British South Africa Company

“ It announced that the first wish of the British commanders was to adopt every measure which might appear proper to promote the prosperity of the settlement and the happiness of the inhabitants; that the monopolies and oppressions practised for the benefit of the India Company were at an end; that internal trade was free from that day; that every man might buy of whom he pleased, sell to whom he pleased, employ whom he pleased, and come and go where he chose by land or water ”

“ What really caused this change in policy and the resulting expansion of Great Britain in South Africa is an interesting historical question. The position of late years has been so different from the developments of the fifties and from the dominating ideas and ideals of the Manchester School of thought that some explanation is necessary. The discovery of gold and diamonds does not afford an adequate one. There was none of either in Basutoland, or Zululand, or Bechuanaland, or Tongaland, or in the great regions which the Chartered Company had acquired and held under the Crown. ”

“ With the British South Africa Company it was a far different and infinitely more difficult performance, to translate the license to operate into action. Matabeleland and Mashonaland were wild regions where war-like tribes roamed or fought at will. There were no roads. The only white men who had ventured there were hunters, traders, and concession seekers. Occupation preceded exploitation. A white man's civilization had to be set up first. The rifle and the hoe went in together.
In June, 1890, the Pioneer Column entered. Heading it were two men who left an impress upon African romance. ”

“ The subjects of all countries in amity with Great Britain were to be permitted to carry on trade in the colony, subject to such duties as the governor might establish. These duties were thereafter fixed at ten per cent. of the value on foreign goods brought in foreign bottoms, and five per cent. of the value on foreign goods brought in British bottoms or British goods brought in foreign bottoms. An exception, however, was made with regard to commerce with places east of the Cape of Good Hope, which could only be carried on by the English East India Company, or with its license. ”

“ The brief statistics with which this article is accompanied—and they have been confined to the narrowest possible limits—conclusively show that, so far as South African trade is concerned, British manufacturers are more than holding their own; and there cannot be the least doubt that they will continue to do so in the years of prosperity and expansion that are before the sub-continent, provided they are assisted by the ungrudging efforts of labour. ”

“ It is unquestionable that had British manufacturers paid sufficient attention to the possibilities of the South African trade in the period from 1881-91, and had realised how rapidly the country was developing, thereby quickening them to action, the foreigner would not have got the hold upon its commerce which he now has, the combined share of all the countries competing with Great Britain amounting in 1901 to £4,590,681, or 14.9 per cent. ”

“ The demand which South Africa is likely to offer either for home-made or for imported products must, therefore, be measured, not by the gross population, but by the white population, and, indeed, by the town-dwelling whites; for the Dutch farmer or ranchman, whether in the British Colonies or in the Dutch [Pg 447] Republics, has very little cash in his pocket, and lives in a primitive way. It is only the development of the mines that makes South Africa a growing market for European goods. ”

“ The Boers in the two Republics and the Boer element at the Cape have neither taste nor talent for this kind of industry, and such capital as exists is naturally attracted to mining enterprises. Nevertheless, it may be thought that as capital accumulates things will change, and that the English part of the population in the two British Colonies will take to manufactures, as it has done in Australia. ”

“ It is not for me to deal with the problems of trade; but I may say that even should some scheme of the favoured-nation kind be extended to British imports by the South African Realm to be, that in itself would not serve, nor will the spirit of patriotic preference for British goods suffice to preserve the trade of South Africa for this country. The matter rests with our manufacturers, exporters, and their agents ”

“ As things now are, we have a British autocracy in power, alternating in turn between the desire to repress the clamant demands of the one great industry of South Africa—the gold mines, and dread of that powerful confederacy—the Rand magnates. The methods and example of the great financial [Pg 78] corporations and financial princes are not, to write temperately, conducive to the elevation of public morals; nor do they tend to give to the public life of a colony a high or healthy tone. ”

“ The Orange Free State had a revenue of $2,010,000, an expenditure of $1,905,000 and an indebtedness of $200,000; imports of $6,155,000—chiefly from Cape Colony—and exports of $8,970,000, which were divided principally between Cape Colony and the Transvaal; 366 miles of railway, 1,762 miles of telegraph and 7,390 scholars in its schools. The following table [1] gives an easily comprehended view of South Africa as divided amongst its Kaffir, Dutch and English communities in respect to mode of government and measure of British responsibility:
[1] British Empire Series. ”

“ There is at present no land trade from British or Boer States with the territories of Germany and the Congo State which lie to the north; and spaces so vast, inhabited only by a few natives, lie between that no such trade seems likely to arise for many years to come. Continental Europe exerts little influence on South African ideas or habits; for the Boers, from causes already explained, have no intellectual affinity with modern Holland, and the Germans who have settled in British territories have become quickly Anglified. ”

“ Capitalism.
The development of British policy in South Africa had hitherto been influenced at different times, and in a greater or less degree, by the spirit of Jingoism, and by that zeal for Annexation which is so characteristic of the trading instincts of the race. It was, however, a policy that had been conducted in other respects on continuous lines, and it might be justified by the argument that it was necessary in the interests of the Empire. But Capitalism was the new factor which was about to play such an important rôle in the history of South Africa. ”

“ If South Africa is booming, the possessors of capital hasten to gather dividends on soil thousands of miles away, and with the interest received in this country, direct British labour to noble or ignoble ends, as may seem good in their eyes. ”

“ The development to its utmost of the mining industry—not, it may be added, in order to enrich a handful of 'Park Lane capitalists,' but because the whole prosperity of South Africa depends, to an extent which can hardly be realized in England, upon the activity of the mines. The encouragement of a policy of land settlement—again, not from any idea of ousting or outnumbering the Boers, but in order to introduce a new and progressive element into the life of the veld, and to give British as well as Boers some stake in the land. ”

“ The great British and German corporations are zealous in extending their transactions to the commercial ports everywhere, and local companies are often formed in the British colonies. In addition to those in Canada and Australia some companies in South Africa have become financially important. ”

“ But the interests of the great mining companies are not now, and never can be, on all-fours with those of the operatives; while the traders are likely to find their ideals at variance with those of the mining magnates and operatives alike. Obviously there will be no immediate community of interest and aim between the old Boer farmers and the new British elements introduced on to the land. The differences of the townsmen are likely to be more strictly economic than political ”

“ The tide of confederation, and corporate union is manifestly rising, the wave of extended British influence is flowing northwards, the various nationalities and states of this vast country are educating themselves by experience to see the folly and sterile weakness of isolation, and are learning to realise the inherent strength, and vitality of mutual co-operation, based on a self respecting, yet unselfish responsibility to South Africa as a whole. ”

“ Unlike Sir Benjamin D'Urban, Sir Peregrine Maitland, Sir Harry Smith, Sir George Grey and Sir Bartle Frere, he has had the rich and rare privilege in South Africa of being endorsed and supported through all the tangled threads of a complicated situation by the Colonial Office, the Imperial Government, the British Parliament, and, eventually, the people of the Empire. Of this he will always have reason to be proud, whatever may be the arduous labors and responsibilities and perhaps changes of the hidden future. ”

“ Even the mines, which have been less affected hitherto, are now suffering owing to the withdrawal of workmen, both European and native. The crisis also affects the trading centres in the Colony. In spite of this, the purport of all the representations made to me is to urge prompt and decided action; not to deprecate further interference on the part of Her Majesty's Government. British South Africa is prepared for extreme measures, and is ready to suffer much in order to see the vindication of British authority. ”

“ This is a matter which need not be intruded here, but it is one upon which the maintenance of our supremacy in the world’s markets will depend, and it is one, too, which could be more profitably discussed by those whose apparent mission is to belittle everything that is British in favour of those who, in South Africa as elsewhere, are striving to wrest our commerce from us. ”

“ It is true that here and there in the daily press statements, more or less accurate, from time to time appear as to its trend, and of late quite a number of technical journals, somewhat tardily, appear to have only just awakened to the fact that the huge demands made upon British industries by South Africa’s consumptive requirements are worthy of further investigation. ”

“ During the period of Brand’s presidency a great change, both political and economic, had come over South Africa. The renewal of the policy of British expansion had been answered by the formation of the Afrikander Bond, which represented the racial aspirations of the Dutch-speaking people, and had active branches in the Free State. ”

“ The fact that war and annexation were inevitable forms no reason why South Africa should remain for ever a useless appendage of the British Empire, a mere passenger in the Imperial boat. On the contrary, all the factors are present there which constitute the essential value to Great Britain of the 'Dominions beyond the seas.' Have the Colonies any use as an outlet for the cramped population of the Mother Country? South Africa furnishes a vast tract of territory in which Europeans can live and work. ”

“ The settlement of the problem here means peace throughout South Africa; and, unfortunately, the division of races in the Transvaal is very nearly coincident with other divisions, which tend to aggravate it The British population is congregated for the most part on the narrow ridge of the Rand, and is identified with its great gold industry. The Boers are farmers, and are distributed through the rest of the country. ”

“ The Transvaal State now became the South African Republic, and its Delegates negotiated treaties in Berlin, Paris and Lisbon. Gold soon began to be produced in great quantities, the revenues swelled into millions of pounds sterling, salaries of officials grew apace, President Kruger became one of the wealthy men of the world, alien settlers were treated like native inferiors, the oppressed Uitlander came into prominence, and presently the British Empire found itself face to face with an organized, compact, wealthy and powerful enemy. ”

“ The British Empire is now more than ever a crucible wherein metals, precious and base, may be wrought into a fine amalgam. Whether as a limb of a great and regenerated British Empire, and therein my individual hopes lie, or as a powerful republic on the pattern of the United States, there ought to be no question as to the future of South Africa. Mr. Chamberlain said again only the other day that the prosperity of South Africa in the not far distant future would doubtless exceed the dreams of the most sanguine visionary. So let it be. Many shrewd Americans are of the same mind. ”

“ The rapid development of British interests in South Africa, the acquisition of territory in great part surrounding the South African Republic,—which was completely cut off from the sea by British and Portuguese territory,—and the growth of a large foreign population on the soil of the republic itself, could not fail to be a source of great annoyance to the Boers, who deeply mistrusted their new neighbors. ”

“ Even now the British colonist has many substantial excuses for averring that loyalty does not pay. In view of these facts it behoves Great Britain to admit frankly her past errors and to resolve, if she means to retain her hold on South Africa, to order her footsteps differently in the future. It behoves Great Britain, if she would avoid future risks of triangular disloyalty and the grave disasters, local and international, which might supervene on another period of neglect and snubbing, to trust the men on the spot. It behoves her to govern South Africa firmly, consistently, and unemotionally ”