The relevance of traditional trade for the development of Papua New Guinea.

Abstract

”Development” is often seen as a process of modernisation in which the institutions and values of an alien productive system are introduced into a traditional society whose values and institutions differ greatly. Instead of imposing an alien productive system onto traditional society and inevitably inviting it either to reject or to succumb to this hostile intrusion, it is often possible alternatively to build upon the foundations of traditional society by adapting and stimulating the traditional socio—economic system.

The relevance of traditional values and institutions to development is central to this thesis which specifically examines the relevance for development of one such institution, namely that of traditional trade.

The thesis is presented in five chapters. The Introduction points to some of the major questions involved and provides a general guide to the succeeding discussion. Chapter 2 is an empirical analysis of traditional trade in Papua New Guinea with several trade systems being examined — the Vitiaz Strait System, the Papuan Trade Systems, the Highland Trade Systems and other less significant systems such as the Torres—Fly System, New Britain Trade System and Manus and Bougainville Systems. This vast array of empirical data is then moulded into a theory of traditional trade in Chapter 3. Chapter 4 considers the relevance of traditional trade for the develop— ment of Papua New Guinea whilst the final chapter is a synoptic overview of the argument and its conclusions.

Throughout the analysis a continual problem was the paucity of quantitative data on traditional trade. Certainly the types of commodities traded, the directions of their flow, the institutional basis of such trade and the broad evolution of this trade are all known; but little data is available on the quantities of goods traded and their current values. To some extent, this precludes the possibility of coming to definite conclusions with policy directions. Nevertheless, some broad conclusions as to the relevance of traditional trade to the development of Papua New Guinea have been reached. Essentially it appears that traditional trade contributes to the achievement of equality in the distribution of income, sectoral balance, self reliance and political stability. In fact, the arguments as to the relevance of traditional trade to these above factors are quite strong. In contrast, arguments dealing with the relevance of traditional trade to economic growth are not as clear-cut. Indeed, these argu— ments at times are quite conjectural. However, what does become evident is that traditional trade would not lead to maximisation of short—term growth but in the longer—term would lead to more balanced growth with improvements also in a variety of equity aspects. To be sure, if one accepts that there is a need to trade-off short~term growth for longer term balanced development with improvements in a number of equity aspects then traditional trade has an important and valuable role to play in the ”development” of Papua New Guinea's society and economy.