Capitalism is based on a system of economic organisation characterised by the private ownership of the means of production including land, tools and materials. It is where the accumulation of market-based control over the production and distribution of goods and services is placed into the hands of a few people known as the private sector. Australia, was a product of the then dominant capitalist power, Britain, and with this came its economic structure. Among several significant reasons, the motivation for the colonial settlement of Australia, like that of India, North America and parts of Africa, was to encourage Britain's expansion. However, in this instance, there was no pre-capitalist period of European Australian history. There was no peasantry in Australia, no pre-industrial inheritance to modify or to hinder growth - virtually giving the settlers a blank slate to develop for trade and pursue any means for profit, on their own, by their own hand, without access to indentured or other local labour. Therefore, one can propose the question, is capitalism conceived by individuals, or by the society in which they live? Basically, as with most political structures, the Capitalist structure of power produced capitalist ways of thinking in those with access to wealth. Those without access developed other ideas and this led to socialism. Therefore, if you changed the socio-political structure of the society, through socialists or labour parties who want to distribute wealth more evenly, you would be able to change the extent to which capitalism operated. Consequently, such a view suggests capitalism is the cause of behaviours. Alternatively, one could say that capitalist thinking prompted structures that supported it and subsequently, the structures were the effect, not the cause of capitalism. In 1788 N.S.W was considered a free market where, as in North America, anyone prepared to roll up their sleeves and clear some la...