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Erik Green . Photo

Erik Green

Professor

Erik Green . Photo

‘Waar is beter dorp in Zuid Africa dan Stellenbos?’ : What the Stellenbosch-Drakenstein Tax Censuses Reveal

Author

  • Johan Fourie
  • Erik Green
  • Christiaan Burger
  • Chris de Wit
  • Kate Ekama
  • Jan Greyling
  • Hans Heese
  • Jan Hendrik Pretorius
  • Robert Ross
  • Dieter von Fintel

Summary, in English

In 1825, an unnamed Stellenbosch official paused his tax collection duties to pen a poem in the margins of the opgaafrol. His verses capture the frustrations of colonial administration but the records themselves–annual tax censuses spanning 1685 to 1844–offer a far richer window into the Cape Colony’s social and economic history. First established by the Dutch East India Company and later maintained under Batavian and British rule, the opgaafrollen documented household composition, agricultural production, and patterns of coerced labour. While these records have long informed scholarship, their fragmented nature has limited systematic analysis. This article introduces a newly transcribed series of opgaaf records for Stellenbosch and Drakenstein. We examine three key themes: surname frequency as a proxy for marriage patterns and kinship networks; long-term shifts in agricultural output; and changes in slave ownership. Our findings challenge existing interpretations of colonial economic mobility and governance, demonstrating how settler households navigated taxation, labour, and status. By analysing the opgaafrollen at scale, this study rethinks their role–not simply as tax records but as a tool for understanding economic and social change in the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Cape Colony.

Department/s

  • Department of Economic History
  • Economic development of the Global South

Publishing year

2024

Language

English

Pages

420-446

Publication/Series

South African Historical Journal

Volume

76

Issue

4

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Topic

  • Economic History

Keywords

  • Cape Colony
  • Dutch East India Company
  • quantitative history
  • slavery
  • taxation

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0258-2473