Includes indexes.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 467-499).

1. The Solomon Islands in 1800 (Land, sea and people ; Production, exchange, and social organization ; Political organization ; Religion ; Other worlds) -- 2. The ship men (c. 1800-1860) (Fist contact ; WhalinG; the beginning of a long-ditance trade ; Technological innovation and consequences ; Introduced diseases and idaes ; Necessities and luxuries) -- 3. The traders and their masters (c.1860-1900) (The growth of long-distance trade ; Trade and backers ; Profits and losses ; Of motives and men ; The price of survival ; Men in the middle) -- 4. The attractions of trade (c.1860-1900) (The trading relationship: the Melanesians ; the penetratuion of Western goods ; Western trade and Solomon Islands economies ; Western trade and Solomon Islands politics ; Satisfying new needs, modifying old skills) -- 5. The colonial government and pacification (c.1896-1920) (The protectorate established ; Methods of pacification ; The effects of pacification ; Selling a birthright ; The last frontier: conquered yet entire)

6. The colonial government and land alienation (c. 1900-1920) (Commercial infrastructure ; The "waste lands" ; The promise of the Solomons ; Freehold land and the traders ; The landlord government and the leasehold system) -- 7. The colonial government and labor (c.1900-1930) (The Colonial Office and labor policy ; The protectorate government and labor ; Wage policy ; The continuing labor crisis: the search for solutions) -- 8. The plantation (c.1900-1930) (Motives for recruiting for plantations ; Labourers' input into labor policy and practice ; The colonising labor crisis: the search for solutions) -- 9. Producers and consumers (c.1900-1930) (Incentives to local producers ; The effects of World War I on Solomon Islander producers and consumers ; Barriers to greater Solomon Islander participation in the cash economy ; Enter the Chinese ; The blessing of settled government ; Producers and consumers and capitalism ; Political correlates of socioeconomic change) -- 10. Weathering the storm (c. 1930-1942) ("King Copra" ; The Depression and the plantation system ; The merchant companies foreclose ; The Depression and the big plantation companies ; Competition and new directions ; Adjusting to the impossible ; The Colonial Office and the future of the Solomons)

11. A rumour of utopia: the western and central Solomons (c.1930-1942) (The Depression and local producers ; The Gizo district: resistance and reorganization ; The tax "revolt" ; Beyond the Gizo district ; Local traders, storekeepers, and capitalism ; Hopes postponed ; The central Solomons and the "Chair and Rule" moverment) -- 12. More rumors: the eastern Solomons (c.1930-1942) (A just tax: the path not taken ; Malaita and commerce during the Depression ; Beyond Malaita ; Problems and attempted solutions ; The spirits, America, and new hope ; Institutionalizing unrest: recioncling "custom" and introduced law) -- 13. World War II and afternath (c.1942-1955) (War and the Solomon Islanders ; From the chaos of war: Maasina rule ; The protectorate government: response, repression and rapprochement ; Maasina rule: a popular political movement ; The Society fotr the Development of Native Races: western Guadalcanal ; The western Solomons and the Christian Fellowship Church ; "Patching up a frayed edge of Empire": 1943-1955) -- 14. Independence: Coming, ready or not! (1955-1978) (Paternalistic policies for progress, 1955-1965 ; Rapid constitutional and political change, 1965-1978 ; Development at the local level: devolution and its cost ; The western Solomons "breakaway" ; The economy: limitations, frustratiions and old values ; The people: change and continuity) -- Epilogue.

Appendixes (1: Whaling contacts and sightings, c.1800-1890 ; 2: Castaways, deserters, and runaway convicts in the Solomon Islands, c.1820-1870 ; 3: Items of trade, when mentioned, of whaling ships and other non-trading vessels, 1798-1860 ; 4: Exports and shipping from Solomon Islands to Port of Sydney, c. 1854-1896 ; 5: Location of resident traders and non-Melanesian staff, c.1880-1900 ; 6: Violent conflicts between Solomon Islanders and Europeans engaged in trading, c.1860-1896 ; 7: Resident Commissioners and District Officers before World War II ; 8: Petition to Resident Commissioner, 1912)

At foot of title: Pacific Island Studies Program, Center for Asian and Pacific Studies, University of Hawaii.