BACKGROUND
The Cape of Good Hope Panel is a series of annual tax censuses (or opgaafrolle) collected by the colonial authorities in the seventeenth- to nineteenth-century Cape Colony. The censuses contain information not only about the complete settler population – by the end of the period, a total of more than 50 000 individuals – but also the enslaved and indigenous Khoesan population that lived and worked within the colonial economy.
Thanks to a generous grant from the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation (The establishment, growth and legacy of a settler colony: Quantitative panel studies of the political economy of Cape Colony – Dnr: M20-0041), the purpose of this project is to transcribe the full series of tax censuses, match households across censuses, match census households to other sources (like probate inventories and auction rolls) and match census households across generations (using genealogical records). This would allow us to investigate questions about the evolution of living standards and economic development, inequality and social mobility, networks and elite formation and slavery and labour coercion.
We aim to, ultimately, combine the wealth of data with innovative techniques to analyse and understand the economic development of this pre-industrial, colonial society.
NEWS
Cape Panel discussed at Jan de Vries workshop
Anne McCants participated in a workshop at Yale University (March 30-31) on the Early Modern Economy in honor of the work of Jan de Vries. In a panel on ‘the Dutch and their Overseas Economies’ […]
Cape Panel team meets in Stellenbosch
The Cape Panel team met for the second time in person in Stellenbosch, South Africa on 3 and 4 November. The first day included research presentations by panel team members and invited lectures by Nigel […]
Anne McCants presents LEAP Lecture
MIT historian and Cape Panel member Anne McCants presented the 7th LEAP Lecture in Stellenbosch on 7 November. McCants asked a large audience, ‘What makes for good social science history?’, using GDP as a way […]
Cape Panel members attend Social Science History Conference in Chicago
Several Cape Panel members attended and presented at the SSHC in Chicago in November. Anne McCants, vice-president of the Social Science History Association, participated in several sessions. Jonathan Schoots presented his paper (with Johan Fourie […]
Calumet Links visits University of Chicago’s Becker-Friedman Institute
In November and December, Cape Panel member Calumet Links spent a research sabbatical at the University of Chicago’s Becker-Friedman Institute at the invitation of James Robinson. While in Chicago, Calumet met with several economic historians […]
New postdoctoral student recruited to work on church records
Esté Kotze will join the Cape Panel team in 2023 as a new postdoctoral student. Esté completed her PhD in History at Stellenbosch University in 2022. She has been tasked with investigating the Dutch Reformed […]
EVENTS
THE TEAM

Erik Green
Department of Economic History, Lund University

Johan Fourie
Department of Economics, Stellenbosch University

Ann Carlos
Department of Economics, University of Colorado Boulder

Benjamin Chatterton
Department of Economic History, Lund University

Jeanne Cilliers
Department of Economic History, Lund University

Kate Ekama
Department of History, Stellenbosch University

Calumet Links
Department of Economics, Stellenbosch University

Igor Martin
Department of Economic History, Lund University

Anne McCants
Department of History, Massachusetts Institutes of Technology

Auke Rijpma
Department of History, Utrecht University

Robert Ross
Department of History, Leiden University

Jonathan Schoots
Department of Economics, Stellenbosch University

Dieter von Fintel
Department of Economics, Stellenbosch University

Leoné Walters
Department of Economics, Stellenbosch University
ADVISORY BOARD

Emmanuel
Akyeampong
Harvard University

Wayne
Dooling
SOAS University of London

Joseph
Ferrie
Northwestern University

Laura
Mitchell
UC Irvine

Sheilagh
Ogilvie
Oxford University

Jan Luiten
van Zanden
Utrecht University
DATASET
The transcribed annual tax censuses (opgaafrolle) will be made available during the course of the project.
RESEARCH
Fourie, J. and Garmon Jr, F. 2022. The settlers’ fortunes: Comparing tax censuses in the Cape Colony and early American Republic. Economic History Review, forthcoming.
Replication package
Cilliers, J., Green., E. and Ross, R., 2022. Did it pay to be a pioneer? Wealth accumulation in a newly settled frontier society. Economic History Review, forthcoming.
Replication package
Cillliers, J and E. Green (2018) ‘The Land–Labour Hypothesis in a Settler Economy: Wealth, Labour and Household Composition on the South African Frontier’, International Review of Social History, 63(2): 239-271

STUDENTS
PhD graduates
Calumet Links (Stellenbosch, 2021): The Economic Impact of the Khoe on the North-Eastern Frontier of the Cape Colony
Igor Martins (Lund, 2020): Collateral Effect: Slavery and Wealth in the Cape Colony
Heinrich Nel (Stellenbosch, 2020): Wealth mobility, familial ties and migration: Evidence form the Cape of Good Hope Panel
CONTACT US
Madeleine Jarl
Research secretary
Lund University
PARTNERS
We are grateful to the following supporters, without which this project would not be possible: