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Jeanne Cilliers . Photo

Jeanne Cilliers

Researcher

Jeanne Cilliers . Photo

The Land-Labour Hypothesis in a Settler Economy : Wealth, Labour and Household Composition on the South African Frontier

Author

  • Jeanne Cilliers
  • Erik Green

Summary, in English

Traditional frontier literature identifies a positive correlation between land availability and fertility. A common explanation is that the demand for children as labour is higher in newly established frontier regions compared to older and more densely populated farming regions. In this paper we contribute to the debate by analysing the relationship between household composition and land availability in a closing frontier region, i.e. the Graaff-Reinet district in South Africa’s Cape Colony from 1800-28. We show that the number of children in farming households increased with frontier closure, while the presence of non-family labourers decreased over time. Contrasting with the classic interpretation, we explain this by acknowledging that the demand for family labour was not a function of its marginal productivity and that farmers reacted differently to diminishing land availability depending on their wealth. Poorer households, which made up the majority of this frontier population, responded to shrinking land availability by employing relatively more family labour, while the wealthiest group invested in strengthening market access.

Department/s

  • Department of Economic History

Publishing year

2018

Language

English

Pages

239-271

Publication/Series

International Review of Social History

Volume

63

Issue

2

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Topic

  • Economic History

Status

Published

Project

  • The Cape of the Good Hope Panel: Long-term studies of growth, inequality and labour coercion in the global south

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1469-512X