ABSTRACT

This chapter discusses export cash crops and domestic markets separately. It examines the production and sale of international and domestic cash crops in turn before discussing the effects of these markets on social relations and how Melanesians imagine themselves in relation to other people and other parts of the world. The chapter focuses on the three independent Melanesian countries of Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, which have strong similarities in their engagement with export cash crops and local agricultural markets. Most rural households participate in both international and domestic agricultural markets, or may shift back and forth from one to the other over time, including in response to the prices of export commodities and seasonal availability of labour. Export cash crops were introduced by colonial governments as ways for colonists to enrich themselves, for colonies to pay their own way, and as a means for indigenous people to improve their own welfare.