Probing the legacy of the Cape Colony
The Cape Colony was established by the Dutch East India Company in 1652 with the initial aim of providing a refuelling station for passing ships, but over time the colony expanded and the European population grew. We spoke to Professor Erik Green about his research into how the settler economy evolved, its impact on indigenous people, and its long-term legacy.
The Cape Colony on the southern tip of Africa was established by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in 1652, and the early pioneers were subsequently followed by further European migrants, mainly from the Netherlands. The initial intention was to establish a refuelling station for ships passing around the Cape of Good Hope, but over time more settlements were established further inland from Cape Town. “Around 1660/1670 the VOC allowed small groups of Europeans to settle inland of Cape Town in Stellenbosch, then later on in Franschoek and Drakenstein. The VOC needed these settlers to supply wheat and meat to the passing ships, as they still had problems trading with the indigenous Khoesan people,” explains Erik Green, Associate Professor in the Department of Economic History at Lund University. The plan was not to expand the colony, but once Europeans had been allowed to settle further inland, it started off a kind of self-perpetuating process. “Settlements just expanded and expanded, in search of new land,” says Professor Green.
Economic impact
As Principal Investigator of a research project based at Lund University, Professor Green is now looking at how the Cape Colony was initially established and then grew over the period between 1660-1840, as well its wider economic impact and legacy. This research involves analysing several sources of data, including slave records and annual tax censuses, which Professor Green says provide very detailed, household-level information
on people from a European background.
“This includes how many cattle they own, their livestock, wagons and amount of crops produced. There’s also data on the assets they hold, right down to the numbers of candles.
This allows for a detailed understanding of wealth accumulation in this part of the population,” he outlines. The project team also have access to information on the indigenous Khoesan population. “We have
information from the early part of the 19th century, roughly 1800-1840. Most of the information comes from missionary stations, where the Khoesan lived in freedom,” continues Professor Green.
Researchers in the project are also analysing observations on wages for the Khoesan working for European farmers over the period 1800-1820. This information is pretty scattered, and covers a relatively short
period, yet Professor Green says it still holds a lot of interest. “We’re able to compare the wages paid to Khoesan farm workers with those of Europeans who were being employed as servants to the company,” he outlines. While the data shows that on average Khoesan people earned much less than their European counterparts, there were exceptions. “A few Khoesan people seem to have earned more, and some were in fact fairly wealthy. We have identified around 40 or 50 Khoesan that were as wealthy as the average European farmer,” says Professor Green. “The VOC was a very weak authority – it ran a deficit every year throughout its presence in the Cape – and found it difficult to enforce rules, especially in the frontier regions. So decisions about wages and contracts were really taken by the individual Khoesan and the individual European farmer.”
The only data available on these more prosperous Khoesan people is their name and their wealth, so it’s very difficult to explain why they managed to do as well as they did. It’s also difficult to draw clear inferences about the wealth of individual Europeans, as the data presents quite a complex overall picture. “If you look at the
project is about using the Cape colony and the rich source material that we have on it to contribute to wider debates about questions around colonialism, inequality and the rule of law,” outlines Professor Green. The history of the Cape Colony can also tell researchers much about how colonies were established across the new world, and how labour was divided and rewarded to support economic development, a topic that Professor Green is exploring in the project. “I’m working on papers where we try to convince scholars that the history of the Cape Colony holds wider relevance,” he continues.
History of the Khoesan
The project’s research will also shed new light on the history of the Khoesan, a group that is still largely neglected in contemporary public debate around issues like redistribution of resources and land reform. While the African National Congress (ANC) – which forms part of the ruling coalition in modern South Africa following recent elections – has stated its commitment to land redistribution, the Khoesan are still marginalised to some extent. “Land dispossession that happened in the 18th century is not considered a
“Some of the research in the project is about using the Cape colony and the rich source material that we have on it to contribute to wider debates about questions around colonialism, inequality and the rule of law.”
annual wealth of the European farmers, we see that the numbers are extremely volatile. If we group them in percentiles according to their wealth, we see that they move across these boundaries on a very significant scale,” says Professor Green. A good year could be followed by quite a challenging year; Professor Green is investigating the importance of weather patterns in this respect. “We have annual rainfall data, and we’re working together with geographers in Johannesburg to see the extent to which annual volatility in output can be explained by rainfall patterns,” he continues. “Crops can be quite vulnerable in bad weather, not only to rainfall, but also to very strong winds.”
This work will help Professor Green and his colleagues in the project build a highly detailed picture of the Cape Colony, and reconstruct how relations between colonisers and indigenous people developed over time. Researchers are currently working on a number of papers, with some focused on the history of the Cape Colony, while others are wider in scope. “Some of the research in the
THE EsTablisHm EnT, Grow TH and lEGaC y of a sETTlEr Colony
The establishment, growth and legacy of a settler colony: Quantitative panel studies of the political economy of Cape Colony
Project objectives
This research program aims to contribute to the large literature on colonialism and global inequality by – for the first time – using big data and machine learning techniques to analyze the roots and gradual development of a settler economy - the Cape Colony - its institutions and their impact on growth, inequality, and welfare over time and space.
Project funding
Funded by Riksbankens Jubeliumsfond (2021-2026, 29 425 000 SEK, Dnr: M20-0041)
Project Partners
Stellenbosch University • Utrecht University • Leiden University • Massachusetts Institute of Technology • University of Colorado • University of California, Davis
Contact details
Project Coordinator, Erik Green Senior lecturer, Associate Professor Senior lecturer, Department of Economic History Senior lecturer, Economic development of the Global South Department of economic history, Lund University
P. O. Box 7083
220 07 Lund
Sweden
T: +46 736 816900
E: erik.green@ekh.lu.se w: https://portal.research.lu.se/en/projects/ the-establishment-growth-and-legacy-of-asettler-colony-quantitat
Professor Erik Green
matter for contemporary politics. Khoesan claims to land are still something of a nogo zone in South African politics,” explains Professor Green. By analysing material from the missionary stations and the data on Khoesan farm labourers, Professor Green will help make the history of the Khoesan people more visible. “The Khoesan people have lived in South Africa for a very long time. We want to shine a light on this history,” he says.
This work is very much ongoing, and new sources of information on the Khoesan people have come to light, which Professor Green hopes to explore in future. Alongside searching for more sources of information, Professor Green also hopes to incorporate the data that has been gathered into a longer timescale, building a fuller picture of the history of the Khoesan right up to the early part of the 20th century. “The only problem is that we have a gap between roughly 18401880, where we don’t have individual-level information. We need to find ways to deal with that gap,” he says.
Erik Green is an associate professor in economic history. His area of expertise is the economic history of colonial SubSaharan Africa, which a focus on agrarian change, labour relations, inequality and long-term structural change. He has published extensively on issues related to agrarian change, rural labour relations, slavery and economic and sectoral change in southern, eastern and western Africa.
Painting of indigenous Khoesan people and European settlers in southwestern Cape, c. mid-18th century.