South Africa (the Cape Colony, Natal, Orange Free State, South African Republic, Rhodesia and All Other Territories South of the Zambesi)

Literature › Works

Theal, George McCall (1905). South Africa (the Cape Colony, Natal, Orange Free State, South African Republic, Rhodesia and All Other Territories South of the Zambesi). The Story of the Nations series (ninth impression, sixth edition; first published 1893-94). T. Fisher Unwin, London.

Type	book
Scope	Economics and economic history of apartheid
Method	archival narrative
Period studied	1486–1899
Regions	Cape Colony, Natal, Orange Free State, South African Republic (Transvaal), Zululand, Basutoland, Rhodesia, Portuguese East Africa, Bechuanaland, South West Africa
Themes	origins segregation, agriculture land, mining migrant labour, bantustans removals influx, labour markets wages, business and state, macro fiscal finance debt, politics ideology elections, demography urbanisation, education human capital, resistance social movements
Citation key	theal1905

Argument

A one-volume narrative of European settlement and conquest in southern Africa from Portuguese discovery to the outbreak of the Anglo-Boer War, written by a colonial-archive historian from a pro-Boer, anti-missionary and anti-'philanthropic society' standpoint. Theal presents the Dutch East India Company's refreshment station as an accidental colony, and traces the growth of a settler agrarian society based on slaves and subordinate coloured labour. He portrays British policy (emancipation, Ordinance 50, treaty states, Glenelg's reversal) as ill-informed interference that provoked the Great Trek and frontier wars. The later chapters cover diamonds, gold, the Transvaal franchise dispute and the road to war in 1899. The method is chronological narrative drawn from his earlier multi-volume History; the later chapters rest on general acquaintance, as the author admits. The work is a primary document of the settler-historiographical tradition as much as a reliable secondary account.

Evidence and method

Theal's own multi-volume History of South Africa (Dutch and Cape archives, travellers' accounts), plus general acquaintance and personal contact with informants (e.g. a Hlubi elder); official returns, census figures, export and debt statistics for the 1890s. No footnotes or citations are given in this volume.

Place in the debates

• Settler vs. missionary/humanitarian interpretation of Cape frontier and native policy (see Pre-Union colonial economy, the mineral revolution and the South African War). Strongly pro-settler: blames the London Missionary Society, Dr Philip and Lord Glenelg for frontier disorder and for provoking the Trek, and dismisses missionary charges against the Boers as largely unfounded.
• Origins of South African racial labour hierarchy (slavery and coloured subordination) (see Pre-Union colonial economy, the mineral revolution and the South African War). Calls the 1658 introduction of slaves a 'great mistake' that fixed the colony's character and made manual labour seem degrading, while describing slavery as light and the freed slaves and Hottentots as idle or improvident; this is an early paternalist-racial account.
• Responsibility for the Anglo-Boer War and uitlander grievances (see Pre-Union colonial economy, the mineral revolution and the South African War). Tries to balance the Transvaal and British cases in the supplementary chapter, but stresses Boer attachment to independence and that the burghers' militarisation followed the Jameson Raid; regrets the war.

Findings

• The Company founded the Cape purely as a refreshment station, not a colony. (p. 23)

• Slave introduction is judged a fateful error that shaped the colony's labour system. (p. 33)

  In 1658 the great mistake of introducing negro slaves was made, a mistake from which the country has suffered much in the past and must suffer for all time to come.

• Slavery fixed the character of the colony and the stigma of manual labour. (p. 34)

  The white man and the black cannot work side by side on equal terms, hence manual labour came to be regarded by the Europeans as degrading

• Company taxation and monopoly pricing are described as corrupting and discriminatory. (p. 55)

  The system of taxation was as bad as could be devised, so far as effect upon the character of the people was concerned.

• Slave emancipation compensation was far below value and caused severe distress and labour scarcity, but encouraged merino wool farming. (p. 185)

  One industry only-but that afterwards a very important one,-the breeding of merino sheep for the sake of wool, received a great impetus from the emancipation of the slaves

• Natal planters turned to indentured Indian labour because Africans would not supply steady labour. (p. 297)

  The planterS' then turned to India for a supply of labour. Caolies were engaged there, and were brought over under contracts for a term of years.

• Diamond discovery transformed South African life and exports. (p. 323)

  The wealth of the country was enormously increased, for dia-

• Gold output reached about £8 million a year, making the Transvaal a leading producer. (p. 350)

  The production of gold has gone on incrca.ing until it has reached the value of ei"ht million p'Junds sterling a year

• Transvaal taxation deliberately burdened mining over farming, and the franchise was restricted against uitlanders. (p. 351)

  taxation was so arranged as to bear much more heavily upon the mining than upon the farming- industry.

• By 1896 gold, diamonds and copper dominated Cape-port exports. (p. 421)

  gold, diamonds, and copper ore make up nearly four-fifths of the total exports.

• Theal frames African demographic growth and 'hut-tax' administration in the dependencies. (p. 413)

  The only direct tax paid is one of ten shillings a year on each hut, which brings in sufficient to defray the ordinary cost of government

Evidence ledger

Sources used

Source	Kind	Period	How used
Census of the Cape Colony (1805, 1819, 1890 Orange Free State), as cited for population	population census	1806; 1805; 1819; 1890	Supplies population totals (European, slave, free coloured) used to describe colonial demography and the Dutch-speaking population.
Census of the Orange Free State, 1890	population census	1890	Gives the Free State's European and coloured population.
Official returns of British Kaffraria, 1857	official statistical series	1857	Quantifies population collapse after the Xhosa cattle-killing (105,000 to 38,000).
Cape imports and Natal export figures, 1895-96	official statistical series	1895-1896	Used to estimate South Africa's purchasing power and Natal's tropical produce and coal exports.
Dutch East India Company records and accounts furnished to directors	company records or reports	1650s-1795	Underpins accounts of the cost of the 1672 land purchase, the Company's administration, perquisites and finances; the author says the records are now open to inspection.
Theal's own History of South Africa (five volumes) and its cited authorities	secondary literature compilation	to 1872	Chapters before 1848 (Cape), 1845 (Natal), 1872 (republics) are an outline of the author's own multivolume history; authorities are not repeated.
Official documents and returns on Cape finances, revenue and paper money (1790s-1830s)	commission or official report	1790-1835	Revenue, expenditure and paper-currency figures illustrate fiscal condition under VOC and British rule.
Reports of commissioners and slave-compensation awards, 1833-35	commission or official report	1833-1835	Slave numbers, appraised value and compensation awarded used to argue that emancipation caused ruin among slaveholders.
Treaties, conventions and awards (Sand River 1852, Bloemfontein 1854, Keate Award 1871, 1881 and 1884 Conventions, Anglo-Portuguese Treaty 1891)	legislation gazette	1834-1897	Document the political settlements and boundaries narrated throughout the book.
Despatch of Earl Glenelg, 26 December 1835	commission or official report	1835	Quoted to show British repudiation of D'Urban's settlement as unjust to the Xhosa.
Select Committee of the House of Commons on aborigines (evidence of Dr Philip and Stockenstrom)	parliamentary debates	c.1835-36	Used to claim missionary opinion outweighed experienced officers' evidence.
Voyage accounts of Dias, Da Gama and other Portuguese expeditions and maps	other	1486-1510	Narrative of early discovery drawn without citations.
Missionary and travellers' writings, including Livingstone, and Tembu traditions	secondary literature compilation	18th-19th c.	Cited for disease impact (Tembu traditions) and as an advocate's account (Livingstone) to be discounted.

Inference

Quantification: Illustrative figures.

Narrative political and military history by a single author, built from his earlier multivolume history plus unreferenced official records and general acquaintance; claims are carried by chronological storytelling, scattered statistics, and strong editorial judgement, not systematic data analysis.

Key claims

Claim	Basis	Strength
The VOC colony was founded as a refreshment station, and its administration was costly and corrupt, with official perquisites and a taxation system that bred dishonesty. (p. 31)	VOC records and accounts, summarised without citation; Theal's earlier History.	Partial data
Introducing slaves in 1658 shaped the colony's labour system and caused lasting harm. (p. 33)	Asserted by author; slave counts from censuses (e.g. 1805) cited illustratively.	Asserted
Smallpox epidemics (1713, 1755) destroyed the Khoikhoi clans around the Cape and killed large shares of the town's population. (p. 72)	Death counts and slave numbers apparently from colonial records; Tembu traditions for Bantu impact.	Partial data
Emancipation compensation was far below slave value, ruining many colonists and reducing labour for wheat and wine farmers, while promoting merino wool. (p. 185)	Appraised slave values and compensation award figures; author's assertion regarding agent purchases and misery.	Partial data
The Xhosa cattle-killing of 1856-57 caused catastrophic population loss in British Kaffraria and beyond the Kei. (p. 287)	Official returns of British Kaffraria population; author's computations of deaths on both sides of the Kei.	Partial data
The mineral discoveries (diamonds 1867, gold 1880s) transformed South Africa's economy; gold, diamonds and copper ore made up nearly four-fifths of exports in 1895/96. (p. 421)	Cape export table by commodity and port for year ending June 1896.	Systematic data
Transvaal taxation and franchise policy burdened the mining industry and non-burghers, producing uitlander grievances; the republic's public debt and revenue rose after gold. (p. 351)	Asserted from general knowledge; no cited tax or revenue series.	Asserted
Natal's Bantu population (about half a million) greatly outnumbers whites (44,000), and Indian immigration displaced European competitors in trade. (p. 292)	Unreferenced population estimates; Natal produce export values for 1895.	Partial data

The author's caveats

The author admits that chapters after 1848 rest on 'general acquaintance' with South African affairs, not authorities; notes the lack of census coverage for Khoikhoi and San, gaps in estimates of Zulu numbers, and that Kreli's role in the cattle-killing 'cannot be proved'.

Gaps in the evidence

The work gives no archival references or footnotes, so claims on VOC economics, land purchase, taxation, labour and Bantu demography cannot be checked; systematic series on revenue, trade, wages and populations were available in colonial blue books and VOC archives. Africans' economic life and the diamond and gold labour systems receive almost no data; mine company reports, pass and tax records and blue books would test the claims. Strongly partisan characterisations of racial groups are asserted without evidence.

Replicability: Data poorly documented.