A much-enhanced sense of political consciousness amongst the burghers was in evidence in the struggle of the Cape Patriots between 1778 and 1787, which in turn drew inspiration from the Patriot movement in the Netherlands which challenged the selfappointed regents who thwarted the aspirations of the burghers. But although the Cape burghers quoted from or circulated documents by Enlightenment thinkers, they were preoccupied with local concerns. Despite the 1706 ban on private economic activities by officials (see Endorsing food production by burghers),conflict over economic opportunities persisted between burghers and Company servants at the Cape. By the 1770s VOC officials had become much shrewder in disguising their trading activities.
The Cape Patriots’ political demands were ambitious. They asked for seven seats for burghers on the Council of Policy when matters affecting burghers were discussed, and for half the seats on the Court of Justice. They sought a clearer definition of burgher rights, the codification of laws, and the prohibition of the banishment of burghers except by permission of the burgher councillors.
The Patriots’ other concern was economic. They complained about the trading activities of officials and the lack of free trade, asked for better prices for products, leave to export cargoes annually to the Netherlands, for free trade with the East Indies and a reduction in farm rents. Of greater significance were the social tensions reflected in the Patriots’ documents. They asked, for example, that white men not be arrested by Caffers (see A diffrent kind of police force) and that burghers be allowed to punish their own slaves.
All the petitions and deputations to the Netherlands achieved little. The VOC rejected the key demand, namely burgher representation on the Council of Policy, but it permitted six rather than three burghers on the Council of Justice. Burghers would no longer be re-enlisted in the Company’s service. They were not allowed to trade in their own ships, although the directors did permit free trade with foreign ships – but only after the Company’s needs had been met. In the Western Cape the activities of the Patriots fizzled out as the burghers waited to see what the momentous developments in Europe held in store for them.
In 1787 the Patriot movement in the Netherlands was crushed after the Stadholder called in Prussian troops. Large numbers of Patriots emigrated to other countries, particularly to the newly independent United States of America. The Cape movement also disintegrated.
