It is manifestly obvious that the beginnings of Australian colonial history lie in Britain in the 18th century. The decision, however taken, to form a convict or convict–imperial colony in the late 18th century began that record. The turbulent events between 1788 and 1815 in Europe, and throughout the world, overwhelmed any likelihood that this distant project should receive coherent attention and, indeed, such was the case.

While the shipment of the first three fleets suggested a degree of determination on the part of the British government, the flow of convicts and the degree of policy attention altered radically after 1792. This was reflected in various ways including the long interregnum when officers ruled without a governor to replace the first, Governor Phillip, and the adaptation already outlined in the preceding volume Economics and the Dreamtime from a penal organisation to a highly privatised form of penal-capitalist organisation. This was accompanied by the concentration of access to assets firstly in the hands of officials and subsequently in those of a small number of merchants, free arrivals and ex-convicts, the gradual development of agriculture, and the first efforts, particularly by large owners, towards pastoralism.

There followed the emergence of land grants and, through those, the development of private land and goods markets despite, or perhaps because of, the prominence of the government store and distributing agency, the Commissariat.