An early colonial landed gentry: land and wealth in the Cape Colony 1682–1731

In the early eighteenth century a slave-owning landed gentry emerged in the Cape Colony. Although wealth was unevenly distributed in 1682 and 1705 economic conditions, which included cheap land and labour, favoured small farmers, who earned higher returns on their capital than those with some-what larger investments in farming. These conditions changed between 1705 and 1731. While prices for crops and livestock remained steady or fell slightly, costs of production rose steeply. Slaves cost more and were more widely used. Land cost more and greater efforts were needed to maintain its fertility. Large estates swallowed up unsuccessful small farms and a few were enlarged by dynastic marriages. Large-scale production yielded low returns on capital, but small farms often ceased to make profits. Those with insufficient capital to compete with established gentry in the south-west Cape might take up stock farming in frontier regions, which had long been used by wealthy freehold farmers as additional pasture for their livestock.