According to CIA fact book, over the past 20 years, New Zealand has gone from a mainly agrarian economy to a more industrialized, modern economy which can compete internationally. However, it doesn’t truly specify exactly how New Zealand has transformed itself so rapidly, nor has it mentioned what has become of the farmers who used to account for a majority of the yearly exports. Based on American history, as America industrialized and began to compete globally, farmers began earning less and less, until they were either forced to sell their lands and move to cities or go deeply into debt to be able to produce enough crops to get by on. The competition between agrarian economy supporters and industry based economy supporters shaped the nascent nation.
Our question, as Americans who aren’t familiar with the economic happenings of New Zealand, is how smooth a transition has it been between agriculture and industry? Why was their industrialized revolution delayed so much in comparison to the industrial revolutions of countries like the United States and The United Kingdom? How has the government managed to keep both parties satisfied, or was there a one-sided deal that effectively promoted one over the other? Another question we have is this: who are New Zealand’s main trading partners? The numbers on CIA fact book only add up to about 55% of their trading activity in the end, with the bulk of that (21.4%) with Australia. Why is so little trade conducted with China, since their fast growing economy seems to aid so many other countries nearby? Our earlier notion was that New Zealand does not trade with the United States anymore, because of their nuclear weapons testing. The animosity between these two countries would most likely lead to a dispute between Australia and New Zealand, since they are on complete opposite ends of the spectrum and Australia is a strong supporter of the United States. However, this difference in political mindset does not seem to have affected the trade relations between the two countries. New Zealand’s global role starkly contrasts that of OPEC and the direct connection they make between world affairs or politics and the price of an oil barrel. The oddity of New Zealand is interesting and seems to have many different facets that can only be understood with insider knowledge. Another interesting piece of their trade, is why so little trade is done with the United Kingdom, whom they had very close ties to for some time, especially with their previous agrarian economy?