‘Australian sailors wanted’: Labour supply and Australian shipping, c. 1870–c. 1914

In the pre‐1914 era Australia did not develop an ocean‐going merchant navy. The problem is well recognised in previous studies that assumed that it was high Australian wages that made the operational cost of deep‐sea vessels uncompetitive on a global scale. This article reconstructs historical shifts in the Australian market for a seagoing workforce and demonstrates there was low recruitment of Australian labour. Drawing on new sources and inspired by efficiency wage theory the article argues that it was this shortage of a domestic labour supply that constrained the development of a national deep‐sea shipping industry.