population. La Croix continues his discussion of the economic and political history of land tenure in chapter 10, “The Rise and Fall of Residential Leasehold Tenure in Hawai‘i,” and chapter 11, “Land Reform and Housing Prices,” touching on key aspects of law and policy including the 1967 Land Reform Act and the use of eminent domain. In his final chapter, “The Long Reach of Political Orders,” La Croix situates colonialism in Hawai‘i comparatively and reiterates the major historical events discussed throughout the text.
Hawai‘i: Eight Hundred Years of Political and Economic Change highlights the complexity and intertwined nature of the colonial encounter, particularly in the early years of contact which threatened a complete loss of sovereignty. Together, the book provides a focused account of Hawaiian history and historicizes the colonial encounter to illuminate the contemporary sovereignty struggles of Native Hawaiians.
David Fazzino
Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, Bloomsburg