Export Agriculture and Development Path: Independent Farming in Comparative Perspective

Abstract This paper compares 'regions of "recent settlement' (Australia, Canada, the United States, and New Zealand) and Argentina to help assess the conditions under which export oriented agrarian regions and societies adopt a development path oriented to industrialization, focusing on the 1860s through the 1930s. The paper surveys the available literature to trace how agricultural export sector expansion shaped land tenure, class formation, and agrarian political participation in these societies. It sketches the class alliances and related structural conditions shaping the development path adopted. The regions of recent settlement tended to share a pattern of agrarian social structure and mobilization characterized by a high incidence of family operated farms, relatively little landlord predominance, strong farmer mobilization, and a class alliance and polity adhering to a consensus on industrialization and basic policies. Argentina represents a contrasting case in which landlords prevailed. The paper contributes to broader theoretical debate by relating the impact of export agriculture to the internal organization of the export sector.