exports; one (gold) with a static price, and the other (wool) with afluctuating
price. Whereas the price of wool rose when the world economy was prosper-
ing, the nominal price of gold was static. In Australia, gold-mining, though
such a cyclical industry, tended toflatten out the economicfluctuations in a
way not visible in North America and South Africa. When the price of wool
was low on the world markets, the price of gold in real terms tended to be
relatively high. Thus the exploration for gold and the mining of gold were
stimulated at the very times when wool was producing less income.
2.6 From Despotism to Democracy: a Swift Transition
Australia, though commonly described as a young nation, owns an unusual
political pedigree. It is one of the oldest, continuous democracies in the world.
It became a democracy in the 1850s, when such a political system was oper-
ating in no more than a handful of countries. Even to designate these coun-
tries as democratic is open to dispute. The UK in 1860 was perhaps not a
democracy. Only a small fraction of adults had the right to vote, and because
all those entitled to vote had to declare their vote in public—there was no
secret ballot—they could be intimidated. A tenant farmer or the employee of a
big manufacturer or merchant could easily be pressed into voting for the
candidate favoured by his master. Even in the USA, one of the grandfathers
of modern democracy, important groups had no right to vote. For example,
slaves had no vote, and long after the end of the American Civil War most
Afro-Americans could not vote. France could be called a democracy in revolu-
tionary 1792, but not for long. Democracy in France was frail and sometimes
tottering until 1875 when adult male suffrage was endorsed; but French
democracy collapsed again in 1940.
Britain was far behind Australia in achieving adult male suffrage, and so,
too, was almost every country in Europe. Even in the British overseas colonies,
with their sympathies towards democracy, New Zealand, though a slow
starter, became one of the few stars. Canada, seemingly so democratic and
operating a vigorous form of parliamentary government after the forming of
the Confederation in 1867, did not introduce universal adult-male franchise
until years after Australia became a federation in 1901.
Australia became a full-blooded democracy in the late 1850s, achieving it
with lightning speed. Only thirty years previously it had consisted of two
convict colonies, ruled by governors whose personal power was magnified
because most of their subjects were prisoners or ex-prisoners. Moreover, the
governors were so remote geographically that Britain’s control of them and
their decisions was loose. One year might elapse between the governor writing
an urgent despatch to London, and the arrival of an official reply. And yet,
Australian Exceptionalism: A Personal View