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  • Cited by 186
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
June 2012
Print publication year:
2005
Online ISBN:
9781139165457

Book description

This book is the first economic history of South Africa in over sixty years. Professor Charles H. Feinstein offers an authoritative survey of five hundred years of South African economic history from the years preceding European settlements in 1652 through to the post-Apartheid era. He charts the early phase of slow growth, and then the transformation of the economy as a result of the discovery of diamonds and gold in the 1870s, followed by the rapid rise of industry in the wartime years. The final chapters cover the introduction of apartheid after 1948, and its consequences for economic performance. Special attention is given to the processes by which the black population were deprived of their land, and to the methods by which they were induced to supply labour for white farms, mines and factories. This book will be essential reading for students in economics, African history, imperial history and politics.

Reviews

'An Economic History of South Africa [is] an excellent overview of the county's history. it will be of interest to anyone who wants an introduction to South Africa. It would be a shame if the readership of this accessible volume were confined to those studying economic history, for no one reading this book will doubt the difficult legacy of social inequality and economic injustice inherited by the post-apartheid South African government.'

Source: Economic History Review

'… an authoritative work destined for the student in the fields of (South) African economics, history and politics.'

Source: The Journal of Modern African Studies

'… a masterful contribution to our understanding of the interplay between the processes of conquest, discrimination and economic development in South Africa up until the advent of democracy in 1994. … this book is essential.'

Source: Journal of African History

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Contents

Guide to further reading
References
Books and articles on South Africa
Agar-Hamilton, J. A. I., The native policy of the voortrekkers, 1836–1858, Cape Town: M. Miller, 1928.
Bhorat, Haroon, et al. (eds.), Fighting poverty: labour markets and inequality in South Africa, Cape Town: University of Cape Town Press, 2001.
Biesheuvel, S., ‘Black industrial labour in South Africa’, SAJE, 42, 1974, 292–311.
Bleloch, William Edwin, The new South Africa, its value and development, London: Heinemann, 1901.
Bromberger, Norman, ‘South African unemployment: a survey of research’, in Simkins, Charles and Desmond, Cosmas (eds.), South African unemployment: a black picture, Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal, Development Studies Research Group, 1978, 3–25.
Chamber of Mines of South Africa, 96th Annual Report, Johannesburg: Chamber of Mines, 1985.
Crankshaw, Owen, Race, class and the changing division of labour under apartheid, London: Routledge, 1997.
Kiewiet, C. W., A history of South Africa, social and economic, London: Oxford University Press, 1941.
Kock, Gerhard, ‘The new South African business cycle and its implications for monetary policy’, SAJE, 48, 1980, 349–58.
Kock, M. H., Selected subjects in the economic history of South Africa, Cape Town: Juta, 1924.
Delius, Peter, The land belongs to us: the Pedi polity, the Boers and the British in the nineteenth-century TransvaalJohannesburg: Ravan Press, 1983.
Development Bank of Southern Africa, South Africa, an inter-regional profile, Midrand: Development Bank of Southern Africa, 1991.
Development Bank of Southern Africa, South Africa's nine provinces, Midrand: Development Bank of Southern Africa, 1994.
du Plessis, J. C., ‘Investment and the balance of payments of South Africa’, SAJE, 35, 1965, 311–40.
Etherington, Norman, The great treks: the transformation of southern Africa, 1815–1854, Harlow: Longman, 2001.
Frankel, S. Herbert, Capital investment in Africa, its course and effects, London: Oxford University Press, 1938.
Frankel, S. Herbert, Investment and the return to equity capital in the South African gold mining industry, Oxford: Blackwell, 1967.
Franzen, D. G., and J. J. D. Willers, ‘Capital accumulation and economic growth in South Africa’, in Goldsmith, R. and Saunders, C. (eds.), The measurement of wealth, Income and Wealth series VIII, London: Bowes & Bowes, 1959, 293–322.
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Hunter, Monica, Reaction to conquest, Cape Town: David Philip, 1979.
Hurwitz, Nathan, and Williams, Owen, The economic framework of South Africa, Pietermaritzburg: Shuter & Shuter, 1962.
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Leary, P. M., and Lewis, J. E. S., ‘Some observations on the state of nutrition of infants and toddlers in Sekhukhuniland’, South African Medical Journal, 39, 1965, 1156–8.
Legassick, Martin, ‘Legislation, ideology and economy in post-1948 South Africa’, JSAS, 1, 1974, 5–35.
Legassick, Martin,‘Gold, agriculture, and secondary industry in South Africa, 1885–1970: from periphery to sub-metropole as a forced labour system’, in Palmer, Robin and Parsons, Neil (eds.), The roots of rural poverty, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977, 175–200.
Lehfeldt, R. A., The national resources of South Africa, Johannesburg: University of the Witwatersrand Press, 1922.
Lewis, Stephen R., The economics of apartheid, New York: Council of Foreign Relations Press, 1990.
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Lomard, J., et al., Industrialisation and Growth, Johannesburg: Mercabank, 1985.
Maasdorp, Gavin, ‘Unemployment in South Africa and its implications’, in Schlemmer, Lawrence and Webster, Eddie (eds.), Change, reform and economic growth in South Africa, Johannesburg: Ravan Press, 1978, 139–48.
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Nattrass, Jill, The South African economy, its growth and change, 2nd edn, Cape Town: Oxford University Press, 1988.
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Shell, Robert C.-H., Children of bondage, a social history of the slave society at the Cape of Good Hope, 1652–1838, Hanover, NH: Wesleyan University Press, 1994.
Smith, F. B., Some observations upon the probable effect of the closer union of South Africa upon agriculture, Pretoria: Government Printer, 1908.
Simkins, Charles, ‘Agricultural production in the African reserves of South Africa, 1918–1969’, JSAS, 7, 1981, 256–83.
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Trollope, A., South Africa, reprint of 1878 edn, ed. Davidson, J. H., Cape Town: A. A. Balkema, 1973.
van Aardt, C. J., and J. L. van Tonder with J. L. Sadie, A projection of the South African population, 1996–2021, Research Report 270, University of South Africa, Bureau of Market Research, Pretoria, 1999.
Horst, Sheila, Native labour in South Africa, London: Oxford University Press, 1942.
van der Vliet, Virginia, ‘Growing up in traditional society’, in Hammond-Tooke, W. D. (ed.), The Bantu-speaking peoples of Southern Africa, 2nd edn, London: Routledge, 1974, 211–45.
Dijk, Michiel, ‘South African manufacturing performance in international perspective, 1970–99’, SAJE, 71, 2003, 119–42.
van Riebeeck, Jan, Journal of Jan van Riebeeck, ed. Thom, H. B., 3 vols., Cape Town: A. A. Balkema for the Van Riebeeck Society, 1952–8.
Van Riebeeck Society, The reports of Chavonnes and his council and of Van Imhoff, on the Cape, Cape Town: Van Riebeeck Society, vol. 1, 1918.
van Wyk, H. de J., Personal disposable income in South Africa by population group, income group and district, 2000, Research Report 279, University of South Africa, Bureau of Market Research, Pretoria, 2000.
Verwoerd, Hendrik Frensch, Verwoerd speaks, speeches 1948–1966, ed. Pelzer, A. N., Johannesburg: APB Publishers, 1966.
Viljoen, S. P., ‘The industrial achievement of South Africa’, SAJE, 51, 1983, 29–57.
Walker, Eric A., Historical atlas of South Africa, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1922.
Walker, Eric A. (ed.), Cambridge history of the British Empire, vol. 8, South Africa, 2nd edn, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1963.
Wilson, Francis, Labour in the South African gold mines, 1911–1969, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972.
Wilson, Monica, and Thompson, Leonard (ed.), The Oxford history of South Africa, vols. 1 and 2, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969, 1971.
Witwatersrand Chamber of Mines, Industrial Commission of Enquiry, Evidence and Report, Johannesburg: Witwatersrand Chamber of Mines, 1897.
Wolpe, Harold, ‘Capitalism and cheap labour power in South Africa: from segregation to apartheid,’ in Wolpe, Harold (ed.), The articulation of modes of production, London: Routledge, 1980, 289–320.
Wolseley, Garnet, The South African journal of Sir Garnet Wolseley, ed. Preston, Adrian, 1879–1880, Cape Town: A. A. Balkema, 1973.
Worden, Nigel, Heyningen, Elizabeth, and Bickford-Smith, Vivian, Cape Town, the making of a city, Cape Town: David Philip, 1998.
World Bank, South African agriculture, Discussion Paper 6, Washington, DC: World Bank, 1994.
Other books and articles
Acemoglu, Daron, Johnson, Simon, and Robinson, James A., ‘The colonial origins of comparative development’, American Economic Review, 91, 2001, 1369–401.
Baldwin, Robert E., ‘Patterns of development in newly settled regions’, Manchester School of Economic and Social Studies, 24, 1956, 161–79.
Brown, Henry Phelps, The inequality of pay, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977.
Davis, Ralph, The industrial revolution and British overseas trade, Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1979.
Domar, E., ‘The causes of slavery or serfdom: a hypothesis’, Journal of Economic History, 30, 1970, 18–32.
Eatwell, John, Milgate, Murray, and Newman, Peter (eds.), The new Palgrave, a dictionary of economics, London: Macmillan, 1987.
Iliffe, John, Africans, The history of a continent, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
International Monetary Fund, Yearbook of International Financial Statistics, annual.
Keynes, John Maynard, Collected works, Vol. 9 Essays in persuasion, London: Macmillan, 1972.
Lewis, W. Arthur, Growth and fluctuations, 1870–1913, London: George Allen & Unwin, 1978.
McEvedy, Colin, and Jones, Richard, Atlas of world population history, London: Allen Lane, 1978.
Maddison, Angus, The world economy: a millennial perspective, Paris: OECD, Development Centre Studies, 2001.
Manning, Patrick, Slavery and African life: occidental, oriental, and African slave trades, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
Nieboer, H. J., Slavery as an industrial system: ethnological researches, The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1900.
Rockoff, H., ‘Some evidence on the real price of gold, its costs of production, and commodity prices’, in Bordo, M. D. and Schwartz, A. J. (eds.), A retrospective on the classical gold standard 1821–1931, Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1984.
Routh, Guy, Occupation and pay in Great Britain, 1906–70, 2nd edn, London: Macmillan, 1980.
World Bank, World development indicators, 2003, Washington, DC: World Bank, 2003.
Official publications
South Africa
Statistical abstracts, year books, and other official publications
Board of Trade and Industries, Report No. 282, Investigation into manufacturing industries in the Union of South Africa, 1945.
Bureau of Census and Statistics, Census of industrial establishments, 1948/49 to 1949/50.
Bureau of Census and Statistics, Union Statistics for Fifty Years, 1910–1960, 1960.
Department of Agriculture and Forestry, Report of the reconstruction committee, 1944–45.
Department of Labour, Report for the year ended 31 December 1955, 1956–7.
Department of Statistics, then Central Statistical Service, then Statistics South Africa, South African Statistics, biennial from 1970 to 1995, annual from 2001.
Republic of South Africa, House of Assembly, Debates.
Republic of South Africa, Senate, Debates.
South African Reserve Bank, Quarterly Bulletin.
Statistics South Africa, October household survey, 1996, 1999.
Statistics South Africa, Unemployment and employment in South Africa, 1998.
Union Office of Census and Statistics, Official Year Book, annual from 1917.
Reports of commissions
T.G. (Transvaal Government) 2 – 1908, Transvaal Mining Industry Commission, 1907–08, Evidence and Report.
T.G. 13 – 1908, Transvaal Indigency Commission, 1906–8, Report.
U.G. (Union of South Africa) 10 – 1912, Trade and Industries Commission (Cullinan), Report.
T.P. (Province of Transvaal) 1 – 1922, Transvaal Local Government Commission (Stallard), Report.
U.G. 36 – 1925, Mining Regulations Commission (Pittman), Report.
U.G. 14 – 1926, Economic and Wage Commission (Clay), Report.
U.G. 22 – 1932, Native Economic Commission (Holloway), Report.
U.G. 5 – 1936, Customs Tariff Commission (Holloway), Report.
U.G. 40 – 1941, The Industrial and Agricultural Requirement Commission (van Eck), Third Interim Report.
U.G. 21 – 1944, Witwatersrand Mine Natives' Wages Commission (Lansdown), Report.
U.G. 32 – 1946, Social and Economic Planning Council, Report No. 9, Native reserves and their place in the economy of the Union of South Africa.
U.G. 28 – 1948, Native Laws Commission of Enquiry (Fagan), Report.
U.G. 61 – 1955, Commission for the Socio-Economic Development of the Bantu areas within the Union of South Africa (Tomlinson), Report.
U.G. 36 – 1958, Commission of Inquiry into Policy relating to the Protection of Industries (Viljoen), Report.
R.P. (Republic of South Africa) 19 – 1972, Commission of Inquiry into Agriculture (Marais/Du Plessis), Third (Final) Report.
R.P. 69 – 1972, Commission of Inquiry into the Export Trade of the Republic of South Africa (Reynders), vols. 1 and 2, Reports.
R.P. 32 – 1979, Commission of Inquiry into Legislation Affecting the Utilization of Manpower (Riekert), Report.
R.P. 47 – 1979, Commission of Inquiry into Labour Legislation (Wiehahn), Report.
United Kingdom Command Papers
Correspondence relating to the Natives Land Act, 1913, Cd. 7508, pp 1914, LIX.
Further correspondence respecting the affairs of South Africa, C. 2000, pp 1878, LV, No. 12.

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