A HIstory of the AMP 1848-1998 by Geoffrey Blainey

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A HIstory of the AMP 1848-1998 nby Geoffrey BlaineynnIn 1848, as the Australian colonies were emerging from depression, three public-spirited citizens – a clergyman, a business entrepreneur and a wool merchant – devised a plan to form a “provident” society. Its aim was to encourage people to provide for their present and future financial security. The new AMP Society was launched on New Year’s Day, 1849. Over the following 150 years the AMP grew, through boom times and depressions, to become one of Australia and New Zealand’s most important financial institutions. In the process, it faced and overcame persistent challenges – from rival organizations, natural disasters, legal and legislative obstructions and even episodes of internal disunity and incompetence. This volume reveals the times and the people, as well as the history, of the AMP. The book covers the early gold rushes, families battling to clear their land, soldiers at the battlefront, the post-war migrants, the pioneers in the tropics when a steamy climate was seen as a hazard to health, and a host of people who bought or sold life policies. Famous names, closely linked to the AMP, often appear, including Alfred Deakin who was three times Prime Minister of Australia; General Gordon Bennett, who fleetingly saw the fall of Singapore; and Katherine Mansfield, the New Zealand novelist who grew up in the shadow of the AMP. There is also a host of minor figures who provided the lifeblood of the Society.nnHardback, 1999, 342pages, very good condition