6 - Transforming the economy: the rise of manufacturing and commercial agriculture

Summary

The growth of diamond and gold mining, described in the preceding chapter, proceeded at a remarkably swift pace. No encouragement was needed from the government and little assistance, apart from certain regulations designed to facilitate recruitment and employment of the necessary supplies of black labour at extremely low wages. The history of the expansion of manufacturing and commercial agriculture was utterly different, and the attempt to make these two sectors economically viable was a central concern of government economic programmes from the formation of the Union. Manufacturing was given protection from foreign competition; farming received extensive support and financial assistance over a sustained period. The first part of this chapter is devoted to the methods adopted to promote the development of the manufacturing sector; the second to the policies required to assist white farmers to sustain themselves on the land and to feed a steadily increasing urban population.

Factories are few and unimportant

Manufacturing was slow to start in South Africa and slow to develop. It was initially stifled by deliberate action of the VOC, which did not wish to see any production in the Cape that might compete with their factories in Holland. Even after such restrictions were removed by the British there was little progress during the first three quarters of the nineteenth century. The urban commercial centres of the Cape and Natal were essentially trading entrepôts, where wool, hides, feathers, and other agricultural products brought in from the interior were exchanged for imported manufactured goods such as machinery, clothing, and household articles.