Abstract
TSEG (Tijdschrift voor Sociale en Economische Geschiedenis) - The Low Countries Journal of Social and Economic History, is het Nederlands-Vlaamse vaktijdschrift op het gebied van de sociale en economische geschiedenis
Highlights
In the recent debates on the long-term economic effects of colonial rule, the distinct performance of ‘settler’ versus ‘extraction’ colonies is often emphasized.1 South Africa, or the Cape Colony, as sub-Saharan Africa’s main settler colony, provides an interesting case for these debates
Pieter van Duin and Robert Ross argue that ‘any description of the Cape’s economic life in terms of “overproduction” must be empirically false, and conceptually absurd, since it is difficult to imagine any entrepreneurs who would continue to produce for a structurally glutted market, on which, presumably, they would continually be operating at a loss’.5. They suggest that the Cape economy was much more dynamic, and demonstrate a steady growth in the supply of, and demand for, the Cape’s agricultural products: a process that was driven to a large extent by the growth of its internal market
This involves the creation of a consumption basket that reflects the consumption pattern of South African labourers, as well as price series of products included in that basket, in order to construct a consumer price index (CPI)
Summary
In the recent debates on the long-term economic effects of colonial rule, the distinct performance of ‘settler’ versus ‘extraction’ colonies is often emphasized. South Africa, or the Cape Colony, as sub-Saharan Africa’s main settler colony, provides an interesting case for these debates. Pieter van Duin and Robert Ross argue that ‘any description of the Cape’s economic life in terms of “overproduction” must be empirically false, and conceptually absurd, since it is difficult to imagine any entrepreneurs who would continue to produce for a structurally glutted market, on which, presumably, they would continually be operating at a loss’.5 They suggest that the Cape economy was much more dynamic, and demonstrate a steady growth in the supply of, and demand for, the Cape’s agricultural products: a process that was driven to a large extent by the growth of its internal market.. Wage and price data were compiled from a variety of sources, and real wages were calculated using Robert Allen’s subsistence basket methodology.13 This allows the assessment of the Cape Colony’s economic performance in comparison with other parts of the world.
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