Part 2: Early business development in Hermanus

Writer: Dr Robin Lee.

In Part 1 of this article, we looked at the earliest moves towards developing businesses in Hermanus, and how they gained momentum in the late 1800s when original settler families, who had arrived as fishermen, entered the property market and bought sites.

From the information available for the period 1895 –1915, three important facts can be identified:

First, Mosselrivier Farm was a farm in name only. No one was actually farming it. Thus, it was easier for the Colonial Government to proclaim parts of the land as 'commonage' and allow the Village Management to survey and sell plots. In this way, the land was available for businesses.

Secondly, the early families were familiar with the capitalist economy, either from experience in their home countries or from their time at the Cape. Third, there was no other economic model available, and no organised grouping opposed the shift into a capitalist system. These facts are essential to the later history of the economy of our region.

Click below to read more. (The full article can be found on page 4)