Being a citizen of the Hawaiian kingdom at that time typically meant you were of native Hawaiian descent, naturalized immigrant workers (mainly Chinese at that point), or a descendant of missionaries.

We will go from the prospective of a native Hawaiian. You are in the midst of a huge depopulation. Estimated 90-95% depopulation due to disease. Entire villages are disappearing. Relatively recently the idea of money and private land ownership has been introduced, but the concept is still very foreign to you. In 1848, under the reign of Kamehameha III, the Mahele is passed which allows native hawaiians the claims to ancestral lands and signals the beginning of mass private ownership throughout the kingdom. Unfortunately for you, you are unfamiliar with this new concept and soon lose your land after a few years. By 1865 you slowly continue to see your friends and family succumb to disease or shipped of to an isolated leper colony.

By 1870, Despite all the hardships you remain actively involved and up to date with news/events due to the flourishing newspaper industry. The success of the news paper industry due largely to the astonishingly high literacy rate of nearly 100% (arguably the highest in the world at the time). This in itself is a remarkable achievement, considering that the written language wasn’t developed until 1837. Anyways, you are a fierce supporter of your monarch and you are noticing a disturbing trend. Those descendants of the the missionaries have used their gifted family lands and their influence to become extremely economically and politically strong sugar barons, who seem to really be the ones in charge. WTF!

Also, I should mention that throughout this time there is a huge cultural shift due to the changing of religions, going on from the kapu system to Christianity. Largely due to the depopulation of Hawaiians (why should I follow these old gods when everyone else who follows them are dying?)

Lastly, yes, poverty was common in the sense that the vast majority of native Hawaiians did not yet fully grasp the implications of money and private ownership. They also were generally extremely supportive of their Alii as evidenced by the high turnouts for voting, the resistance to the overthrow, and the eventual petition against annexation

Oooooo! Another Polynesia question! I think I can add a bit more here.

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As laimonsta noted, when talking about poverty in any indigenous community, we really have to start with the elephant in the room: Colonization. 'Poverty' is inherently a Western concept, introduced to Hawai'i Nei by Western missionaries. By the time that these missionaries (particularly those coming from the US) reached Hawai'i in the early 1800s, they had plenty of practice with missionizing and converting indigenous peoples. Dr. Noenoe K. Silva, at the University of Hawai'i Manoa, uses early mission documents extensively in her research of the early mission period and the years leading up to the overthrow. She directly quotes the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions as stating their objectives as "civilizing and colonizing, in that order" (Silva 2004: 31).

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In order to 'civilize' the Kanaka Maoli, the missionaries eventually employed a myriad of strategies honed over the course of their 'civilizing' missions in the American West: the introduction of writing systems, the construction of Christian schools, the banning of traditional practices such as the hula, oli, mele, and po'ina nalu, the banning of the Hawaiian language, the introduction of Western money systems, the great mahele (as laimonsta has already talked about), and the abandonment of traditional subsistence agri- and aquaculture (Dunbar-Oritz 2014) (Silva 2004) (Trask 1993). By the time of the overthrow, the missionaries (and, as laimonsta said, their descendants) had all but usurped the traditional cultural practices, as they saw many of them as wasteful, lustful, or otherwise debase (Trask 1993).

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It's difficult to overstate the importance of a couple of these shifts in particular: the shift from traditional barter systems to Western currencies and the shift away from traditional foodways. These two shifts are largely responsible for the 'poverty' of the Kanaka Maoli. Many of the maka'ainana in traditional Hawaiian society would have given some sort of 'tribute' (the correct name escapes me atm) to their ali'i, mostly consisting of whatever their harvest was. However, with the introduction of Western moneys, the common Hawaiian would no longer be able to pay their ali'i in goods. But, the common Hawaiian generally had very little western currency. Thus, they would be considered impoverished and debt-ridden by Western standards, even if they and their ancestors had lived well for hundreds of years. Coupled with the pressure to switch to western foods, as well as the conversion of traditional lo'i agriculture to rice, sugar, pineapple, and other cash crops, the average Hawaiian found themselves in an impossible situation.

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Traditional food practices had been and continue to be so productive in Hawai'i Nei that many people in more rural areas continue to practice those same foodways that their ancestors have for generations. While poverty is a massive problem for contemporary Kanaka Maoli, and wage disparity continues to affect them, Dr. Davianna Pomaika'i McGregor's Na Kua'aina shows that these traditional foodways continue to be strategies for survival and resistance to colonial rule (2007). Additionally, Economic Anthropology had a heyday back in the 60's showing that traditional, hunting and gathering subsistence strategies generally meant that people had more leisure time that modern capitalist societies (Lee 1968). So, all of this is to say, the common Hawaiian would have only been impoverished by Western standards.

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Sources:

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Dunbar-Oritz, Roxanne. 2014. An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States. Beacon Press.

Lee, Richard. 1968. "The Hunters: Scarce Resources in the Kalahari", in Man the Hunter, ed. Lee, Richard and Irven DeVore.

McGregor, Davianna Pomaika'i. 2007. Na Kua'aina: Living Hawaiian Culture. University of Hawai'i Press.

Silva, Noenoe K. 2004. Aloha Betrayed: Native Hawaiian Resistance to American Colonialism. Duke University Press.

Trask, Haunani-Kay. 1993. From a Native Daughter: Colonialism and Sovereignty in Hawai'i. University of Hawai'i Press.

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edit: forgot a source