150 YEARS OF ECONOMIC CONTACT BETWEEN BLACK AND WHITE.

• Date: 01 December 1934
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1813-6982.1934.tb03010.x
• Published date: 01 December 1934

v0

YEARS

OF

ECONOMIC

BETWEEN

BLACK

AND

CONTACT

WHITE.

A

PRELIMINARY

SURVEY.

ECONOMIC

contact between Bantu and European has

two

main

aspects, the broadly co-operative and the broadly competitive.

A

directly co-operative aspect emerges when members of each race

jointly take part in the production

of

commodities.

This

usually

fakes the

form

of

the employment of Native workers by Europeans.

An

indirectly co-operative aspect emerges in the form of trade.

An

essentially competitive aspect

is

the struggle for the control

of natural resources. The results

of

this

struggle may, however,

lead to the establishment of new economic relationships

of

the

former type-Natives having been

worsted

in their attempts to

retain sufficient land

for

carrying on their accustomed pastoral

and agricultural pursuits may, as

a

result, be forced to participate

more directly in the economic system of the Europeans, and earn

their

living

by accepting employment from Europeans. There

is

but scanty material available for accurately determining the

strength, and more particularly the reactions one upon another,

of

the different forces. In this preliminary survey,

it

will only be

possible to indicate

in

a

general way some of the main factors in the

history

of

the economic contact of the two races.

It

was

the intention of the Dutch

East

India Company, in

making

a

settIement

at

the Cape, to limit contact with any

of

the

aboriginal races as much as possible. This policy early broke

down as regards relations with the Hottentots, but there is little

doubt that the local administrators, though irked

at

times by the

limitations

it

imposed upon them, did their best to enforce it.

It

was, therefore, inevitable that such early contact as developed with

the Bantu was largely untrammelled by Government control. This

was made the more certain by the fact that the dispersal of the

Boers eastward, which occasioned the

first

extended contact,

was

contrary

to

the desires

of

the government, which could undertake

neither the expense nor the responsibility involved.

The celebrated

"

cattle-bartering

''

quarrel between parties

of

Xhosas and Europeans, each

of

which had made their way, from

opposite directions, into the territory between the

Gamtnos

and

404

THE

SOUTH

AFRICAN

JOURNAL

OF ECONOMICS

the Kei rivers in

1702,

marks the beginning of Bantu-European

economic relations. Nevertheless,

it

was not until nearly the end

of

the eighteenth century that the problems

of

contact became

urgent.

When they did, it was the problem of the conflict of pastoralists

for

grazing which was uppermost. The company’s monopolistic

trade policy gave no incentive for the Dutch free burghers to remain

in

the neighbourhood and farm for the Cape Town market.

So

they

scattered further and further afield to carry on farming almost

solely for their

own

subsistence. Unwillingly, Government followed

them, but never quite caught up. Landdrostdies were established

at

Swellendam and later at Grsaff-Reinet. Meanwhile, Governor

van Plettenberg had in

1778

planted a beacon near the site

of

Colesberg

to

mark the north-eastern boundary

of

the Colony, and

concluded a treaty with

minor

Xhosa chiefs fixing the Fish River

as

the boundary between Native and European territory. Contact

was bound

to

be continuous now that an area of white marched

with an area

of

black occupation.

Not only were attempts made to avoid collision by a definitive

agreement on a boundary, but repeated attempts were made to avoid

occasions of conflict by a prohibition of intercourse. Following

placaats

of

1727, 1739

and

1770,

van Plettenberg and his council

had issued

a

proclamation

in

1774,

which stated that anyone

bartering with the kafEirs

was

declared a violator

of

the public

peace,

and was punishable with confiscation, corporal punishment

or

death,

at the discretion

of

the court

!

The multiplication

of

the

plucauts

is

an

index

of

their ineffectiveness.

It

was

impossible

to

aecure the non-intercourse van Plettenberg

had desired. There was continuous pressure on the Colony’s

borders

by

farmers pushing outwards. There was surely room for

closer settlement within the boundaries of such an extended colony

for a European population

of

about

15,000.

But the ease with

which fresh land could be procured-the tenure

of

a

1eeningsplnat.s

was in practice secure and the cost was nominal-and the lack

of

markets led

to

a

natural economic preference being given to taking

over unoccupied land for cattle-farming rather than attempting to

cultivate the

soil

more fully. The employment

of

slave

or

Hottentot

labour increased this urge for territorial expansion, as

it

made

wage-labour still leas attractive

for

Europeans, whose

only

thought,