Why Great Britain Sent Its Prisoners to Australia (2018)(theculturetrip.com)
theculturetrip.com
Why Great Britain Sent Its Prisoners to Australia (2018)
https://theculturetrip.com/pacific/australia/articles/why-great-britain-sent-its-prisoners-to-australia/
To colonise a country at the other side of the world for Empire, area control and raw resources would be prohibitively expensive, even for one of the superpowers of the time.
What was needed was slave labor. The British did not have slavery. So they needed the next best thing; lots of people who could be forced to work without pay and for just the cost of a little food.
The answer to their prayers was a continuous supply of convicts. The answer to obtaining a continuous supply was to make very minor infractions of the law punishable by transportation. Thus, stealing a loaf of bread gave the government 7 man-years of labour in Australia.