Book Description

Why has Hawaii, from the times of Polynesian antiquity to the present, enjoyed the highest material standard of living in Oceania? How did changes in the social structure of pre-Cook Hawaii affect that standard? What happened to the islands' economy as western dominance took place, as land ownership was created, as technology was imported, as plantation workers immigrated, as World War II broke the social mold of the islands? These are some of the basic questions raised by Thomas Hitch in "Islands in Transition," the first book-length economic history of Hawaii to be printed in a generation. The book is divided into two sections. The first, "From the Record,"traces the development of Hawaii's economy from the moneyless, sharing, tribute, and barter system of the native culture to a plantation economy controlled from Honolulu and dominated by the Big Five. In the second section, "As I Saw it," Dr. Hitch describes the further development of Hawaii into a high-tech service economy, heavily based on tourism and military expenditures, increasingly involved in the multi-national global economy. He appraises the recent past and projects the future from the vantage point of his long career at Honolulu business community, first as director of research for the Hawaii Employers Council and then as Senior Vice President for Research at First Hawaiian Bank, until his death in August, 1989. This volume is written for the general reader, but appendices address questions of particular interest to economists and business analysts. These include measuring the cost of living in Hawaii, estimating the growth rate of the state economy, and appraising its sensitivity to the national business cycle.