The arrival of European seafarers at the Cape in the 16th and 17th centuries introduced a whole range of additional commodities for which the Khoikhoi eagerly bartered their stock – such as tobacco, beads, knives, alcohol and salt. Although their frugal needs made them basically self sufficient for all the essentials of life, the Khoikhoi nevertheless placed a very high value on particular items that were not – at least initially – readily available in the Cape, namely metals and dagga. These items were willingly bartered for sheep and cattle.

However, it was not long before the Khoikhoi realized that the periodic visits of the Europeans, and their eventual permanent presence, was a mixed blessing and finally, a definite curse. Within a mere 60 years of Jan van Riebeeck’s arrival in 1652, the centuries-old social and economic order of the Peninsular Khoikhoi had been irrevocably shattered. As a grim finale, the Khoikhoi population of the Western Cape was decimated by a smallpox epidemic in 1713 – a disease against which this indigenous people has very little resistance.

The 17th century had been the golden age of the Netherlands with their thrusting fingers of expansionism prying loose the treasures of far flung lands. Thus the Cape – an ideal halfway station on the rich East trade route - had been settled under the Dutch East India Company. By the mid 18th century Dutch influence was on the wane, buffeted by other rising European powers. The basis of Cape Town's economy was its situation between the two trade routes.

Cape Town was something of an intellectual backwater. The first library was founded in 1751-1771. Music was a great leveler - universally loved and among the most highly valued of the slave skills.