Wealth in Old Hawaiʻi: Good-year Economics and the Rise of Pristine States

The journals of Captain Cook and his crew contradict bad-year economic theories that posit that traditional Hawaiian farmers were living at the margin. Recognising that pig herds were wealth-assets in old Hawai‘i, an alternative good-year economic theory is developed that interprets the introduction of sweet potato and the development of the rain-fed agricultural systems in which it was cultivated as processes in the creation and management of wealth. The wealth produced in this way was probably used, in part, to promote marriage alliances among elite families. According to the good-year economic theory, fluctuations in the products of the rain-fed agricultural facilities introduced variability into the supply of wealth-assets, which complicated the maintenance of alliances and were one cause of the wars that played a crucial role in the emergence of primary states in traditional Hawaiʻi.

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