Additional information
by Ian Phimister (Author)
In the 1890s financial speculation and market manipulation were prominent features of the Southern African gold mining industry. Extravagantly capitalised, starved of working capital, and poorly managed, many mines could not be made to pay. Investors suffered more at the hands of Randlords than they did from those of the Boer Government in Pretoria.
By failing to take any of this into serious consideration, accounts that focus on mining company complaints as the root cause of the Jameson Raid and the outbreak of war in 1899 are missing a key dimension of the past.
Author Biography
Ian Phimister is Senior University Research Professor at the University of the Free State. He has published widely on patterns of British overseas investment, and on the history of Central Africa, including An Economic and Social History of Zimbabwe, 1890-1948 (Longman 1988).
