ABSTRACT
The economy of southern Africa was marked by several recessions in the second half of the nineteenth century. The Western Cape's increasing orientation towards northern expansion and extra-colonial development had multiplying effects on its economy. This chapter summarises some of the information available on the diversion of investment and decision-making from the Western Cape to other regions of South Africa, which took place in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. It constitutes a short study of the underdevelopment of the Western Cape, and more particularly examines the meaning of that term as it can be applied to the region within the uneven development of southern Africa. The social and political consequences of economic fluctuations, regionally uneven development and the underdevelopment of the Western Cape vis-a-vis the southern Transvaal remain relatively obscure. The chapter indicates some economic issues which cry out for integration with the broader social and political history of the Western Cape - and of southern Africa generally.
