E26: Governor Bligh Arrives on a Warpath

Added: 2026-05-14

[00:00:00]There's the result. Australia is also at war. It is feared that the Prime Minister [music] has drowned. He has misled the Parliament.

[00:00:08]>> Welcome to the Political History of Australia Podcast. [music] >> Any boss who sacks anyone who is not turning up the day of the bump.

[00:00:15]I will not be lectured by this man.

[00:00:18]>> Why won't you call an early election?

[00:00:21]Mate, because I want to do you slowly.

[00:00:27]With your host John Ruddick.

[00:00:30]Welcome to the Political History of Australia, episode 26, Governor Bligh arrives on the warpath.

[00:00:38]Last episode, we looked at the turbulent pre-New South Wales career of Captain William Bligh. Yes, he's forever linked to the mutiny on the Bounty, but that messy chapter wasn't the only time allegations were made public that William Bligh was a weirdly horrible boss.

[00:00:54]It was Sir Joseph Banks who persuaded Bligh into taking on the job as the fourth governor of New South Wales.

[00:01:01]Banks wanted a tough guy loyal to him that would throw his weight around and shift the power away from the likes of John MacArthur. Bligh, for his part, saw the governorship of New South Wales as a stage to redeem his recently re-stained reputation.

[00:01:17]Governors Hunter and King had their faults, but when they were sworn in, they could at least boast of being veterans of the First Fleet. They knew the colony before they led it. Bligh had spent a couple of days in Van Diemen's Land with Captain Cook three decades earlier, and his open boat after the Bounty had brushed Cape York in the far north of the continent two decades earlier. Beyond that, Bligh's knowledge of New South Wales came from what he may have read, plus colorful private briefings with Sir Joseph Banks, which I imagine were akin to the pep talk a boxing coach gives his heavyweight contender right before stepping into the ring. So, Captain Bligh turned up as the new boss of a fractious colony, a colony he did not know. He didn't understand the local personalities, the challenges the colony had overcome, or the trajectory it was on. He knew nothing of its geography, seasons, wildlife, its industry, or local agriculture. Bligh didn't even know the street names, let alone where to go koala spotting. Had Bligh learned from the mutiny on the Bounty? Had the recent court finding that Bligh needed to be more careful in dealing with subordinates cause a bout of introspection? Did Bligh arrive in Sydney hoping to use his office to bring conciliation? No, no, and no.

[00:02:31]As we will soon see, within days of being sworn in, Governor Bligh doubled down on his overbearing style. Throwing his weight around was simply who he was.

[00:02:41]It was as if he wanted to use the governorship to settle old scores. I was right on the Bounty, I was right about that suck of a lieutenant, and now I'll show them all by sorting out this chaotic colony.

[00:02:52]It would only take 18 months to blow.

[00:02:55]Bligh's wife Betsy was devoted, but that devotion could not overcome her fear of the ocean, so she stayed at home with five of their six daughters. The second daughter, 23-year-old Mary, did accompany her father, and she would act as the lady of Government House. Though, as we will see, Lady Mary could be unladylike. Bligh engineered a role for Mary's hubby, a naval officer, as his personal assistant.

[00:03:20]A week after arrival, on Wednesday, the 13th of August, 1806, Captain Bligh was sworn in as Governor Bligh of New South Wales. The Sydney Gazette described proceedings.

[00:03:31]The ceremony of His Excellency Governor Bligh's commission being read in front of Government House, where the military were assembled along with the civil departments and inhabitants. After His Excellency had taken the oaths, he addressed the inhabitants in a short, but impressive, speech, which was received by the spectators with three cheers.

[00:03:52]When the New South Wales core fired three rounds, the battery saluted with 19 guns and other vessels repeated with 15 guns each. The following morning, Major George Johnston, representing the military, with Judge Advocate Richard Atkins, representing the civil service, and John MacArthur Esquire, representing the free inhabitants, went on board the HMS Buffalo. There they presented a formal address to ex-Governor King, who was signing off. Upon coming back to shore, the three preceded up the hill a few blocks to Government House. There they had an audience with Governor Bligh and presented him with a joint welcome address. To His Excellency William Bligh Esquire, Captain General and Governor in Chief in and over the territory of New South Wales and its dependencies, the officers, civil and military, with the free inhabitants of this colony, beg leave respectfully to offer their sincere congratulations to Your Excellency upon your appointment to this government and to express their happiness at your safe arrival. Sir, you will find the country becoming with moderate encouragement a colony of considerable importance to Great Britain. We feel animated by a pleasing hope that under Your Excellency's auspices, agriculture will flourish and commerce increase. Whilst enjoying, as far as circumstances will admit, the constitutional rights of British subjects, we shall in due time rise above our present comparative state of insignificance and prove to the world what great exertions mankind will make when properly incited to exercise their natural powers. Governor Bligh graciously replied, I accept your congratulations and address with very great satisfaction, and I'm happy in believing I am not less honored with your confidence than I feel a disposition and determination to promote the welfare of this infant colony, the government of which our most gracious King has committed to my charge, united with you, his dutiful and loyal subjects, in your respective situations of trust and confidence.

[00:05:51]It will be a heartfelt satisfaction to his majesty and his government to learn from your address that the country settled under his benign influence is capable of ample returns to the industrious settler and merchant under due exertions, regulations, and encouragement. Bligh, Macarthur, Johnston, and Atkins, the big four who would soon tear the colony apart. But on this day, they were all together and happy happy. A couple of days later, the Sydney Gazette reported the formal proceedings and in passing mentioned that John Macarthur had welcomed Governor Bligh on behalf of, quote, the free inhabitants.

[00:06:31]That description miffed more than a few.

[00:06:35]One of Governor Bligh's first official duties was a tour of the Hawkesbury-Nepean district. Now, for those not familiar with Sydney's geography, here is a mud map. Sydney is on the coast and built around the harbor. About 20 km due west of Sydney is Parramatta. And then about 30 km north of Parramatta is the center of the Hawkesbury-Nepean district, what we know today as Windsor.

[00:06:58]Further west of the entire Sydney basin are the Blue Mountains and the drainage pipe for those beautiful mountains is the Hawkesbury-Nepean River, which skirts around the western and then the northern edges of Sydney before draining into the Pacific Ocean just north of modern Sydney. There had recently been floods on the Hawkesbury-Nepean and Governor Bligh wanted to tour out of his heartfelt concern.

[00:07:20]The rich but flood-prone soils of the Hawkesbury-Nepean River were the breadbasket of the colony. Smaller farms could be profitable there, so there were lots of them with a disproportionately high number of poorer free settlers and emancipists. Governor Bligh, in full uniform and with his entourage in tow, sailed out of Sydney Harbor, followed the coast a little up to Broken Bay, and then along the Hawkesbury River and arrived at the wharf of the main settlement, which was named Green Hills.

[00:07:48]Four years later, Governor Macquarie wanted to give it a regal feel, so he renamed Green Hills as Windsor. Bligh toured the flood damage, generously opened the government stores handing out grain and farm animals to the hardest hit. He promised to buy their wheat at high fixed price and generously paid them in advance. Hundreds came to meeting.

[00:08:13]He took his time and heard from as many as he could. Among the locals who met Governor Bligh was the great, great, great, great-grandfather of future Prime Minister Malcolm Bligh Turnbull.

[00:08:26]Governor Bligh made such a positive impact on that first Turnbull in Australia, John Turnbull, that he named his son William Bligh Turnbull. And ever since that family has retained a boy's middle name of Bligh.

[00:08:40]Bligh knew he was about to make some powerful enemies. He needed a loyal support base locked in. That's what the Hawkesbury Nepean tour was all about.

[00:08:50]Governor Bligh had such a warm welcome.

[00:08:52]He spent several days staying at the impressive homestead of Andrew Thompson.

[00:08:57]We'll get to know Thompson in a moment, but for now, he was the most influential citizen in the Hawkesbury Nepean district. Mayors wouldn't be a thing in Australia until the 1840s, but in 1806, Thompson was the unofficial mayor of the Hawkesbury Nepean district. No doubt as Thompson and Bligh shared a quiet evening drink before Thompson's cozy fireplace, they talked politics and an idea was hatched. Get the Hawkesbury Nepean settlers to sign a public petition that will embarrass and isolate John Macarthur. Sure enough, soon after Governor Bligh returned to Sydney, a petition arrived. Bligh had been a hit in the Hawkesbury Nepean. The settlers had lined up to sign it, all 370 of them. Remember, only adult free males could sign the petition. No women, no children, no convicts. 370 was a show of force. The petition was entitled, "The address of the settlers, landholders, and cultivators of land and other principal inhabitants of Hawkesbury whose names are here under written."

[00:10:01]Some historians claim many of these signatures were simply an X which denotes illiteracy and therefore an emancipist. But, I was recently at the Windsor Museum and I saw this petition and I did not see one X. I did overwhelmingly see impressive handwriting. The Hawkesbury Nepean settlers wanted the new governor and the public to know one thing loud and clear.

[00:10:21]John Macarthur did not speak for them.

[00:10:24]Let's hear it from their own words.

[00:10:26]To His Excellency Governor Bligh, with every due submission to Your Excellency, we beg to state our ignorance of the former addresses which appeared in the Sydney Gazette.

[00:10:36]At the foot of which appears the name of John Macarthur, Esquire, as speaking for the free inhabitants.

[00:10:43]We consider such addresses being signed for us by a person undeputed and unauthorized as an infringement on our rights and privileges. And we beg to observe that had we deputed anyone, John Macarthur would not have been chosen by us.

[00:10:58]We consider him an unfit person to step forward.

[00:11:02]We may chiefly attribute the rise in the price of mutton to his withholding the large flock of wethers he now has to make such price as he may choose to demand.

[00:11:12]Short-term thinkers wanted sheep to eat.

[00:11:15]John Macarthur wanted sheep to multiply.

[00:11:18]But, putting that aside, the Hawkesbury Nepean settlers were sending Governor Bligh an unmistakable message. Hey, Mr. Governor, you hate John Macarthur, we hate John Macarthur. Therefore, Mr. Governor, we are allies.

[00:11:31]As mentioned, the Mr. Big of the Hawkesbury-Nepean District was 35-year-old emancipist Andrew Thompson.

[00:11:38]Thompson was Scottish. He'd been sentenced to 14 years for theft and arrived in the colony in 1792, aged just 19.

[00:11:48]Even while still a convict, Thompson showed an especially deferential attitude towards official authority.

[00:11:55]Within two years, this teachers' pet convict was given a job as a police officer. Only in Australia can a convict also double as a police officer.

[00:12:06]In 1796, Governor Hunter transferred this dependable convict copper up to the rapidly expanding Hawkesbury-Nepean Agricultural District. Thompson had got in at the ground level of a mini boomtown. He fell in love with the Hawkesbury-Nepean and the district loved him back. He would live there for the rest of his life. Despite arriving as a convict, Thompson perfected the art of seducing governors. He impressed Governor Hunter so much, Hunter promoted him to a constable and granted him a full pardon in 1797 in {quote} recognition of his meritorious service.

[00:12:43]By the time of this pardon, Thompson was already one of the Hawkesbury-Nepean's largest landowners. The following year, Hunter appointed him the government grain assessor, a powerful and lucrative role in the colony's breadbasket. The Hawkesbury-Nepean was notorious for sudden, deadly floods. There were four in the year Bly arrived. When they hit, it was Andrew Thompson who took charge of the rescue and salvage operations. On multiple occasions, Thompson swam into dangerous waters and saved lives.

[00:13:15]When Governor King took over from Hunter, Thompson courted the new authority figure. With his own money, Thompson built the colony's first toll bridge over South Creek. Governor King was so impressed, he let Thompson keep all the toll income for its first 14 years.

[00:13:30]Australia's first build, own, operate, transfer infrastructure deal.

[00:13:34]Governor King appointed Thompson chief constable and register of agreements, meaning every commercial contract in the Hawkesbury and Nepean district had to be registered with him, which meant he knew everything that was going on.

[00:13:46]Governor King gave Thompson permission to establish a salt manufacturing plant on Scotland Island in what we know as the Pitt Water. And King rolled out land grants to Thompson, almost 1,000 acres in total, rich farmland, mostly along the Hawkesbury and Nepean.

[00:14:01]Thompson was now part of the land owning gentry.

[00:14:05]He could have started hobnobbing with fellow large landowners, the establishment, men like John Macarthur, but no, Andrew Thompson remained a Hawkesbury and Nepean first guy.

[00:14:15]When Governor King departed, it didn't take long for Thompson to cozy up to Governor Bligh. Governor Bligh is about to declare war on alcohol in the wider colony, but on his Hawkesbury and Nepean tour, Governor Bligh gave his mate Thompson a license to build a brewery.

[00:14:31]So, as mentioned, Governor King had granted incoming Governor Bligh land grants over four plots, including one for Bligh's daughter, but the most valuable was 1,000 acres in the Hawkesbury and Nepean. Thompson offered to look after the day-to-day management of these Bligh family assets.

[00:14:48]These farms became scandalously profitable and later subject to allegations of financial impropriety.

[00:14:55]By 1807, Thompson was so wealthy he'd bought four large ships, and Captain Flattery named one of those ships the Governor Bligh. Thompson's ships won government contracts to ship passengers, convicts, produce, and livestock around.

[00:15:10]When Thompson died in 1810, a eulogy in the Sydney Gazette wrote, From Andrew Thompson's first arrival in this country, he uniformly conducted himself with that strict regard to morality and integrity as to obtain and enjoy the countenance and protection of several succeeding governors. Governor Macquarie inscribed on Thompson's gravestone these words.

[00:15:33]He distinguished himself by the most persevering industry and diligent attention to the commands of his superiors.

[00:15:40]In consequence of Mr. Thompson's good conduct, Governor Macquarie appointed him a justice of the peace.

[00:15:47]This act made so deep an impression on his grateful heart as to induce him to bequeath to Governor Macquarie 1/4 of his fortune.

[00:15:55]No wonder Governor Macquarie made a public statement even from the grave.

[00:15:58]Thompson fawned before authority.

[00:16:02]We've met several of John Macarthur's political rivals. Andrew Thompson was his commercial rival. The two were vying for the number one spot on the colonial rich list. And since forever magnates cannot resist interfering in politics, Andrew Thompson and John Macarthur were opposites. Thompson was a convict boy who did good and accumulated land to grow crops via gubernatorial flattery.

[00:16:27]Macarthur was an army officer who dropped out while accumulating land to raise livestock. And he had done so via gubernatorial confrontation. Ever since Cain and Abel, grazers and crop growers have been rivals. Thompson was Cain.

[00:16:41]Macarthur was Abel.

[00:16:43]The Hawkesbury and Nepean settlers were rock-solid supporters of Governor Bligh, but there was a geographical problem with that power base. The Hawkesbury and Nepean may have been quite populous, but it was still half a day's ride from Sydney. So, if there was some type of a I don't know, a military coup or something, it could all be over before the Hawkesbury and Nepean settlers had even heard the news.

[00:17:05]So, who was in the anti-Bligh camp?

[00:17:08]The officers of the New South Wales Corps, of course. They were landowners, too, but they generally had larger farms and pockets deep enough to dominate the import and export trade. Unlike the more modest Hawkesbury and Nepean settlers on the back blocks, these large landowners had contacts in London. As the economy matured, this same class increasingly owned warehouses and retail shops, and crucially these offices were concentrated closer to where the political action was, Sydney.

[00:17:36]Various labels were used at the time and since to describe this faction. They have been known as the Rum Corps, the Rum Punching Corps, the monopolists, the trading faction, the officer clique, the military faction, the Botany Bay Tories, and later the Junta, the Rum Rebels, and the Exclusives. We will use the label The Exclusives when we reach the coming Macquarie era because that is what they were then known as. But until then, we're going to call them the trading faction. More than anything, they were business men who traded goods and in the military.

[00:18:11]He was a plain citizen and held no official titles. He'd also only just returned from more than 3 years in England. So, his influence may have waned after being out of the loop, but no, John Macarthur was a natural-born leader, and so he was the dominant personality in the informal trading faction.

[00:18:30]Governor Bligh made no effort to try and at least start on a positive note with the trading faction. After the success of his Hawkesbury and Nepean tour, he felt confident he had a solid power base locked in, and so he was ready to pull the trigger, which brings us to Breakfast at Parramatta.

[00:18:48]John Macarthur had arrived back in Sydney from his fruitful sojourn in London just over a year before the arrival of Captain Bligh in Sydney.

[00:18:56]Macarthur arrived with unequivocal instructions from Lord Camden. He was to be given 5,000 acres, plus a further 5,000 if he made the first grant a successful merino farm. Those instructions were also clear. Macarthur was to receive what London described as the best situation land, and that meant one thing, Cowpasture Plains.

[00:19:20]But, Governor King had slow walked what he must have personally considered appalling.

[00:19:26]Governor King wrote to London asking for clarification.

[00:19:29]Did we really want the government to hand over its finest agricultural assets, Cowpasture Plains?

[00:19:36]While awaiting for this key point to be clarified, MacArthur went exploring for alternative land, but he returned and essentially told Governor King, "Look, I've had a look around, but nowhere else is suitable for the scale of wool farming we're planning. So, I know you're still waiting to hear from London, but in the meantime, I'm going to start developing Cowpasture Plains and we'll reassess if London says otherwise."

[00:19:58]Governor King basically told MacArthur, "Okay, but you only have provisional title, so be warned it could be revoked if London says so."

[00:20:07]No doubt MacArthur was familiar with the common law principle that possession is 9/10 of the law, and MacArthur fired off his own letter to one of his powerful new friends in London writing, "I hope the peaceful and productive sheep will find in you an advocate." A few weeks after Governor Bligh had been sworn in, there was an impromptu meeting at Government House in Parramatta.

[00:20:27]Ex-Governor King was soon to set sail for England, but he was still residing in the grand residence, which had the finest gardens in the colony.

[00:20:36]There was no hostility between Ex-Governor King and Governor Bligh. So, no doubt it was mutually agreed it would be helpful for the new governor if the old governor came round for a visit and downloaded all the intel he could.

[00:20:49]So, Governor Bligh and his entourage jumped in a boat and came to Government House at Parramatta for breakfast. John MacArthur was a Parramatta resident and he either spotted Bligh's ship coming in or the rumor mill alerted him to the new governor's visit in his backyard. It was a 20-minute walk between Macarthur's Elizabeth Farm and Government House, Parramatta. So, Macarthur rocked up uninvited.

[00:21:15]Five years later, in 1811, there was a court-martial in London arising from the Rum Rebellion. John Macarthur was a civilian and so not on trial, but he went to speak against William Bligh.

[00:21:26]Under oath, John Macarthur was questioned by the bench about his first conversation he had ever had with Governor Bligh about his land grant.

[00:21:35]Macarthur replied, "When Governor King gave up the government to Governor Bligh, he, Governor King, retired with his family to the government house at Parramatta.

[00:21:45]Having understood that Governor Bligh was on a visit there, I went to the government house.

[00:21:51]This was about a month after he had taken the command. I found him walking in the garden perfectly disengaged and alone, and thinking it a proper opportunity to speak to him on the subject of my affairs, I inquired if he had been informed of the wishes of the government respecting them.

[00:22:09]I particularly alluded to the sheep and the probable advantages that might result to the colony and the mother country from the production of fine wool.

[00:22:20]Governor Bligh burst out instantly into a most violent passion, exclaiming, "What have I to do with your sheep, sir?

[00:22:28]What have I to do with your cattle? Are you to have such flocks of sheep and such herds of cattle as no man ever heard of before?

[00:22:35]I have heard of your concern, sir. You have got 5,000 acres of land in the finest situation in the country, but by God, you shan't keep it." I told him that, as I had received this land at the recommendation of the Privy Council and by the order of the Secretary of State, I presumed that my right to it was indisputable.

[00:22:59]Governor Bligh responded, "Damn the Privy Council and damn the Secretary of State, too. What have they to do with me? You have made a number of false representations respecting your wool, by which you have obtained this land. We immediately after entered the Government House, where we found Governor and Mrs. King and sat down to breakfast.

[00:23:21]Governor Bligh then renewed the conversation about my sheep, addressing himself to Governor King when he used such violent and insulting language to him that Governor King burst into tears.

[00:23:34]I again mentioned that I was extremely desirous to ascertain how far his opinions corresponded with those of the Secretary of State.

[00:23:43]Governor Bligh answered with the utmost violence. Damn the Secretary of State.

[00:23:49]He commands at home. I command here.

[00:23:52]Yes, that's right. Governor Bligh is a psycho boss.

[00:23:57]John Macarthur is in the right here, legally and morally, but yes, there were conflicting messages from London.

[00:24:03]Official authority had granted Macarthur the land, but the unofficial Minister for New South Wales, Sir Joseph Banks, had privately told Bligh to crack down on large speculative grants and to nobble the monopolists like John Macarthur.

[00:24:19]Banks had no formal authority to give such instructions, but Banks had mentored Bligh since before the bounty.

[00:24:26]Bligh felt beholden to Banks.

[00:24:29]But the record is clear. The first side to break with process and protocol was Governor Bligh and not the New South Wales Corps.

[00:24:38]Less than 2 months into the job, Governor Bligh brought down the first of three progressively heavier hammer blows, all a direct assault on the trading faction. Before we get to those details of those three regulations, let's step back a moment to try understand the colony's economy at this time.

[00:24:57]The complaint against the trading faction was that they had monopoly control over international trade since they bought up most of the stock on the arriving ships and then were able to sell those goods at a high margin into the colony. And in particular, they benefited from the fact that they had a near monopoly control over alcohol imports which traded at a premium because alcohol was effectively the currency of Australia during the early colonial period.

[00:25:23]That seems to be an official government monopoly from 1792 to 1795, the Francis Grose era.

[00:25:29]But after that, their monopoly situation came from the fact that they were some of the only ones with internationally accepted currency. The army was paid in notes that were backed by the UK Treasury. That was the real source of their wealth. After 1795, the importing ships could have sold to anybody, but they continued selling to the trading faction because they were basically the only people who could pay.

[00:25:54]It's like being the only person in Zimbabwe with US dollars. Whenever a foreigner wants to sell into Zimbabwe, they have to sell to the people who have US dollars. And so those Zimbabweans with US dollars will be in a good position domestically to on-sell those products.

[00:26:09]So there's two things going on here that seem to have been conflated in the dominant narrative. One, the army gets regular income from the UK government paid in internationally accepted currency, which is rare in New South Wales. And two, that currency doesn't trade well in New South Wales. So they exchange it for alcohol, which they then use as what is referred to as the rum currency.

[00:26:33]Both are reasonable in their own way, but both would give a nice advantage to the trading faction and that would cause resentment. That advantage was inevitably going to be eroded as more people started to earn export income and therefore more competition in buying imports.

[00:26:50]Early New South Wales was basically an example of competitive currencies with the rum currency outcompeting the other currencies because at least rum was tangible and valuable. The government didn't like the private outcome, so they were on a vendetta to destroy it. Which was eventually done by Governor Macquarie. I would argue that they shouldn't have gotten involved, but at least Macquarie provided an alternative.

[00:27:13]The big mistake by Bligh was shutting down the private currency without providing a workable alternative. So, Governor Bligh brought down the economic hammer on the trading faction via three regulations. The first was on the 4th of October, 1806, when he issued a general order entitled "Regulations Respecting Vessels, Foreign and English." And it became known as the port regulation. In simple terms, it said, "Spirits are prohibited to be landed without the Governor's special license or permit on pain of seizure and forfeiture. And the master or commander of the vessel from which the same shall be landed shall forfeit and pay the sum of 500 pounds for every offense. No goods, wares, or merchandise whatsoever shall be landed from any vessel without a permit from the Governor. All spirits, wine, beer, or other strong drinks shall be subject to the same regulations as goods and merchandise and shall not be landed or put on shore without the or permit of the Governor."

[00:28:17]Governor King had tried to curb the alcohol trade, and initially he made serious inroads. He banned unlicensed stills, restricted imports at times, and made some efforts to control distribution. However, his measures were patchy and inconsistently enforced.

[00:28:33]The trading faction was still able to import alcohol relatively freely, land it with minimal oversight, and continue using it as the colony's de facto currency. They had simply worked around or ignored many of Governor King's regulations. And in the two years before Bligh arrived, Governor King was in his slump, so I imagine few rules were enforced.

[00:28:55]Under Governor Bligh's port regulations, no goods, wares, or merchandise of any kind could be landed without a permit from the governor himself. Every ship had to submit a full manifest for approval before anything could come ashore. So, if Governor Bligh didn't like certain goods or who they were intended for, he could refuse them entry.

[00:29:17]This was a direct, centralized chokehold on the entire import trade, something King had never imposed.

[00:29:25]The trading factions suddenly lost control of their most profitable sideline.

[00:29:30]The second blow landed a few weeks later on the 1st of November, 1806. Governor Bligh issued a general order that became known as the currency proclamation. It read, "It is hereby declared that the meaning of currency is only applicable to money and not barter in goods. So, that if any note is made payable in copper coin or the currency of this colony, it is to be inferred that money only is the means by which it is to be liquidated."

[00:29:58]There were multiple forms of exchange in circulation. Some British coins, various foreign currencies, and promissory notes, but the dominant form of currency was barter. And the most efficient good to barter had turned out to be bottles of alcohol. Farmers and merchants paid workers wages in bottles, bought grain and livestock with bottles, settled debts with bottles, even paid for labor and clothing.

[00:30:23]These bottles made possible endless small and large transactions, aka the economy.

[00:30:30]But this decree of Governor Bligh banned future contracts or debts being written in terms that accepted payment in alcohol. All future contracts had to be denominated and settled in official currency, otherwise it was an illegal transaction.

[00:30:48]The trading faction were the ones who dominated the importation of alcohol and profited most from using alcohol as the colony's money. Bligh was systematically dismantling the economic power base they had built over the previous decade.

[00:31:02]In January 1807, Elizabeth Macarthur wrote to a friend in London.

[00:31:06]The governor has already shown the inhabitants of Sydney that he is violent, rash, tyrannical, no very pleasing prospect at the beginning of his reign.

[00:31:16]Six months after Governor Bligh was sworn in on the 14th of February 1807, Governor Bligh issued what became known as the barter ban, the most sweeping general order yet. It read, "His Excellency the Governor laments at finding by his late visits through the colony that the most calamitous evils have been produced by persons bartering or paying in spirits for grain of all kinds, the necessaries of life, and the laborers for their hire.

[00:31:46]Such proceedings are depressing the industrious and depriving the settlers of their comforts and wants.

[00:31:52]It is hereby ordered and directed that no goods, wares, merchandise, or spirits of any kind whatsoever shall be received or given in payment or exchange for labor, grain, animal food, wearing apparel, or any other commodity or article of trade or traffic." Governor Bligh had been gradually tightening the noose. Now he pulled it tighter. It was now illegal to pay anyone or buy anything with barter, full stop. Not just no bartering in alcohol, but no bartering in anything. A simple back fence trade of surplus eggs for spinach was now illegal. It was an immediate blanket ban with teeth. The trading faction saw it as an existential threat to their entire way of doing business and therefore to the colony itself.

[00:32:43]Tensions skyrocketed. Around this time Governor Bligh wrote to London and openly admitted, "I am aware that prohibiting the barter of spirits will meet with the marked opposition of those few who have so materially enriched themselves by it.

[00:33:01]The measure, however, is become indispensably necessary to bring labor to a due value and support the farming interest."

[00:33:11]Around the same time Captain Edward Abbott, a close associate of Macarthur, wrote to his brother in England.

[00:33:18]"Bligh is a broad, stout little man, more violent in temper than I could have conceived.

[00:33:24]He has a most overbearing manner and is perpetually interfering in matters that do not concern him."

[00:33:30]Apparently being hot-headed was hereditary.

[00:33:34]Abbott soon wrote another letter, this time about Governor Bligh's 23-year-old daughter, Mary.

[00:33:39]"She had a very nice little figure, but was extremely violent and passionate, so much so now and then as to fling a plate or candlestick at her parents' head."

[00:33:48]The Hawkesbury-Nepean settlers backed Bligh in all of his reforms, seemingly not to see that these reforms would hurt everyone. But their opposition to the trading faction was now tribal and therefore irrational.

[00:34:02]If Governor Bligh was making the trading faction irate, then the Hawkesbury-Nepean settlers were thrilled. They were certain they'd been ripped off for years over the prices charged by the trading faction for products they'd imported. Let's see how they'd like it with far fewer imports.

[00:34:18]11 days after the barter ban, 546 Hawkesbury-Nepean settlers signed another petition.

[00:34:25]"We have willingly enrolled our names for the defense of the country and request that you dispose of rebellious ringleaders and principals to prevent future conspiracies.

[00:34:35]This was the third Pro-Bligh petition from the Hawkesbury in just 5 months.

[00:34:39]This one sounds almost like a declaration of war.

[00:34:43]Just like his fellow three naval officer predecessors, Governor Bligh was an ignoramus when it came to economics. He was oblivious to the obvious. These decrees would harm everyone. There would be a lot less goods shipped into the colony, which was bad by itself, but less supply would also raise prices.

[00:35:04]More government revenue would need to be collected to fund the public servants who would administer all these laws.

[00:35:10]Commercial activity in general would decline. This was the age of Adam Smith.

[00:35:15]Why were the naval officers so ignorant of him?

[00:35:19]As [clears throat] we have also seen, I think every single character we have met who went on to become a Royal Navy officer joined when they were a young teenager. So, they were from a family that likely didn't read books, and then their life became the Navy. And so, they devoted their education to nautical subjects.

[00:35:39]Knowledge of economics was of zero use to a Navy officer, so why bother learning it? British Army officers, on the other hand, were overwhelmingly from the educated upper class. They typically became an officer because their dad paid money to make it happen. Sounds corrupt, was corrupt, but it meant that young officers in the Army typically had an education, a broad education, prior to joining the Army. And because their career was on land, and because making money on the side was acceptable, Army officers did take an interest in economic reality.

[00:36:16]So, Governor Bligh has taken on his wartime governorship strategically well.

[00:36:21]First, he has secured his own power base along the Hawkesbury Nepean. Then he has declared war on the trading faction via regulation and decree.

[00:36:30]But join us next time as Governor Bligh turns his focus to bringing down an individual as John MacArthur is arrested, acquitted, and then attempted to be re-arrested.

[00:36:42]Thank you for listening to this episode of the political history of Australia podcast with your host [music] John Ruddick.

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[00:36:57]>> [music]