Story: Spending in the economy

Historically, governments restricted imports in order to limit spending of overseas earnings. From the early 20th century for example, the government protected local motor-vehicle production by imposing a higher tariff on imports of fully assembled cars. From the mid-20th century, a percentage of a vehicle's components had to be locally produced. These measures encouraged spending – on labour, on parts, and on the finished car –  to take place within New Zealand. Once imports were allowed easy entry, the car assembly industry collapsed. These imported cars are shown in front of logs ready for export in 2004.