'The Exchange, Cape Town'

Lithograph by Day and Haghe, after Henry Clifford de Meillon. Published by G Grieg, Cape Town, 1832.

The Kingdom of the Netherlands had ceded Cape Town to the British in January 1814. Its strategic position as the halfway point between Europe and Asia meant that prior to the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 almost every ship heading east docked at Cape Town.