Labour and Other Questions in South Africa: Being Mainly Considerations on the Rational and Profitable Treatment of the Coloured Races Living There¶
Indicus (1909). Labour and Other Questions in South Africa: Being Mainly Considerations on the Rational and Profitable Treatment of the Coloured Races Living There. T. Fisher Unwin.
| Type | book |
| Scope | Economics and economic history of apartheid |
| Method | primary document |
| Period studied | 1902-12–1903-03 |
| Regions | Natal, Transvaal, Orange River Colony, Cape Colony, Mozambique and East African coast |
| Themes | origins segregation, mining migrant labour, labour markets wages, agriculture land, business and state, politics ideology elections, demography urbanisation |
| Citation key | indicus1909 |
Argument¶
An Anglo-Indian commercial traveller records conversations from a tour of South Africa just after the Anglo-Boer War. He argues that the region is in practice a 'black country' whose progress rests on coloured labour (Africans and especially Indians), while white colonists refuse hard manual work and keep skilled trades for themselves. He holds that the mines' 'labour difficulty' is a product of low wages, and that the mining magnates want forced or indentured labour (including Chinese) to work poor-grade ore profitably. He criticises restrictions on Indians and Africans (passes, curfews, bans on land-holding and trade) as unjust and economically self-defeating. He also argues that the Dutch will eventually dominate politically and that the colonies profit from wars paid for by the British taxpayer. The method is an episodic travel diary of reported interviews, with a twelve-point summary at the end.
Evidence and method¶
The author's own observations and conversations (shipboard passengers, officials, mine officials, artisans, planters, Indian traders and workers, Boers, clergy) on a December 1902 to March 1903 tour. It includes many scattered wage, price, rent and population figures, plus newspaper reports. Sources are mostly anonymous, and the author warns that informants are biased.
Place in the debates¶
- Cause of the post-war mine labour shortage (low wages vs African unwillingness to work) (see The mine migrant labour system: origins, recruitment, foreign labour and stabilisation). Attributes the shortage mainly to low and reduced wages and to magnates' tactics, not to any lack of available labour; rejects the case for compulsion.
- Forced labour, indenture and Chinese importation for the mines (see The mine migrant labour system: origins, recruitment, foreign labour and stabilisation). Strongly opposed; regards indenture and compound schemes as 'slavery hidden under a thin veil of hypocrisy' and expects them to follow from the poor-grade ore economics.
- Colour bar and white labour (is South Africa a 'white man's country'?) (see The job colour bar, white labour and its erosion). Argues the real barrier to white manual labour is colour, not wage levels, and that restrictions on coloured labour drive up the cost of living and block development.
- Imperial responsibility for the native/Indian question and the colonies' dependence on British finance (see Pre-Union colonial economy, the mineral revolution and the South African War). Holds the Indian Government and Britain should protect Indians (e.g. by stopping emigration to Natal) and that colonists profit from wars the British taxpayer funds.
Findings¶
-
Informant on Rand mine labour costs: white labour is uneconomic for the low-grade ore, while African miners are paid a fraction of white wages. (p. 12)
Kaffirs, whose mining efficiency, compared with the white man, may be taken as three to five, will on the average work for two shillings a day.
-
Mine officials concede that low wages produced high dividends and the present shortage. (p. 41)
They, however, admitted that high dividends had been the result of the low wages, which had led to the present labour difficulty.
-
Quantifies the immediate post-war recruiting shortfall as reported by an official of the Chamber of Mines. (p. 36)
At present 150,000 natives are wanted for the mines, and only 5,000 or so a month are coming in, against which about 2,000 leave.
-
Author argues that colour, not wages, is what stops white men doing hard manual work. (p. 56)
It is not a question of wages, but colour.
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Describes the wage gap and job reservation on the ground, with whites paid five times as much for the same work. (p. 98)
ten shillings a day precisely the same work for which the Kaffirs working alongside of them were paid two shillings.
-
Reports African mine wages under the compound system after the post-war cut had been reversed. (p. 138)
They now get the original pay that was reduced after the war, and it runs from IS. 3d. to 3s. a day, besides food and lodging
-
Reports rough numbers of Indians in Natal, on a scale comparable to whites, as the basis for the claim that Natal depends on Indian labour. (p. 61)
there are 50,000 British Indians, of whom 35,000 are free
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Indian informants and the author credit Indian agriculture and labour with creating Natal's commercial horticulture. (p. 67)
Until the Indians arrived not a cabbage was grown.
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Reports that Cape Town's coloured people had franchise and property rights and no curfew, in contrast to Natal and the Transvaal. (p. 128)
They can all own land and have votes, even Kaffirs.
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Summary conclusion that coloured labour carries the colonial economy. (p. 148)
the hard manual labour is done by coloured races
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Argues that the colonies' prosperity derived from war spending rather than productive enterprise. (p. 149)
have grown extremely rich on the late war
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Argues that the economics of low-grade Transvaal gold ore underlie the labour question and the push for forced labour. (p. 154)
that the gold-bearing mines in the Transvaal yield only very poor grade ore
Evidence ledger¶
Sources used¶
| Source | Kind | Period | How used |
|---|---|---|---|
| Author's travel notes and conversations with passengers, colonists, officials and officers, Dec 1902–Mar 1903 | author survey or fieldwork | December 1902 – March 1903 | Supplies nearly all the observations and opinions on labour, race, wages, prices and politics on which the book's conclusions rest. |
| Conversation with an official of the Johannesburg Chamber of Mines (labour question) | interviews oral history | 1903 | Gives the claimed numbers of natives needed, monthly recruitment inflow and Chamber labour spending, plus the white union-labour count. |
| Interviews with Indians in Natal (Mohammedan and Parsee, educated men; a Madrasi labourer; a Bengali lamp-tender) | interviews oral history | 1903 | Provides testimony on Indian treatment, wages and contribution to Natal agriculture. |
| Account of a building contractor/mason on train from Ladysmith on wage rates and labour supply | interviews oral history | 1903 | Supplies skilled-white versus native wage rates and supply contracts to government. |
| American mine employee's account of the Rand compound system and native mine wages | interviews oral history | 1902-03 | Describes compound operation, pay range, contract length and working conditions for African miners. |
| Johannesburg friend/informant on the Rand workforce and wage ratios | interviews oral history | c. 1899-1903 | Gives pre-war employment numbers in mines (whites and Kaffirs) and wage differentials. |
| Durban and Natal newspapers (Durban papers; Rand Daily Mail; Cape Times; Reuter wires) | newspapers periodicals | 1903 | Used for reports on Chamberlain's speeches, labour agitation, plague, Indian immigration controversy, and attitudes toward the Supervisor of Asiatics. |
| Dutch newspapers read by Boer passengers; Cape Times letter signed 'G. Ingham' | newspapers periodicals | 1903 | Cited for atrocity accounts and as corroboration of the author's own views on labour and taxation. |
| Natal immigration and pass regulations / Transvaal permit system (Supervisor of Asiatics) | legislation gazette | 1897-1903 | Described from the author's own experience of permits and cited as discriminatory immigration restrictions on Indians. |
| Reuter telegram reporting Mr. Ritchie on the cost of soldiers in South Africa | newspapers periodicals | 1903 | Used to claim the cost per soldier is £50 higher in South Africa than in England. |
| Personal price and wage observations (hotel, rents, land, carpenters, freight, coal) | author survey or fieldwork | 1903 | Illustrates high costs of living and wage differentials, from author's own purchases and conversations. |
Inference¶
Quantification: Illustrative figures.
Travel narrative; claims are built from the author's observation and reported conversations with a wide range of informants, with scattered prices, wages and population estimates, and generalised by the author's own judgement and comparison with India. No systematic data or formal analysis.
Key claims¶
| Claim | Basis | Strength |
|---|---|---|
| Hard manual labour in South Africa is done by coloured races, and whites will not do it where coloured labour is available; progress, especially in Natal agriculture, owes to Indians. (p. 139-140) | Author's direct observations of dock, hotel, building and railway work and Indian informants' testimony. | Illustrative or anecdotal |
| Natal and Cape Colony grew rich from the war, with money paid for by the British taxpayer, and would stagnate in peace. (p. 140) | Informants' statements, local observations of hotels and land prices, and reported assertion about £50 million remaining in Cape Colony. | Illustrative or anecdotal |
| Mine labour shortage is linked to wage reductions after the war; native wages ~2s a day versus white 10-20s, and high dividends result from low wages. (p. 49) | Chamber of Mines official, Afrikander informant, American mine employee, Rand Daily Mail, and anonymous statements. | Partial data |
| Low-grade Transvaal ore cannot be worked profitably without forced or near-slave labour, which is the real labour difficulty. (p. 145) | Afrikander informant on ore grade and wage costs; author's inference; no cost or ore-grade data. | Asserted |
| Indians in Natal outnumber whites (50,000 Indians vs ~60,000-70,000 Europeans) and Natal could not survive without Indian labour. (p. 52) | Unsourced local population estimates and informants' remarks. | Partial data |
| Coloured people in Cape Town fare better than elsewhere: they can hold land, vote, trade freely and are subject to no curfew. (p. 119) | Author's observation in Cape Town and conversations with informants. | Illustrative or anecdotal |
| The war united Cape and Transvaal Dutch and the Boers will eventually rule by numbers; the British colonists' ascendancy attitude is the root cause of unrest. (p. 142) | Repeated statements by Boer and other informants; author's inference. | Illustrative or anecdotal |
| Cost of living and skilled wages in the colonies are very high (masons 17s-27s 6d a day, rents, food mostly imported), linked to restrictions on coloured labour. (p. 135) | Author's own price notes and informants' reports across towns. | Partial data |
The author's caveats¶
The author notes that his informants' views vary and may be biased, that some are Boer prisoners or partisans whose evidence 'should therefore be received with caution', and that he merely repeats rumours ('I know nothing as to the truth of the matters'). He concedes exaggeration in several stories and that agreement with a speaker is not implied.
Gaps in the evidence¶
The argument relies on hearsay and impressions; it lacks official statistics on wages, employment and population (the colonial censuses, Chamber of Mines labour returns, Natal Protector of Immigrants reports, Blue Books) that existed at the time and are available in archives. Systematic wage, price and recruitment series would test the claims about low wages, labour shortage and war-driven prosperity. Indian-government and Natal immigration records would support the claims on Indian treatment and numbers.
Replicability: Data poorly documented.