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"For the public benefit": Railways in the British Cape Colony

Author

Listed:
  • Herranz-Loncán, Alfonso

    (University of Barcelona)

  • Fourie, Johan

    (Stellenbosch University)

Abstract

Built mostly to support the early mining industry, the Cape Colony’s railways reduced the cost of transport to the interior and increased labor productivity in the Colony from 1859 to 1905 by, we calculate, 30 percent. Little of the gains went to the state-owned company: the Cape parliament seems always to have seen the railways as a means to development. But the politically overrepresented western parts of the Colony gained much more than underrepresented areas like Basutoland or the Transkei. While boosting the economy, the railways also had distributional effects, with consequences for racial segregation in twentieth-century South Africa.

Suggested Citation

  • Herranz-Loncán, Alfonso & Fourie, Johan, 2016. ""For the public benefit": Railways in the British Cape Colony," African Economic History Working Paper 30/2016, African Economic History Network.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:afekhi:2016_030
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Jeanne Cilliers & Johan Fourie, 2017. "Social mobility during South Africa’s industrial take-off," Working Papers 04/2017, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    2. Maravall Buckwalter, Laura, 2018. "Build It, and They Will Come? Secondary Railways and Population Density in French Algeria," IFCS - Working Papers in Economic History.WH 26738, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Instituto Figuerola.
    3. Fintel, Dieter von & Fourie, Johan, 2019. "The great divergence in South Africa: Population and wealth dynamics over two centuries," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(4), pages 759-773.
    4. D.P. von Fintel, 2018. "Long-Run Spatial Inequality in South Africa: Early Settlement Patterns and Separate Development," Studies in Economics and Econometrics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(2), pages 81-102, August.
    5. Abel Gwaindepi & Johan Fourie, 2020. "Public Sector Growth in the British Cape Colony: Evidence From New Data on Expenditure and Foreign Debt, 1830‐1910," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 88(3), pages 341-367, September.
    6. Mohammed Iddrisu Kambala, 2023. "Colonial Origins of Comparative Development in Ghana," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 59(2), pages 188-208, February.
    7. Broadberry, Stephen & Gardner, Leigh, 2019. "Economic Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa, 1885-2008," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 425, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    8. Johan Fourie & Nonso Obikili, 2019. "Decolonizing with data: The cliometric turn in African economic history," Working Papers 02/2019, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    9. J. Fourie, 2018. "Cliometrics in South Africa," Studies in Economics and Econometrics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(2), pages 1-14, August.
    10. Abel Gwaindepi, 2019. "Serving God and Mammon: the ‘minerals-railway complex’ and its effects on colonial public finances in the British Cape Colony, 1810-1910," Working Papers 07/2019, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    11. Magnus Neubert & Stefan Nikolić, 2025. "Why railways fail: Colonial railways and economic development in Habsburg Bosnia-Herzegovina," Working Papers 0280, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).
    12. Bolt, Jutta & Gardner, Leigh, 2018. "Tax Compliance under Indirect Rule in British Africa," African Economic History Working Paper 40/2018, African Economic History Network.
    13. Laura Maravall Buckwalter, 2018. "Build it and they will come? Secondary railways and population density in French Algeria," Working Papers 18008, Economic History Society.
    14. Tawanda Chingozha & Dieter von Fintel, 2019. "Property rights, market access and crop cultivation in Southern Rhodesia: evidence from historical satellite data," Working Papers 03/2019, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    15. Piotr Koryś & Marcin Wroński, 2025. "The Impact of Railway on the Regional Economic Development and Social Mobility in the Congress Kingdom of Poland," Working Papers 2025-07, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw.
    16. Broadberry, Stephen & Gardner, Leigh, 2019. "Economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa, 1885-2008," Economic History Working Papers 100473, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    17. Stelios Michalopoulos & Elias Papaioannou, 2020. "Historical Legacies and African Development," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 58(1), pages 53-128, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • H40 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - General
    • N40 - Economic History - - Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation - - - General, International, or Comparative
    • O10 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - General

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