150separate Indian Chamber of Commerce in 1908 during the depths of a severe depression in Natal, exemplifying the racial boundaries that, by this time, had developed around the colonial Chambers.
Exhibitions Exhibitions, international and imperial, grew in popularity in the second half of the nineteenth century. Only a small percentage of the 14,000 exhibitors at the Crystal Palace (1851) were colonial, and foreign countries were allocated more space than the empire in its official catalogue. Subsequently, however, explicitly imperial events were organised, most notably the Indian and Colonial exhibition of 1886.102 In addition to the exhibitions staged in Britain, which tended to present the ‘metropole’ as the hub of the ‘imperial economy’, there were many inter-colonial events, and these had a different dynamic. Melbourne staged six such exhibitions in 1854, 1861, 1866, 1872, 1875 and 1880–1. Together they attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors, and paved the way for the city’s more elaborate Centennial Exhibition of 1888–9, which was probably witnessed by more Australians than any other single event before the First World War.103 Each exhibition was designed to encourage trade (import and export) and to attract new capital into the colony. The exhibition of 1880–1 was intended to stimulate a recovery from the economic and political turmoil of the late 1870s, while the exhibition of 1888–9 promoted Melbourne as a sophisticated, industrialising city that symbolised the ideals of a manufacturing age. Indeed, by the 1880s it was noticeable how a previously strong prejudice against colonial-made goods had begun to dissipate,104 as the products of other countries had to make way for those of Victoria, aided of course by the colony’s introduction of tariffs, which not only raised revenue but helped
102 In London, there was also a ‘Greater Britain’ exhibition in 1899, and a ‘South African
Products’ exhibition in 1907, plus several provincial exhibitions focusing on empire.
For an overview, see P. Greenhalgh, Ephemeral Vistas: The Expositions Universelles, Great
Exhibitions and World’s Fairs, 1851–1939 (Manchester: Manchester University Press,
1988); and P. H. Hoffenberg, An Empire on Display: English, Indian and Australian
Exhibitions from the Crystal Palace to the Great War (Berkeley: University of California
Press, 2001).
103 Official Record of the Centennial International Exhibition, Melbourne, 1888–89 (Melbourne,
1890), pp. 124–7; G. Davison, ‘Festivals of Nationhood: The International Exhibitions’,
in S. L. Goldberg and F. B. Smith (eds.), Australian Cultural History (Melbourne:
Australian Academy of Humanities, 1988), pp. 158–77 (p. 172). For the full range of
inter-colonial exhibitions, see J. E. Findling (ed.), Historical Dictionary of World’s Fairs
and Expositions, 1851–1988 (New York: Greenwood, 1990).
104 Official Record of the Centennial International Exhibition, p. 124.
151Markets and consumer cultures to foster an economically and politically significant manufacturing base by the end of the century.105 The displays of locally and British-manufactured goods at these colonial exhibitions provided a focus for negotiations to open up new channels of trade, as did their official catalogues (which contained large amounts of information on exhibits, the contact details of organisers and even prices of displayed merchandise) and the private advertising distributed by companies. The fact that companies often redesigned products for exhibitions in the hope of additional sales is significant. Williamson’s, a leading British manufacturer of printed and patterned floorcloths and linoleum, provides an example of the benefits that could flow from exhibitions. In the twentieth century, Australia was one of the company’s most important markets. The springboard for its sales to Australia was the Melbourne Centennial Exhibition of 1888–9. After this, Williamson’s products drew widespread interest and the major retail emporiums of Australia added them to their catalogues.106 A marked surge in export orders from Australia is reported to have followed.
Melbourne was not unique in staging exhibitions that stimulated imperial trade. New Zealand’s Chambers of Commerce organised similar events, filling their displays with local, Australian and British products. Dunedin was first off the mark in 1865 (it subsequently staged another exhibition in 1889–90) and Christchurch followed suit in 1882 and 1906–7.107 Every effort was made to link the colony’s social and material progress. In the words of James Cowan, official historian of the Christchurch exhibition of 1906–7: [it was] a solid advertisement for New Zealand products and manufactures, as a trade-bringer and a means for fixing, if only for a brief period, the attention of the outside world upon the individuality, the ego of this new country, the special trend of genius that animates its people, and the expression in concrete form of its progress in useful industries and the amenities that soften life and sweeten man’s feelings towards man.108
105 For the importance of manufacturing interests as protagonists for these exhibitions,
see J. Parris and A. G. L. Shaw, ‘The Melbourne International Exhibition 1880–81’,
Victorian Historical Journal 51 (1980), 238–49. For Victoria’s protective policies, see
Cain and Hopkins, British Imperialism, p. 224.
106 Historical Houses Trust of New South Wales, Floorcoverings in Australia, 1800–1950
(Glebe, NSW: Historical Houses Trust, 1997), pp. 48–51.
107 G. McLean, ‘The Colony Commodified: Trade, Progress and the Real Business of
Exhibitions’, in J. M. Thomson (ed.), Farewell Colonialism: The New Zealand International
Exhibition, Christchurch 1906–7 (Palmerston North: University of Auckland, 1998),
pp. 27–38.
108 Quoted in ibid., p. 35.
152Indeed, these exhibitions were commercial opportunities in their own right. They brought business into local economies: for transport, hotels, restaurants and cafes; for publishers and printers (biographical compil ations were produced for an elite market); and for a range of firms manufacturing commemorative goods.109 To form a clearer view of the perceived value of these exhibitions to British and colonial business it is necessary to look more closely at a particular event – the Colonial and Indian Exhibition of 1886 and, specifically, Canadian participation in it. Canada had been actively promoting the possibilities of immigration, investment and trade for some time beforehand.110 At the Great Exhibition in 1851 it had sought through its displays, which ranged from raw minerals to industrial and craft products, to point to the growing diversity of its produce.111 Subsequently, emigration agents in Britain had taken up the work of publicising Canadian goods.112 The Colonial and Indian Exhibition at South Kensington was one of the first to focus on the empire. While much attention has been paid to the propagandist functions of such gatherings, including their trumpeting of the economic advantages of empire to the populace, much less notice has been taken of the opportunity they provided to colonial producers and consumers to take the measure of the British market.
Canada was the most economically developed self-governing colony at this time. It occupied the largest exhibition space (some twenty-eight times as large as that allotted to it in 1851) and sent the greatest number of exhibitors.113 The Canadian Federal Government encouraged Canadian
109 J. R. Gold and M. M. Gold, Cities of Culture: Staging International Festivals and the Urban
Agenda, 1851–2000 (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005), p. 68.
110 But Canada was by no means the only colony to see the exhibition’s commercial poten-
tial. Australian wines received a lot of attention at this event – George Francis Morris, a
Lancashire-born emigrant-turned-goldfields-grocer, who then turned his hand to wine-
making in Rutherglen, made contacts with potential buyers, and within a few years his
property at Fairfield was one of the world’s largest vineyards and wineries. His exports
to the UK were helped by the rationalisation of duties at this time: imports of Australian
wine increased by almost 150 per cent from 60,000 gallons in 1885 to 145,000 gallons
in 1886. Several English merchants were also inspired to start, or stick to, the Australian
wine trade as a result of the exhibition, including the buyer, Peter Bond Burgoyne,
who later established his own winery at Mt Ophir, and Walter Pownall, whose com-
pany became a major purchaser from South Australia. See D. Dunstan, ‘A Sobering
Experience: From “Australian Burgundy” to “Kanga Rouge”: Australian Wine Battles
on the London Market, 1900–1981’, Journal of Australian Studies 17 (2002), 179–210.
111 S. Murray, ‘Canadian Participation and National Representation at the 1851 London
Great Exhibition and the 1855 Paris Exposition Universelle’, Histoire sociale/Social History
32 (1999), 1–22.
112 H. Gordon Skilling, Canadian Representation Abroad: From Agency to Embassy (Toronto:
Ryerson Press, 1945), p. 47.
113 We have drawn mainly on the work of one of our MA students here: J. Fukushi, ‘Canada
and the British Imperial Economy in the Late Nineteenth Century: A Case of the
153Markets and consumer cultures exhibitors to display at South Kensington by carrying their products to London free of charge, installing their displays in the Canadian court and maintaining them during the exhibition, and returning them to Canada if they so wished. It also appointed a large team of agents for each province to visit leading industrial establishments and to persuade them to participate. For example, A. W. Wright, the agent for Ontario, emphasised to Canadian manufacturers and merchants the value of the reports of the exhibition carried in the English newspapers in opening up new markets for their goods – a form of free advertising not to be missed. The Canadian display at South Kensington was organised under different headings, one of which was entirely devoted to Canadian manufacturing. Other colonies exhibited relatively few machines, most of which were for mining, whereas Canada exhibited over a hundred. It was especially proud of its agricultural implement displays.
Canada, in fact, led the world in labour-saving farm machinery.114 It is hardly surprising, therefore, that Canadian manufacturers of agricultural implements and tools saw the exhibition as an ideal opportunity to develop their presence overseas. There were forty-four of them in total, many from Ontario, and they eagerly targeted potential business partners, pursuing their benefit in spite of criticism from the London press that Canadian exhibits were ‘too shoppy’.115 They had already successfully driven American manufacturers out of their domestic market, and now sought to expand overseas – the best markets were in England, Australia and Argentina. The lightness and durability of their products was the chief selling point. They were also able to gain valuable insights into the special requirements of British farmers – harvesting machines, for example, had to be adapted to break up straw into larger pieces. In some cases, enquiries about Canadian products led directly to overseas orders. Cockshutt’s secured a large contract for its ploughs, and opened an agency in England after the exhibition closed, while the Hart Emery Wheel Company started to export to Queensland soon after. Indeed, the exports of Canadian agricultural implements to Britain more than doubled the year following the exhibition, and it would seem surprising if there were no connection.116
Colonial and Indian Exhibition in 1886’, unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Leeds
(2005). See also C. Tupper, The Colonial and Industrial Exhibition: Official Catalogue of
the Canadian Section (1886); and W. G. Phillips, The Agricultural Implement Industry in
Canada: A Case Study of Competition (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1956).
114 For a discussion of the Canadian agricultural machinery industry, see Bliss, Northern
Enterprise, pp. 241–2, 244, 306–8.
115 Toronto Globe, 1 May 1886, p. 6.
116 They amounted to £3,539 in 1886, and continued to grow thereafter to £347,996 at
the end of the century: Statistical Abstract for the Several Colonial and Other Possessions of
the United Kingdom in Each Year from 1886 to 1900 (1901), Cmd 751, pp. 122–3.