In the conferences that he had with his people about his experiences in London, the Khoe learned that in England brass was but a cheap commodity. Xhore’s deliberations with his people led the Khoe to some key resolutions that would affect trade with the English. An impromptu decision was taken to start increasing the prices for cattle and sheep for barter. The Khoe were no longer interested in smaller prices of copper. ‘They demanded unreasonably for their cattle, which we thought proceeded from Corie (Xhore) who had been in England and, as we supposed, acquainted them with our little esteem of iron and copper, asking pieces as bis as their cloaks…’, John Milward, an English merchant who arrived at the Cape, noted.

By 1835, when the city of Port Elizabeth handled £80 000 of export produce, it is estimated that about £50 000 to £60 000 of the goods were obtained by Xhosa people.

Bundy’s research notes that the suppression of the black commercial agriculture went beyond the raid on the land. Custom duties were stacked against black farmers, thus reducing the margin on their earnings. Purchase of land by black people was also made to be very difficult. But did these black commercial farmers have names and who were they? The rest of this chapter selects some individuals to provide visibility to those who prospered during changing socio-economic circumstances.

Regardless of how liquid a black man was, the discriminatory laws made it difficult for him to purchase land freely. A laborious bureaucratic process had to be followed and permission sought, as natives were not allowed freely to acquire property in certain areas. This was due to the segregationist Native Trust and Land Act of 1936. In crude terms what this meant was that natives had to get the permission of a white man on how to spend their hard-owned pounds. Wealth did not equate to freedom.

In the late 1860s, many Africans in Natal were in a position to produce agricultural surplus for trade and to withhold their labour.