been in the time of van Riebeeck; it yielded nothing else of significance to
the metropolitan economy.
The crucial facet of the social structure of the colony was the utter
dependence of the white colonists on the labor of slaves and indigenous
people. In Europe, where the settler community had originated, ethnic'
chauvinism was already deeply embedded in the popular psyche. At the
Cape, where the colonists were subject to a commercial government that
practiced slavery and the slave trade, they were conditioned to life as
privileged people, distinguished from their slavesand serfs by physical and
cultural as well as legal and economic criteria. They were also growing
apart from society in northwestern Europe, where social and economic
conditions differed profoundly.
The white colonists were themselves a diverse lot. Capetonians (traders,
innkeepers, and artisans), arable farmers, arid remote trekboers had con-
flicting interests and varied cultural levels. Nevertheless, in spite of the
unconventional behavior of some individuals and the fairly widespread
condoning of male promiscuity with women from the subordinated class-
es, the colonists perceived themselves as constituting a distinct community.
They often identified themselves by the label "Christian." Anders Sparr-