2013
DOI: 10.1111/saje.12010
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GDP in the Dutch Cape Colony: The National Accounts of a Slave‐Based Society

Abstract: New estimates of the gross domestic product of the Dutch Cape Colony (1652‐1795) suggest that the Cape was one of the most prosperous regions during the eighteenth century. This stands in sharp contrast to the perceived view that the Cape was an “economic and social backwater,” a slave economy with slow growth and little progress. Following a national accounts framework, we find that Cape settlers' per capita income is similar to the most prosperous countries of the time – Holland and England. We trace the roo… Show more

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Cited by 49 publications
(32 citation statements)
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“…Recent scholarship has raised doubts about this stereotypical view of the Cape Colony: Fourie (2012) and Fourie and Uys (2012) use probate inventories to show that 18th century Cape settlers owned, on average, greater quantities of luxuries and commodities than many of their European counterparts; De Zwart (2011) and Du Plessis and Du Plessis (2012) show, using price and wage data, that real wages in the Cape Colony were increasing at rates above those in Europe; and Fourie and Van Zanden (2012) calculate the GDP growth rate for the 18th century at 2.1% annually.…”
Section: Development In the Cape Colony And Beyondmentioning
confidence: 98%
“…Recent scholarship has raised doubts about this stereotypical view of the Cape Colony: Fourie (2012) and Fourie and Uys (2012) use probate inventories to show that 18th century Cape settlers owned, on average, greater quantities of luxuries and commodities than many of their European counterparts; De Zwart (2011) and Du Plessis and Du Plessis (2012) show, using price and wage data, that real wages in the Cape Colony were increasing at rates above those in Europe; and Fourie and Van Zanden (2012) calculate the GDP growth rate for the 18th century at 2.1% annually.…”
Section: Development In the Cape Colony And Beyondmentioning
confidence: 98%
“…Often, however, these writers are guilty of what Gareth Austin has labelled a 'compression of history' (Austin 2008). Economic historians have only recently begun to challenge this linear and deterministic approach to history by quantitatively investigating Africa's long-run economic performance (Fourie and van Zanden 2012, Jerven 2010, 2011a, 2011b, Smits 2006). …”
Section: Introductionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Furthermore, in an attempt to expand the contrast of my indirect output per head estimates, I have carried out comparisons between my estimates and those available for individual countries: Jerven's (2011a) for Ghana, Fourie and van Zanden's (2012) for South Africa, and Bigtsen's (1986) for Kenya. In the case of South Africa, my 'econometric' estimates closely match the trends in Fourie and van Zanden's series.…”
mentioning
confidence: 99%
“…However, extensive colonial records are available for this period, and have recently been utilised to produce estimates of GDP per capita reaching back to 1870 for most African countries and further in a couple of cases. The most ambitious study is Fourie and van Zanden's (2013) paper on South African GDP, which shows much higher per capita GDP levels in the pre-1870 period than suggested by Maddison (2010). Although Fourie and van Zanden's estimates are only for the Cape Colony, they do not differ by very much from Maddison's conjectural estimates for South Africa as a whole between 1870 and 1913.…”
Section: African Growth and Development 1700-2008mentioning
confidence: 99%
“…However, the Cape economy was subject to reversals, particularly in the 1710s, the 1780s, and through the early nineteenth century. These crises were linked to external factors interfering with international trade, such as warfare in the 1710s and 1780s, and also to internal factors such as a smallpox epidemic in the 1710s (Fourie and van Zanden 2013). This pattern of booms and busts, largely linked to international trade, is also apparent from the "indirect" estimates of GDP per capita produced by Prados de la Escosura (2012) for the same sample of countries as Maddison (2010) export unit values.…”
Section: African Growth and Development 1700-2008mentioning
confidence: 99%