There is a commonly told story about exchange controls: they were a mid-century aberration, just a hangover from war and depression, and when the great liberalisation wave of the 1980s and 1990s happened they were swept away. Capital moves freely now, the story goes, except in a handful of holdouts too poor or too badly…

I was born in East London, a small, scenic town found along the South African coast of the Eastern Cape. A beautiful, sometimes wild place. I grew up in the suburb of Berea, and not far from where I lived, there was a post office. As a youngster, I have very fond memories of taking…