Fuelling the Empire This Page Intentionally Left Blank Fuelling the Empire South Africa’s Gold and the Road to War John J. Stephens Published in the UK in 2003 by JohnWiley & Sons Ltd,The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester,West Sussex PO19 8SQ, England Telephone (þ44) 1243 779777 Email (for orders and customer service enquiries): [email protected] Visit our Home Page on www.wileyeurope.com or www.wiley.com Copyright # 2003 John J. Stephens Cover Image # 2003 The Robert Opie Collection All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or byany means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except under the terms of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, 90 Tottenham Court Road, LondonW1T 4LP,UK, without the permission in writing of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher should be addressed to the Permissions Department, JohnWiley & Sons Ltd,The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester,West Sussex PO19 8SQ, England, or emailed to [email protected], or faxed to (þ44) 1243770571. This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold on the understanding that the Publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought. John Stephens has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, to be identified as the author of this work. OtherWiley Editorial Offices JohnWiley & Sons Inc., 111River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, USA Jossey-Bass, 989 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94103 ^ 1741, USA Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH, Boschstr. 12, D-69469 Weinheim, Germany JohnWiley & Sons Australia Ltd, 33 Park Road, Milton, Queensland 4064, Australia JohnWiley & Sons (Asia) Pte Ltd, 2 Clementi Loop #02-01, Jin Xing Distripark, Singapore 129809 JohnWiley & Sons Canada Ltd, 22 Worcester Road, Etobicoke, Ontario, Canada M9W 1L1 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 0-470-85067-1 Typeset in10=13.5 Photina by Mathematical Composition Setters, Ltd., Salisbury, Wiltshire Printed and bound in Great Britain by TJ International Ltd., Padstow, Cornwall This book is printed on acid-free paper responsibly manufactured from sustainable forestry in which at least two trees are planted for each one used for paper production. DEDICATION To the memory of my father: he loved a good story and told me many from the old days ... This Page Intentionally Left Blank CONTENTS Acknowledgements ix Introduction xiii Part One Irreconcilable expectations 1 1 Setting the stage 3 2 British expectations at the Cape 17 3 Expectations on the Eastern Frontier 29 4 The parting of the ways 54 5 TheTransvaal unsettled 66 Part Two Open borders across the Vaal 77 6 Foundation and colonization 79 7 Gold to the rescue? 90 8 From flawed to failed 106 9Britaintotherescue 117 Part Three Gold ^ the mixed blessing 131 10 Economics, the gold standard and British policy in South Africa 133 11 Wars, concessions and a short boom 142 12 Opening Pandora’s box ^ mining the gold 152 13 The challenge to mining 164 Part Four Intrigue and confrontation 183 14 Afrikaner nationalism and railway politics 185 15 A tale of two cities 198 16 Theconspiracyandtheraid 222 17 Power politics 232 18 A short war ^ a long battle 266 CONTENTS Epilogue 287 Bibliographical Notes 301 Bibliography 315 Index 319 viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS his book would not have been possible without the encour- Tagement and support I received from Sally Smith, my executive editor at John Wiley and Sons. Were it not for her initial responsiveness and positive suggestions, the whole idea of this book might still have been languishing at the back of my mind. It was our first history project together and, as always, I found working with her a tremendous joy. But I owe a debt of gratitude to many others also. Researching a book like this always presents a tremendous challenge. In this, I was greatly assisted by the unstinting and enthusiastic attention of a number of librarians and their assistants. First on this list must be Cathy Erasmus, the chief librarian of the Harold Strange Library of African Studies in Johannesburg. She and her assistant, Linda Boswell, managed to meet all my numerous requests and found some amazing materials, some of which I feared might be impossible to get, given the often vague and general nature of my requests. Cathy is a fount of knowledge and information on works on South African history and especially that of early Johannesburg. I was also the beneficiary of very friendly advice and courteous service by various kind assistants in the library of the Chamber of Mines in Johannesburg, the main reading room of the Johannesburg Central Library and the reference section of the Mogale City Library. Dr. Janet du Plooy of the latter library warrants a special word of thanks for her very helpful information and the fact that she arranged for me to have untrammelled access to the archives of the Mogale City Museum. In my delicious ramblings through the archives of the museum, I was very kindly and very ably assisted by the ever-helpful Christa Eksteen. I also wish to express my sincere thanks and appreciation to Francois de Jager, a friend of long standing, who generously consented to lend ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS me his closely cosseted copies of a number of out-of-print history books, much of which I found helpful and duly found their way into the body of this book. Lending out one’streasured books I have always found to be a less than rewarding transaction, but I am happy to report that I have returned each and every one of them, still in the pristine condition I received them. Duetomydevotiontodetail,Ifounditdifficulttodecidewhatto leave out and what to put in, while still trying to maintain a close narrative. In this choice, I was guided by the advice of both Sally Smith and my son Philip, who consented to read the very rough first draft and proved remorseless in his criticism. Many of the improvements in style can be attributed to their efforts, although I alone can be held responsible for the many deficiencies that undoubtedly remain. Because of a very tight production schedule, everybody connected with the productionteam had to pull out all the stops to complete the project on schedule. My thanks and congratulations go to everyone on the team for their grand effort and the success they achieved. In this regard, I do want to mention the name of Amie Tibble, the production editor who was responsible for the smooth running of the whole process and the not inconsiderable task of coordinating the efforts of so many people. A special word of thanks is also due to Martin Key of The Magic Word Company. He had the rather formidable task of copyediting the final manuscript. It had to be done within a very tight time framework and he managed to do the job with great competence, insight and thoroughness. I was fortunate in having a copyeditor with such experience and knowledge. Finally, most of a work like this is done sitting down in front of a computer and just hacking away.That is a devotion to duty which I sometimes think is deserving of some special decoration. However, in this case the accolades must go to my long-suffering wife Rina. She was always there for me, as she has always been: to act as sounding board for ideas, to give encouragement when my spirits flagged and sometimes, simply to get me to sit down and get on withit.Shedoesnotneedtoreadthebook.Shehasalreadyheard every word that is in it and a good deal more that didn’t make it. x ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Shedisclaimsallinterestinhistory,however,whichisapity, otherwise I would have told her even more ... It is now traditional to say that all the mistakes, incorrect reporting of facts, silly comments and foolish opinions are all entirely my own and nobody else should be blamed for them. I hereby solemnly repeat that assertion, but not for the sake of tradition; there is simply no one else to blame. xi This Page Intentionally Left Blank INTRODUCTION For the good that I would, I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. ^St.PaultotheRomans^Romans 7:19, The Bible, KingJamesVersion mpires are not inherently evil; they have merely had a bad Epress. They are the creations of highly organized societies of people that, from a particular confluence of circumstances, imperatives and opportunities, act collectively to impose their influence over vast regions of the planet and the people who inhabit them. Being of human creation, they display in their histories all the good and evil of which humans are capable. All empires require fuel to come into being, to grow and to persist, but what precisely fuels them is not always clearly perceived. Empires are often thought to result from no more than people’s greed, avarice and lust for power, but successful empires require more than such base motives. Empires based solely on such motives would not last long.Which is not to say that such motives are absent in successful empires, only that in order to grow, flourish and persist, they require much more than mere avarice. In ancient times, the Roman Empire, although fuelled by the immense riches it derived from its far-flung Empire through exacting tributes and levying taxes, established such a successful sanctuary of peace within its borders that cities queued up to join.