Warfare, Fiscal Capacity, and Performance

We exploit differences in casualties sustained in pre-modern wars to estimate the impact of fiscal capacity on economic performance. In the past, states fought different amounts of external conflicts, of various lengths and magnitudes. To raise the revenues to wage wars, states made fiscal innovations, which persisted and helped to shape current fiscal institutions. Economic historians claim that greater fiscal capacity was the key long-run institutional change brought about by historical conflicts. Using casualties sustained in pre-modern wars to instrument for current fiscal institutions, we estimate substantial impacts of fiscal capacity on GDP per worker. The results are robust to a broad range of specifications, controls, and sub-samples

Shadrach Boyce Mama and the 'Kaffir Depot': Navigating Imperial Networks to Agitate against the Forced Removal of Xhosa Women and Children from Cape Town, May-December 1879

On 15 May 1879, 60 Xhosa – primarily women and children – were forcibly removed by the Cape government from an indentured labour market in Cape Town called the ‘Kaffir Depot’. The Xhosa interpreter who worked at the Depot, Shadrach Boyce Mama, was present at their removal and witnessed one of the women screaming and attempting to kill herself rather than be ripped from her children. In response to this moment of intense colonial violence, Mama fought throughout 1879 to publicise the Cape government's cruel actions. This paper tells the story of Mama's campaign on the behalf of the women and children expelled from the Depot, and demonstrates how Mama moved fluidly through local newspapers, colonial politics and imperial humanitarian spaces to demand justice for those so brutally ejected from Cape Town

History on trial: a study of the Salem commonage land claim

This thesis critically examines the Salem commonage claim, a dispute that has shaken the hamlet of Salem to its core. On ground level it has caused racialized fault lines to reopen, while suspicion and distrust has also grown between the black Africans of the area as well. On a national level, the Constitutional Court judgement has potentially set a precedent with regards to its jurisprudential approach in determining the validity of land claims in South Africa. Its interpretation of the law was determined by the restorative justice jurisprudence enshrined in the Restitution of Land Rights Act 22 of 1994 (the Act). It based its own understanding of the history of the commonage on this jurisprudence. In a bold step towards realising the aims and purposes of the Act, the Constitutional Court found that both the black African claimants as well as the white landowners have equal rights to the land. One of the reasons why the decision of the Constitutional Court is ground-breaking is that the dispute involves a former commonage – land used for common purpose. The Constitutional Court emphasised that the Act was an “extraordinary piece of legislation” and had to be interpreted in such a way so as to address the injustices of the past. This included provisions of the Act which dealt with how oral testimonies from claimants would be dealt with. Another interesting feature was the heavy reliance by all parties on expert witnesses in the persons of eminent historians, Professors Martin Legassick and Herman Giliomee. This case gave much-needed clarification as to what the appropriate role of an expert historian witness may be in a land claim. The success or failure of land claims often depend on the weight of the evidence supplied by the expert historian witness. But the historian must also take cognisance of the fact that the evidence s/he gives is appropriate according to the scope of law. This case also dismisses the assumption that colonial instruments of land assignation are beyond reproach. These instruments which grant rights to land may also be scrutinised in a court of law, just like when oral testimony is tested for its credibility. This is important to note, especially when balancing land rights of the claimants against those of the landowners. This thesis agrees with the decision taken by the Constitutional Court in this instance. However, it also cautions that such softly-softly approaches may appear as a suitable compromise on paper, but the feeling on the ground may not be as receptive to reconciliation as what the courts would have hoped for. To the jurist, this judgement accurately encapsulates the purpose and aims of the Act. However, such a judgement may not seem satisfactory to the people of Salem. The decisions of the Salem commonage case are sure to inform the discourse of land claims in South Africa

The origins and growth of freemasonry in South Africa, 1772-1876

This thesis sets out to examine the historical growth of Freemasonry at the Cape and its expansion eastwards and northwards. It covers the period from the beginnings of Freemasonry in Cape Town in 1772 until 1876 when English and Dutch branches of the Craft had become involved in the political issues of that time. In doing so it tries to examine the effect of social, economic and political events in South Africa on Dutch and English Freemasonry, making the somewhat bold claim that this masonic movement acted often as a mirror to these events. The study confines itself to the historical aspects of freemasonry and does not endeavour to portray esoteric changes that took place within the Craft. Specifically it details the start of Freemasonry on the continent of Africa by Abraham Chiron and the founding of the first lodge, De Goede Hoop, a Netherlandic lodge, its decline and resurgence during the Dutch, British and Batavian occupations and the beginnings of English Freemasonry under the final British occupation. From then it sets out the expansion and changes in organisation brought about by several masonic personalities, many of whom were leading figures in the society of their time

Brazilian export growth and divergence in the tropics during the nineteenth century

The objective of this paper is to reappraise both the accuracy of the official export statistics and the conventional narrative of Brazilian export growth during the period immediately following independence. We undertake an accuracy test of the official values of Brazilian export statistics and find evidence of considerable under-valuation. Once corrected, during the postindependence decades (1821-1849) Brazil's current exports represented a larger share of its economy and its constant growth is found to be more dynamic than any other period of the nineteenth century. We posit that this dynamism was related to an exogenous institutional shock in the form of British West Indies slave emancipation that afforded Brazil a competitive advantage

El Romanticismo y la imaginación transatlántica: Blanco White, Keats y el Dilema Liberal

This essay focuses on the role of Spanish America in the development of British romantic period literature, particularly in relation to that literature’s engagement with the political controversies surrounding Britain’s uneven development as both a world empire and a modern liberal state. By linking the histories and writings of these two geographies, particularly between the 1780 Peruvian revolt and the Spanish American independence movements (1817-1822), this project seeks to uncover the complex but largely ignored political and literary crossings triangulating between Britain, Spain, and Latin America during the early nineteenth century. In doing so, it reconstructs the transatlantic political and intellectual context for literary figurations of Spanish America in order to examine the historical dimensions that allowed British writers José María Blanco White and John Keats to imagine Latin America as both an important horizon of colonial desire and an object of liberal fantasies of independence and liberation.Este ensayo se centra en el papel de la América española en el desarrollo de la literatura británica durante el período romántico, especialmente en relación con la participación de la literatura en las controversias políticas que rodean el desarrollo sin parangón de Gran Bretaña como un imperio mundial y como un estado liberal moderno. Mediante la vinculación de las historias y los escritos de estas dos zonas geográficas, en particular en los años entre la revuelta de 1780 del Perú y los movimientos hispanoamericanos de independencia (1817-1822), este proyecto trata de descubrir los complejos cruces políticos y literarios, ignorados en gran medida, que triangulan entre Gran Bretaña, España y América Latina durante el siglo XIX. De este modo, se reconstruye el contexto político transatlántico e intelectual de las figuraciones literarias de la América española con el fin de examinar las dimensiones históricas que permitieron a los escritores británicos José María Blanco White y John Keats imaginar América Latina como un importante horizonte del deseo colonial y a la vez como objeto de las fantasías liberales de independencia y liberación

The fighting profession : the professionalization of the British Line Infantry Officer Corps, 1870-1902

The following thesis is an examination of the professionalization of the British line infantry officer corps from 1870 to 1902. Beginning with a discussion of the extant theories of professionalization, it then looks at civil military relations and its relationship to the international situation in general. The deployment of the line infantry at home and abroad is then analysed. Finally, the organisational changes made to produce professional structures for education, remuneration and promotion are discussed

HERODOTUS AND THE 1820 SETTLERS IN SOUTH AFRICA: HISTORIOGRAPHIES OF COLONIZATION AND THE ‘CACOPHONY OF VOICES’

The renewal of interest in Herodotus as an effective and creativehistorian within a predominantly oral tradition has been a featureof prolific research during the last twenty years. In the very yearin which the arrival of the 1820 settlers in the east of theformer Cape Colony in South Africa is being remembered, and evencommemorated, I attempt a reading of Herodotus’ celebratedaccount of the Greek colonization of Cyrene in Libya (North Africa)through the historiographical lens of accounts of the arrival of theseBritish settlers, focussing on the narratives of colonization commonto these exempla more than two millennia apart. My intention isto continue the conversation, especially amongst South Africanclassicists, about how to tackle the thorny question of decolonizingthe content and teaching of the Classics in our universities

Lloyd's of London : information and influence in the nineteenth century.

In the nineteenth century, Lloyd's of London, the largest marine insurance underwriting market in Great Britain, cultivated long-standing relationships with the Admiralty and other government bodies through personal, financial, and political networks to secure its dominance in the field. Its leadership and policies bridged a gap between the private sphere of finance and the public sphere at both ends of the societal spectrum, from orphaned children of soldiers and a news-hungry population to the ruling establishment. The institution also acted as a vital link between production and consumption by facilitating global shipping, particularly in times of war and conflict. As a private enterprise with an international reach, and not just within the British Empire, it came very close to conforming to Hobson's "internationalism." The members of the governing committee integrated cross border communications networks with public engagement, transnational conflict resolution and prevention, and government participation. They recognized the role informal networks could play in business dealings and as a source of power itself--much as the landed classes had done for centuries. They pioneered international information systems, recognizing its value not only for the carrying on of the underwriting business, but as a commodity in itself. The growth of the committee of Lloyd's influence in formal and informal contexts represented a fundamental shift concurrent with the Industrial Revolution that saw the rise of the financial elite as not only economic equals with the traditional governing classes in terms of wealth, but increasingly in terms of social and political power. While multiple books have been written on the subject, most were commissioned by Lloyd's, are quite dated, and often do not provide citations. The most definitive work on the underwriting house is Charles Wright and C. Ernest Fayle's A History of Lloyd's from the Founding of Lloyd's Coffee House to the Present Day, published in 1928. Even this text is heavily biased towards the corporation and often ignores external factors that might diminish the value of the organization's public engagement. Using archival and printed primary sources, many only available in the collections of the British Library and Guildhall Library in London, this thesis provides a more balanced study of Lloyd's of London. It highlights the personal networks, technological innovations, and political and economic climates that challenged and drove the organization's success. In doing so, it moves beyond a discussion of the underwriting business and draws attention to the professionalization of the industry and the growing influence of London's financial service industry and its elite leaders within the context of the Industrial Revolution and the growth of Great Britain's Second Empire