ABSTRACT
The Cape Town department was particularly important as a home for the political economy school, even though its efflorescence occurred outside the South African universities, often outside the country and sometimes with key stimuli from works of foreign academics with no institutional connection to the country. In considering the study of economic history in and of South Africa, there is a need to make a distinction between the economic history of South Africa and economic history in South Africa. British economic history celebrated and commented on the emergence and institutional development of industrial capitalism and required a home which history and economics were at first reluctant to provide. The chapter focuses on a radical critique which may be seen as offering ideas worthy of international consideration in an understanding of modern capitalism. In conclusion, economic history has been and continues to be a subject with some institutional life in South Africa.
