The advent of British soldiers stationed at Fort Frederick as well as the seizure of the Zuurveld in 1811-1812 opened up commercial opportunities for merchants. The first business to exploit these opportunities was Frederick Korsten.
To do so required an investment in the area. In the case of the contract with the British forces on Mauritius to supply 3000 barrels of salted beef, Korsten was compelled to make a substantial investment in cattle, mills, warehouses, smithies, tanneries, granaries and cooperages.
Notwithstanding that, other entrepreneurs also perceived the same opportunities albeit on a smaller less grand scale
Main picture: Cradock Place painted by Thomas Baines
Cradock Place
The marriage of Frederick Korsten to the daughter of one of the wealthiest merchants in the Cape Colony in 1800 was the open sesame moment for Korsten. He was able to develop and hone his merchanting skills under the benign influence of his father-in-law, Jan Marthinus Hoets. What Korsten brought to the partnership was a ship whereas Jan Hoets provided access to credit.
The timing of the opening up of the Zuurveld in 1811/1812 was propitious. During a decade of tuition by his father-in-law, Korsten had absorbed the trading modus operandi and nuances of the local trading environment. Well versed in the ethos of trading he probably felt emboldened to strike out on his own when the opportunity arose.
The venture that hoved into view, like a ship approaching from the far-off horizon, related to the supply of 3000 barrels of salted beef to the British forces stationed in Mauritius. This would be on a scale larger and more capital intensive than probably any other business in the Cape Colony at that stage. It is not recorded whether this venture was financed solely by loans or whether it was the proceeds of a decade of successful trading.
The area selected by Korsten for the building of this facility was Papenkuilsfontein, later to be renamed Cradock Place after the British Governor, General John Francis Cradock, 1st Baron Howden GCB (11 August 1759 – 26 July 1839), a British peer, politician and soldier. By 1817, Korsten had developed the farm into fully fledged manufacturing, processing and merchanting operation supported by a network of agents in all the main settlements of the Zuurveld.
By 1818, Korsten had expanded into sealing and acquired several rural properties for development into farms while in 1819 Korsten ventured into whaling. After an explosive start, by 1821 this vertically integrated commercial empire had crashed and burned bankrupting the Korsten’s and Hoets families.
Korsten’s stores
Even after being compelled to sell the farm in December 1821, Kosten clung onto his store at Cradock Place. In two minds what to do with it, his indecision compelling him to lease it out on credit that would never be repaid. The store had been a goldmine while Korsten held a monopoly on trade in the area. With growth of Uitenhage outstripping that of Port Elizabeth, the centre of business gravity swung in that direction. Both charlatans and bona fide traders embraced Uitenhage.
Algoa Bay aka Port Elizabeth
Here interlopers were trading directly with ships moored at sea undercutting their landlubber competitors both in the purchase and sale of goods. Findlay in his brig was paying three schillings per lb for butter which was more that the locals paid the farmers. Another captain, Harrington, sent goods up to Port Elizabeth from Cape Town to undercut Korsten. The share of the “pie” was being apportioned amongst more players.
Port Elizabethan merchants make a play for business
Despite a paucity of residents in Port Elizabeth prior to the arrival of the 1820 settlers, it was as if speculators and wannabe merchants were seized with a premonition that an increase in the population was imminent, predicated upon the arrival of the British settlers.
In November 1819, Antonio Chiappini (1777-1860) and his brother-in-law, Petrus Johannes Heugh (1782-1858) who were merchants bringing goods in on their own ships from Cape Town, petitioned for a piece of ground ……. to build a store. Probably being mischievous, their request was for land adjacent to one that Korsten’s agent, De La Harpe, had set up three months earlier.
The location of these stores is unknown but, in all likelihood, they must have predated all other stores in Port Elizabeth and hence would have probably been adjacent to the landing beaches.
Source
The Decline and Fall of Frederick Korsten by E Hudson