Australia today has the second-largest reserves of iron ore in the world, and in 2011 iron ore was Australia’s largest export. But between 1938 and 1960 the Australian government prohibited export of iron ore on the grounds that Australia’s limited reserves should be conserved for the local steel industry. It took considerable effort to persuade an uncertain federal government to lift the embargo in 1960. But the decision, when it was made, proved consequential. In the half-century since its removal, Western Australia’s remote Pilbara has been transformed into a world-class iron ore province beyond the imagination of state and federal…