Source Material on the South African Economy: 1860-1970, Volume 2: 1899-1919¶
D. Hobart Houghton; Jenifer Dagut (n.d.). Source Material on the South African Economy: 1860-1970, Volume 2: 1899-1919. Source Material on the South African Economy (3 vols). Oxford University Press, Cape Town.
| Type | book |
| Scope | Economics and economic history of apartheid |
| Method | primary document |
| Period studied | 1886–1919 |
| Regions | Transvaal, Witwatersrand, Cape Colony, Natal, Orange River Colony/Orange Free State, Union of South Africa |
| Themes | origins segregation, mining migrant labour, agriculture land, manufacturing industrial policy, labour markets wages, inequality poverty unemployment, unions strikes, business and state, macro fiscal finance debt, demography urbanisation, methods data sources |
| Citation key | houghtonnd |
Argument¶
This is an edited reader of extracts from contemporary documents (government reports, commissions, statutes, travellers' and officials' accounts, Milner's letters, census and trade statistics) on the South African economy from the Gold Law of 1886 to the end of World War I. The editors' short introductions frame the extracts around the Anglo-Boer War dislocation, Milner's reconstruction and the 'overspill' theory, the post-war mine labour shortage and the Chinese labour solution, and white poverty ('poor whites', bywoners). They then follow customs and railway unification into Union in 1910, the early Union debates on white and coloured labour, and wartime inflation and industrial growth. The collection shows the labour-control architecture being built from gold-mining needs, state policy and racial ideology. It is a source book, not an argument, but it reveals the origins of the colour bar, the reserves/locations policy and the mining-capital versus white-labour conflict.
Evidence and method¶
Extracts from official reports (Transvaal Labour Commission 1903, SANAC 1903-5, Indigency Commission 1906-8, Mining Industry Commission 1907-8, Economic Commission 1914, Select Committee 1913, Disturbances Commission 1913, Cost of Living commissions), statutes (Gold Law 1886, Mines and Works Act 1911), censuses (1904, 1911, 1918, industrial 1915-16, agricultural 1918), the Milner Papers, The Times History of the War, Selborne Memorandum, Customs Union Convention, travellers' narratives and Lehfeldt's 1922 national income estimate.
Place in the debates¶
- Coloured (cheap) labour policy vs white labour policy on the mines (see The job colour bar, white labour and its erosion). Reprints the Mining Industry Commission's statement of both opposed policies and the 1913 Select Committee evidence, so both sides are represented; the editors take no position.
- Effect of wage cuts on mine labour supply after 1902 (see The mine migrant labour system: origins, recruitment, foreign labour and stabilisation). Presents the Chamber of Mines' belief that lower wages would lengthen stays, then the Mines Department and Labour Commission verdict that the cut was 'injudicious' and reduced supply.
- Cause of white poverty (poor whites/bywoners) (see Pre-Union colonial economy, the mineral revolution and the South African War). Reproduces the Indigency Commission's attribution to attitudes toward manual labour, land tenure and the African 'monopoly' of unskilled work, alongside war-related causes.
- Need for Asiatic indentured labour versus African supply (see The mine migrant labour system: origins, recruitment, foreign labour and stabilisation). Includes Milner's letters and Labour Commission findings that African supply was insufficient, with opposing views from labour and some mine leaders.
- Economic case for unification and protection (see Pre-Union colonial economy, the mineral revolution and the South African War). Supplies the Selborne Memorandum and Conacher report favouring unification, and the Transvaal Customs and Industries Commission's sceptical view of protection.
Findings¶
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Black labour shortage after the war: only 55,507 Africans were on the Rand in July 1903, with thousands of stamps idle. (p. 42)
the gold mines on the Witwatersrand had in their employment 55,507 natives
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Mine owners tried a coordinated wage cut in 1901-2 to 30s., a decision later recognised as counter-productive. (p. 84)
It was further decided to lower the wages, which competition had recently forced up to 45s. a month and over (exclusive of food and housing), to 30s.
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The 1886 Gold Law licensed only whites to dig, building racial restriction into the mining regime from the outset. (p. 25)
Every white person who subjects himself to the laws of the land, shall have the right to obtain a digger's licence at 20s. a month
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Chinese indentured labour restarted mines, as Milner and the Chamber of Mines turned to it as a solution to the shortage. (p. 94)
being thus the first mine to recommence production as a direct result of the importation of Chinese labour
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The Transvaal Labour Commission rejected compulsion and doubted that taxation compelled Africans into wage labour. (p. 99)
The value of taxation in compelling natives to seek work has been hitherto over-estimated.
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The Mining Commission posed the mine capital position, that cheap coloured labour allowed fast exploitation of mineral wealth, against the white labour policy. (p. 124)
First: That the interests of the State are best served by the mineral wealth of the country being turned into money as speedily as possible.
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The Indigency Commission described a caste-like labour order and tied white poverty to the presence of a coloured labouring population. (p. 110)
The system of slavery has simply given way to the system of caste.
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The poor-white problem was defined as a product of racial labour stratification, not ordinary poverty. (p. 112)
distinguished from the poorer classes in other countries, not by the character of their poverty, but by the fact that it is due to the presence of a coloured labouring population
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The Mines and Works Act 1911 regulations entrenched a statutory colour bar in skilled certification in the Transvaal and Orange Free State. (p. 128)
Certificates shall not be granted to any coloured person in the Transvaal and Orange Free State
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Mine wages for African workers were capped through an agreement between mines and the recruiting corporation. (p. 187)
If in any mine the average wage earned by the machine boys is higher than 2s. 3d. per shift the mine is liable to penalties
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After the 1913 strikes the Economic Commission noted the growth of African organisation and demands, via a Government inspector's testimony. (p. 190)
What they learnt in a week last July might in the ordinary way have taken them fifteen years to learn
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Lehfeldt (1922) described an 'absolute partition' of skilled white and unskilled black labour in mining. (p. 236)
there is in mining an almost absolute partition into so-called 'skilled' white hands, and 'unskilled' black
Evidence ledger¶
Sources used¶
| Source | Kind | Period | How used |
|---|---|---|---|
| Union Statistics for Fifty Years (gold output, railway/revenue tables) | official statistical series | 1899-1960 | Cited in the editors' introduction for Transvaal gold output in 1902-04 and Union revenue and expenditure in 1913. |
| Transvaal Administration Reports for 1902, Part I: Treasury Report (detailed statement of revenue, 1900-02) | commission or official report | 1900-1902 | Gives line-by-line Transvaal revenue for 1900-02 and shows the post-war expansion in customs revenue. |
| Transvaal Administration Reports 1902: Report by the Commissioner for Native Affairs | commission or official report | 1901-1902 | Supplies estimates of native mine labour before and after the war, the causes of the shortage, and the condition of Africans. |
| Transvaal Administration Reports 1902: Report of the Mines Department | commission or official report | 1899-1902 | Gives gold and coal output, stamps and employees, and the native workers series used for the mining recovery and wage-raise arguments. |
| Transvaal Administration Reports 1902: Customs Department Report | official statistical series | 1898-1902 | Provides merchandise import values for 1898, 1901 and 1902. |
| Statistics of the Transvaal Colony for the Years 1902-1907 (T.G. 25-'08) | official statistical series | 1902-1907 | Source of the 1904 census population, revenue and expenditure, mining output, railway, trade, colonial finance and employment/salary tables. |
| Census of British South Africa, April 1904 | population census | April 1904 | Shows area and population by colony and race, including the 1904 Transvaal population. |
| Report of the Transvaal Indigency Commission, 1906-8 (T.G. 13-'08) | commission or official report | 1906-1908 | Documents causes of indigency, the bywoner system and poor whites, with witness testimony and recommendations. |
| South African Native Affairs Commission 1903-5, vol. 1 Report | commission or official report | 1903-1905 | Supplies the estimated native labour demand and supply table and recommendations on land and labour. |
| Foreign Labour Department Annual Report, 1904-5 | commission or official report | 1904-1905 | Describes the legal framework, work, wages and food of Chinese indentured labourers. |
| Annual Report of the Government Mining Engineer, year ending 30 June 1907 | commission or official report | 1906-1907 | Source for labour conditions, the 1907 miners' strike chronology, and strike-month comparison figures. |
| Report of the Mining Industry Commission, 1907-8 | commission or official report | 1907-1908 | Sets out the opposed coloured-labour and white-labour policies and the Commission's conclusion. |
| Gold Law of the South African Republic, Law No. 8 of 1885 as amended 1886 | legislation gazette | 1885-1886 | Reproduces the clauses on state ownership of minerals, licences and the colour bar. |
| Mines and Works Act, No. 12 of 1911 | legislation gazette | 1911 | Shows the entrenchment of white certificated and blasting roles and exclusion of coloured persons. |
| Customs Union Convention, Bloemfontein, April 1903 | legislation gazette | 1903 | Gives the text of the Customs Union articles. |
| Report of the Proceedings of the South African Customs Conference, Pietermaritzburg, March 1906 | commission or official report | 1906 | Selborne's address, citing trade volume figures of 48 and 80 millions sterling. |
| Selborne Memorandum: A Review of the Present Mutual Relations of the British South African Colonies (Cd. 3564) | commission or official report | 1907 | Argues the economic case for unification, notably on railways, customs, labour and law. |
| Report by Mr. Conacher on Distribution of Oversea Traffic between the S. African Railways, 1908 | commission or official report | 1908 | Provides 1906 railway gross revenue and working expense figures and the benefits of centralization. |
| Inter-Colonial Conference Minutes and Agenda Papers, May 1908 | commission or official report | 1908 | Documents railway, customs and union agenda items and the resolutions leading to the National Convention. |
| Minutes of Railway Conference, Bloemfontein, March 1903 | commission or official report | 1903 | Records negotiations over through rates and reductions on foodstuffs. |
| Census 1911 Report (U.G. 32-1912), Tables 1-5 and Part V Occupations | population census | 7 May 1911 (with 1904 comparisons) | Provides population by race and province and occupation classes in 1911. |
| Report of the Commission on Trade and Industries, 1912 (U.G. 10-'12) | commission or official report | 1912 | Argues for protection and includes a retail price comparison table of South Africa, Britain and the US. |
| Report of the Select Committee on European Employment and Labour Conditions, 1913 (S.C. 9-'13) | commission or official report | 1913 | Gives findings on white labour with evidence from mining engineers on wages, costs and employment. |
| Report of the Witwatersrand Disturbances Commission, 1913 (Cd. 7112) | commission or official report | 1913 | Identifies proximate causes of the July 1913 disturbances from a legal viewpoint. |
| Report of the Economic Commission, 1914 (U.G. 12-'14) | commission or official report | 1913-1914 | Gives international comparisons of wages, cost of living, rents, family budgets and non-white wage systems. |
| Report of the Select Committee on the Industrial Disputes and Trade Unions Bill, 1914 (S.C. 10-'14) | commission or official report | 1914 | Lists trade unions operating in each province in 1914. |
| Statistics of Cost of Living, 1895 to May 1919 | official statistical series | 1895-1919 | Gives actual cost of a family regimen and purchasing power of a sovereign for 1914-19. |
| Report of the Special Commissioner on Cost of Living, 1916 (U.G. 39-1916) | commission or official report | 1916 | Estimates the 15 per cent rise in food and necessaries since 1914 and reports wage and rent changes. |
| Cost of Living Commission reports, 1919 (General Report U.G. 55-'18; Profits Report U.G. 1-'19) | commission or official report | 1917-1919 | Reports food supply estimates for 1918, a 1913 versus 1917 price comparison and recommendations on prices. |
| Census of the European or White Races of the Union, 1918 (U.G. 50-1919; U.G. 1-1921) | population census | 1865-1918 | Provides white population, density, urban/rural split, occupations and racial ratios. |
| Agricultural Census 1918 (U.G. 53-1919) | agricultural census | 1917-18 | Provides number and tenure of farms, area, crops and stock for 1918. |
| Report of the Acting Trade Commissioner for 1919 (U.G. 60-'20) | commission or official report | 1914-1919 | Documents wartime export trends for wattle bark, dried fruit, jam, wine and meat. |
| Lehfeldt, The National Resources of South Africa (1922) national income estimate for 1917-18 | secondary literature compilation | 1917-1918 | Builds a national income estimate by sector from agricultural, industrial census and tax data, and compares white and coloured income. |
| The Milner Papers, South Africa 1899-1905, vol. 2 (ed. Cecil Headlam) | secondary literature compilation | 1901-1905 | Milner's letters and despatches on stock, destruction, the overspill theory, Chinese labour and railways. |
| The Times History of the War in South Africa, vol. 6 (ed. L. S. Amery, 1909) | secondary literature compilation | 1901-1909 | Narrative of reconstruction, railway programme, labour crisis and later results. |
| Beak, The Aftermath of War (1906) incl. Orange River Colony Repatriation Department expenditure statement | secondary literature compilation | 1900-1905 | Describes farm burning and clearance, repatriation, and the cost of reconstruction to June 1905. |
| Creswicke (ed.), South Africa and Its Future (1903) | secondary literature compilation | 1881-1902 | Supplies Rand output, import values, trade and railway profitability and colonial statistics for 1899-1902. |
| Travellers' and journalistic accounts (Mathers 1888, Glanville 1888, Bellairs 1889, Fitzpatrick 1899, Bleloch 1901, Griffith 1903, Balfour Browne 1905, Fyfe 1911, Evans 1916) | newspapers periodicals | 1888-1916 | Contemporary impressions used as illustrations of Kruger's policies, the war boom, labour experiments and land tenure. |
| Report of the Transvaal Industrial Commission of Inquiry, 1897 (as quoted by Fitzpatrick) | commission or official report | 1897 | Quoted findings that the Government should aid the mining industry and abolish concessions. |
Inference¶
Quantification: Descriptive tables.
Source reader: the editors assemble verbatim and abridged extracts of official reports, statistical tables, legislation, letters and travellers' accounts, arranged chronologically and by theme with brief prefaces. They offer no analysis; claims rest on the documents themselves and on comparisons of tabulated figures across years and colonies.
Key claims¶
| Claim | Basis | Strength |
|---|---|---|
| The Anglo-Boer War caused severe dislocation in the republics, especially the Orange River Colony, but a war boom in the colonies. (p. 11) | Beak's account and the Transvaal Treasury and Mines Department reports for the republics; Creswicke and Griffith, with trade and shipping figures, for the colonies. | Partial data |
| The central constraint on the post-war recovery of the Transvaal mines was African labour supply, not capital or equipment. (p. 32) | Transvaal Labour Commission 1903 stamp and labour tables, the Mines Department native employment series and Lagden's native labour estimates. | Systematic data |
| Raising wages after the failed 1902 wage cut increased the native labour supply and the ratio of whites to coloured employees. (p. 78) | Mines Department 1902 report tables of natives at work and white/coloured ratios, plus Times History narrative. | Partial data |
| Chinese indentured labour restored mine output and profits after 1904. (p. 96) | Foreign Labour Department report, Transvaal employment series 1903-07 and gold output tables, and Milner's correspondence. | Partial data |
| Poor-white indigency stemmed from the war's impact on the bywoner class and the cultural aversion to unskilled work in a labour market monopolized by Africans. (p. 102) | Transvaal Indigency Commission 1906-8 and witness testimony, the Burgher Land Settlements report and Milner's remarks, with only crude headcounts. | Illustrative or anecdotal |
| Union and railway/customs unification were seen as economically necessary, though the benefits could not be quantified. (p. 129) | Selborne Memorandum, Conacher's report, the Customs Conference proceedings and the Customs and Industries Commission. | Asserted |
| The First World War raised the cost of living (about 15 per cent by 1916 and 31 per cent by 1917-18) without matching wage rises. (p. 192) | Special Commissioner's 1916 report, Census and Statistics cost-of-living series, and Cost of Living Commission data. | Systematic data |
| The war stimulated manufacturing growth and agricultural and export diversification (meat, jam, wattle bark), while white employees in factories grew more slowly than coloured ones. (p. 226) | Industrial Census 1915-16 to 1919-20, Agricultural Census 1918, the Trade Commissioner's report and Lehfeldt's survey. | Systematic data |
The author's caveats¶
The editors say little about data quality. They note in the preface that selection was limited by space and copyright, that recent statistics are more easily found in government publications, and that extracts concentrate on problem areas. Some quoted sources note their own limits, such as the Industrial Census's warning on the unreliable 1904 and 1911 comparisons and the Native Affairs Commission's remark on the absence of reliable statistics.
Gaps in the evidence¶
As a source reader the work offers no independent analysis, and its quantitative claims depend on the selected extracts. Mine-level wage and labour series, Chamber of Mines and WNLA archives, and company records, which existed then and survive in archives, would better test claims on labour supply and profitability. Systematic farm-level and household data on poor whites and African incomes were largely absent at the time, though later censuses and archival returns allow reconstruction. Tabulated figures were also often compiled by interested parties (Chamber of Mines, officials), so the claims could be tested against independent trade and customs data.
Replicability: Data described but not public.