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 student wins national competition
Tiaan de Swardt, Master’s student in Economics at Stellenbosch University and member of the Cape Panel team, won first prize at the Nedbank/Old Mutual Budget Speech Competition in February 2022. De Swardt’s research is on […]
Postdoc Leoné Walters joins Cape Panel project
Leoné is a postdoctoral fellow at Stellenbosch University’s Department of Economics. She is also affiliated to the university’s School for Data Science and Computational Thinking. Dr Walters completed her PhD in Economics at th University […]
First printed opgaafrolle handed over
On 22 October, PI Johan Fourie and several members of the Cape Panel project at Stellenbosch University awarded printed copies of the Graaff-Reinet opgaafrolle for preservation to Ellen Tise, the director of the Stellenbosch University […]
PhD student Ben Chatterton joins Cape Panel project
Ben is a new PhD candidate at Lund University’s Department of Economic History attached to the Cape of Good Hope Panel project. He completed his MA in African Studies at Copenhagen University with research focussing […]
Anne McCants publishes in Journal of Institutional Economics
Cape Panel researcher Anne McCants (MIT) proposes a new theory in the Journal of Institutional Economics that deploys dynamical systems theory rather than game theory to show that institutions are coevolving sources of economic growth […]
Katherine Eriksson presents at Big Data conference
Cape Panel researcher Katherine Eriksson (UC Davis) presented a paper on microdata at a 27 May conference on ‘Big Data in Economic History’ hosted by the Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse.
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: