Financing colonial rule : the hut tax system in Natal, 1847-1898.

Abstract

The functioning of African societies in the colonial environment has become a popular subject of research by historians. However, these are areas of neglect insofar as the investigation of the economic role of Africans in colonial states is concerned. In spite of the fact that the European population and the revenue of Natal have never been very large, there have been numerous studies examining the role of the white inhabitants in the economic development of the colony. Stimulus for this thesis has therefore been provided by the vacuum in the historical literature concerning the financial history of colonial Natal, and in particular, how the Hut Tax - one of the more significant manifestations of colonialism - served as a tool in coercing the northern Nguni inhabitants to finance the administration of foreign rule.