ECONOMIC ORIGINS OF APARTHEID

Abstract

South African apartheid is a social system arising from the economic conflict of competitive interest groups. During the past four centuries, this struggle has not been linear: Changing economic and demographic conditions have tended to make white and non‐white subclasses net complementary factors at certain times and net substitute factors at others. Moreover, such cross‐elasticities in production are not clearly delineated along racial lines. For example, the synergy of white capital and black labor formed the essential social “evil” which apartheid, promoted by white labor and farm interests, was created to expunge. Hence, isolating apartheid via international sanctions is inherently problematic. The imposition of apartheid itself was accompanied by extensive South African‐imposed trade barriers.