Seminar paper from the year 2005 in the subject Business economics - General, grade: 1,0, University of Applied Sciences Bielefeld, course: Internationale Wirtschaftsbeziehungen, language: English, abstract: Although South Africa was not very famous for its beverages, esp. its wines, for long times and has gained fame in recent years only, the heritage of its vine-growing culture goes back to the mid of the 17th century. European settlers, predominantly from The Netherlands, started to plant first seedlings in the Cape region. It was Jan van Riebeeck, founder of the Cape colony, who brought the seedlings along from Europe in 1655. Some four years later, the first South African wine was ready to be drunk. However, as the Dutch were not too experienced with viticulture, real development took place only when French Huguenots settled in that region in the end of the 17th century. In the mid of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century, these wines (e.g. the very sweet Constantia wines) were very popular all around Europe, particularly in the royal houses. But afterwards, the demand shrank to nearly zero. In 1973, viticulture was resumed in the African country. However, the wines were boycotted by the rest of the world due to the Apartheid problems within the country. Only from 1990 onwards, South African wine industry is recovering and nowadays belongs to the so-called “New World wines”, which also include products from Chile, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand and the United States (California).

While Webb examines the progress of the first colonial bank in the Eastern Cape and Chapman the wider international context, most of the book focuses on capitalist enterprise in the 20th century and the way in which South African development has mirrored that in other capitalist economies.

South Africa has undergone a financial revolution since 1950 when the financial structure was colonial. By 1990 the situation had changed and new institutions emerged. This book looks at some of these institutions including the first Afrikaner banks, merchant banks and discount houses.

The implementation of a twin peaks model represents a significant change to the South African financial supervisory architecture. The Prudential Authority (PA), operating within the administration of the South African Reserve Bank (SARB), is responsible for promoting and enhancing the safety and soundness of financial institutions that provide financial products and securities services. A separate authority, the Financial Sector Conduct Authority2 (FSCA), is responsible for market conduct regulation and supervision. The introduction of the twin peaks architecture was motivated by a need to increase the robustness of the financial sector regulatory and supervisory system, reinforce financial stability, improve protection of customers, and enhance cooperation among the regulators.