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There has been a longstanding debate about the role of capital in agriculture. Most of this has taken place in the context of the so-called ‘agrarian question’. This discussion has often been overgeneralised and simplified the specific geographies of agrarian transformations. We argue this has arisen due to a failure to characterise and analyse the different forms of capital engaged in agricultural production and how they are articulated and assembled. It is the existence of this diversity of capital that partly explains the differentiated unfolding of the geographies of the agrarian transition that we witness empirically. This paper argues that we need to understand the nature of what we refer to as ‘congregations of capital’ and the articulations between their different forms if we are to better appreciate the way capital engages in agriculture, the ways it shapes labour relationships, and the ways it restructures agrarian economy and society. In order to do this, we use the example of the global wine industry with particular reference to the unfolding strategies used to attach capital to land evident in the New Zealand sector.

The signing of a strategic economic partnership (the Trans-Pacific SEP or P4) between Chile, New Zealand, Singapore and Brunei Darussalam in 2005 reveals the emergence of a new generation of trade agreements that seek to promote longer-term synergies and cooperation. This is in marked contrast with a purely competitive, market-based model of agreements whereby economies are opened up to oligopsonistic capital. The orientation is clearly more neostructural and strategic in construction, emphasizing the opportunities within the global economy of improved relations with similarly positioned economies within the semi-periphery. This article analyses both the basis for and implications of the P4 for Chile and New Zealand by looking at three sectors in which both countries are competitive in export markets: dairy, wine and fisheries. By assessing similarities and differences, and the ways in which competition or co-operation might be established, the potential impacts of the agreement can be posited. Within a global context of bilateral and multilateral commercial agreements, it is this type of agreement that perhaps best fits the needs of smaller economies in the periphery that seek to establish greater competitive space for their exports in core economies without engaging in a mutually destructive war of competition in similar sectors and products.

This article critically engages with the recent diffusion of the orthodox development model in Oceania and highlights some evolving dilemmas. In particular, it explores the social, economic and ecological tensions arising from economic reforms that are exacerbating the fragility of already vulnerable nation-states and communities. In order to illustrate its arguments, a case study of the impacts of agro-export growth in Tonga is presented. Attention is drawn to the socially inequitable and ecologically unsustainable outcomes of rapid growth in this sector. In analyzing the political economy of the squash pumpkin sector, the authors point to the important role that culture plays in mediating and conditioning development outcomes. Reflecting on the Tongan case, it is argued that to better understand the implications of orthodox developmental reform in the region, research must seek to more explicitly incorporate distributional and ethical analysis.