The Economics of the Colour Bar

William H. Hutt

Who were the original and most passionate opponents of apartheid in South Africa? The classical liberals, and this book was their most important weapon against the problem of racial injustice.

William H. Hutt, an Austro-classical economist in South Africa (later he taught at the University of Dallas), explains that apartheid originated as a labor-union mechanism for artificially restricting the supply of labor and thereby driving up wages for the privileged. He further explains that nearly all the ensuing legal disabilities for blacks in South Africa stemmed from the problem of labor union political influence.

As an old-time liberal, he urged the dismantling of the system to forestall a revolutionary environment that would have nationalized industry and socialized the economy. The study first appeared in 1964, and it was incredibly prescient. It remains the definitive study.

 

Economics of Colour Bar by William H. Hutt
Meet the Author
William H. Hutt

Hutt was an economist of the classical tradition who identified himself with the Austrian School. He studied at the London School of Economics and became a professor at the University of Cape Town. He is particularly known for his works "The Factory System of the Early Nineteenth Century" (1925), The Theory of Collective Bargaining (1930), and The Strike-Threat System (1973).

Mises Daily William H. Hutt
The early British factory system may be said to have been the most obvious feature of the Industrial Revolution. W.H. Hutt writes that there has been a general tendency to exaggerate the "evils" which characterized the factory system before the abandonment of laissez faire. Also, factory legislation was not essential to the ultimate disappearance of those "evils." Conditions which modern standards would condemn were then common to the community as a whole, and legislation not only brought with it other disadvantages, not readily apparent in the complex changes of the time, but also served to obscure and hamper more natural and desirable remedies.
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References

London: Merritt & Hatcher Ltd., 1964.