Page 10 - Bulletin 16 2012

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Economic dependence on the Cape

The Roads at Jamestown provided the only safe anchorage in the south Atlantic and gave

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the Island its strategic importance. For this reason the EIC hung onto it through the 18
century long after it had ceased being profitable. However, this significance diminished

in 1806 with the Second British Occupation of the Cape; it faded in 1813 with the
cessation of the British – French naval struggles and the Cape’s final transfer from

Holland to Britain in 1815. Thereafter the Cape provided a superior re-victualling station

and base from which Britain could project and protect its growing maritime and
commercial interests.

The Island’s planters had never produced sufficient foodstuffs from the limited area of
arable land for the Island to achieve self-sufficiency. Production of vegetables (mainly

potatoes and pumpkins), fruit (mainly figs and guavas) and meat was insufficient in
meeting the needs of St. Helenians, as well as passing fleets. Stores therefore had to be

shipped regularly from Britain and India at an average annual cost of £100,000. The
Cape, 1800 miles and less than 20 days’ sailing distant, provided the obvious and more

convenient supply point and a way of reducing this heavy expenditure. The EIC directors

took a decision to this effect in 1813 and established an Agency at the Cape.

Then, from 1815 - 21 Napoleon’s incarceration made the Island probably the most talked-
of place outside Europe. Around 1,500 King’s Troops guarded Longwood House, where

Napoleon and his household of 58 persons were quartered, and manned strong-points

around the Island, while a large naval force comprising three frigates, two armed vessels,
and six brigs conducted continuous patrols offshore, preventing any other than Company

ships from approaching the Island. (Balmain, 1928: 38.) (Fig. 1.4.) Jamestown effectively
replaced Simon’s Town as the headquarters of the Royal Navy. During this time, too, the

Island reverted temporarily to the Crown which bore the direct financial costs of the

incarceration. The average annual cost of provisioning just Napoleon’s household was
£10,000. (Arkin, 1964: 211.)