Colonial Elites in The Eighteenth-Century Cape Colony

We study eighteenth-century settler elites in the Stellenbosch–Drakenstein district. We examine income and wealth inequality from 1720 to 1810, which enabled the emergence of an economic elite. We then ask whether this group also held political office, and how that configuration evolved. Using annual tax censuses alongside lists of heemraden, local officials serving on district civil administrative and judicial boards, we recover the distribution of resources within the free-settler population and set it against district office-holding. Three results stand out. First, within-settler inequality was high and persistent. Secondly, the sectoral bases of elite income shifted over time: wine and wheat dominated early in the century, while livestock gained importance later. Thirdly, wealth and office moved together: appointees were disproportionately drawn from the top of the distribution, signalling a tight alignment between market power and local authority. These results make visible the internal bargains that sustained Company rule, linking economic rank to political authority and, in turn, to the workings of colonial state capacity.