Following Milestones and Breaking New Ground

The Robert Williams Papers and the Expansion of the South African Mining Frontier

Aldwin RoesUniversity of Sheffield

Outline

1. Biographical sketch

2. The Robert Williams Papers

3. Narrative Structure

4. Back to the Archive

5. Alternative reading: the Robert Williams group and the Southern African mining frontier

6.Wider relevance

Robert Williams (1860-1938) 1883: Kimberley 1888: Rand 1891: 'Zambesia Exploring' and Southern

Rhodesia 1898: Katanga and the Copperbelt 1906: UMHK Railway finance

1901-1930s: Cape to Cairo (Beira) 1902-1931: Benguela Railway

1928: Sir Robert Williams, Bart. of Park

The Robert Williams Papers

Extent Content Types of material

Documents Reflections

Partiality Context of creation and preservation

The 'Milestones' Narrative (1) Publications, speeches, memoirs:

autobiography and argument Self-image Evolution of the Milestones Narrative: many

disappointments, many endings Birth of a new industry (1911, Memoirs) Benguela Railway (1917, 1918) Cape to Cairo (1921, 1922, 1932) Some Problems (1924)

The 'Milestones' Narrative (2)

“Great discoveries of mineral wealth like Kimberley diamonds, the Rand and Rhodesian goldfields, and the Katanga copper deposits, have been the milestones measuring Africa's

progress along the paths of civilisation”.

“[Katanga] is the milestone that I have had to erect largely by my own efforts”.

Elaboration of the 'Milestones' Narrative: Context (1)

Financial weakness: railway finance Pre-war fiascos South African opposition Protracted negotiations TFA Advisory Committee Tension control - finance

Marginalisation in Katanga Belgian frustration with TCL Nationalism Capital increases Change in management

Elaboration of the 'Milestones' Narrative: Context (2)

Tensions with SGB, risk of take-over (1924) 1930s: Ending of railway pool, limited traffic Result: combative Williams

Re-affirmation of own contribution Case for investment and government support Seeking allies, discrediting opponents

Re-affirmation of own contribution (1)

“I had to educate small peoples to great affairs”.

“There are a few important facts in connection with this History which should be taken careful note of by those

Belgians who have got the ‘English invasion of Katanga’ on the brain. Belgians owe much, if not

everything, to the British”.

Re-affirmation of own contribution (2)

Teleological and linear Pioneering“Where angels feared to tread, I came along”

The man is always right“assiduously cultivated image of someone rarely wrong in his

professional judgements and work, highly ethical in business, benevolent in his dealings with labour, and the centre of stage in every theatre he visited”.

Guided by Providence“It was ‘the Call’ described by Kipling in the form of Livingstone’s

lecture”.

Selling the Railways (1)

“I have raised £10,000,000 for Railways & have done so chiefly because of two things:

-Because I am looked upon as Rhodes' lieutenant.The British people are highly sentimental.

-I bring trade to England & have placed orders for five millions [stng] in British workshops already.”

Selling the Railways (2): humanitarianism

The railway is the Great Civilizer“Then it was a desolate land, the people almost wiped out with

slave raids (and what were left in many instances proved to be cannibals), no industry, no government, not the least sign of civilization anywhere – simply a land of nothingness”.

“Now all is peaceful civilisation, with a railway line”.

Follow Livingstone What about labour?“The native is a child”.

“The black man is edging out and displacing white labour [...] What a problem this poses”.

Selling the Railways (3): Romantic Imperialism

Manifest Destiny Rhodes, Rhodes, Rhodes,... ... and Leopold, too Cape to Cairo: promise to Rhodes, 'my Great

Chief'.

Selling the Railways (4): economics

“Katanga cannot pay without Benguela Rly that is and will remain my strong card!”

Workmen of Britain Trade and markets (Rhodesia, South Africa) Raw materials win the war

Opponents

“It was one long struggle of optimism built up from experience against all the ignorance and distrust of

foreigners and our own people, against jealousy, against opponents at home and abroad”.

German oppositionBSAC: Unpatriotic 'greedy Jews'Belgian incompetenceShort-sighted Governments and Bankers

4. Back to the archive

Interpretative implications of milestones narrative

Evidence in support of narrative Pioneer: stress on early years Railway finance (documents and interpretation)

Blind Spots Evidence contradicting narrative

African labour organization

African Labour Organization (1)

“It was Robert Williams who first saw that the remedy for this highly unsatisfactory state of affairs was to build up a permanent workforce. [The UMHK's labour policy] is the greatest monument to Williams' foresight and humanity”.

“Interview with Mr. Lambert Jadot & discussion re introducing Black Labour to replace white on Katanga Railway. Mr. Williams stated he would resign from the

Board if this was done” (1915).

African Labour Organization (2) Words

Fairness pays Africa without Africans Grudging acceptance: some problems African peculiarity

Actions Rhodesian precedent Robert Williams & Co in Africa Strained labour market: 1917, 1925 “a reputation for pestilence and death”

Belgian innovations

Overcoming Limitations

Awareness of bias: assess reliability Confrontation with other sources

Archival sources Business data

Theoretical and historiographical advances

5. The Robert Williams Group and the Southern African mining frontier

Institutional aspects Business Model Performance

Expansion Crisis Consolidation and northward expansion

Implications

The Robert Williams Group: institutional aspects

Cluster of Free Standing Companies Linking South Africa to the London capital market Management functions externalized

Robert Williams & Co, Mining Engineers Corporate function Territorial organization From two clusters to one

Control within the cluster Enhanced importance Williams Papers

The Robert Williams Group: Business Model

Finance and Exploration Companies

“The Buluwayo Syndicate really represents the biggest financial people in the whole of Africa to-day, so that if there is any flotation to make, in all probability when Mr.

Hammond and I have examined the property and decide it is ready for flotation, this Syndicate, together with the

Zambesi Company, will float it”.

ZEC: Rand reconstructions Limited capital base, rapid turnover

Performance: Expansion

1891-1895: Expanding cluster

“We are having lots of difficulties, but no doubt marble palaces and steam-yachts will be the result of present

inconvenience”.H. Romilly, 1891.

Paper, not gold Conflict and co-operation

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ZEC share prices 1893-1900

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Performance: Market Value

Performance: Crisis (1)

1895-96: Speculative bubble bursts Capitalization of dreams Initiative passes to London: swindles Market crash, Jameson Raid, Ndebele & Shona

risings Narrowing of opportunities

Business model runs aground Scarcity of capital for Rhodesian & Rand ventures

Performance: Crisis (2)

“As for 10 St. Helens Place they will be our ruin if we have any more to do with them. They are floating off all sorts of rubbish and I candidly tell you, I cannot take their rubbish

into Williams Consolidated”. Robert Williams, 9 Oct 1895

“We must go dead slow until the market improves sufficiently to allow us to float off subsidiary companies”.

Robert Williams, 31 Jan 1896

“We must economise for a bit”.Robert Williams, 24 Oct 1898

Performance: Consolidation and Northward Expansion (1)

1896-1899: Losses and disappointments Retrenchment Robert Williams & Co URGF, Clark's Consolidated, ZRI Priced out of Rand

Financial Consolidation: ZEC+ New opportunities

Country risk vs. insider knowledge and business network

BSAC is in the same boat

Performance: Consolidation and Northward Expansion (2)

1898: Tanganyika Concessions Limited

1900: Katanga Concession

Out with the old, in with the new“So far as Clarks Consolidated, the Z.E. Co and the

Bulawayo Syndicate are concerned, I am coming to look at them [...] as likely to turn out failures. [I]t seems doubtful

whether the investing public will again give us the opportunity of selling large blocks of unproved claims”.

“The [ZEC] directors seem extraordinarily anxious to acquire as large an interest as possible in the Tanganyika, and it

makes one suspicious that they are not very hopeful of their own unaided possibilities”

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6ZEC, 1893-1914

£Performance: Consolidation and

Northward Expansion (3)

The Robert Williams Group and the South African mining frontier

Business is business Boom and bust: regional economic dynamics Future in Katanga

Institutional aspects and business model Know-how Capital: mixed blessings of London market

6. Wider Relevance

Impact on South and Central Africa Globalisation and fragmentation Business and Imperialism Shifts in global mining Gentlemanly capitalism Networks and information flows Cosmopolitan elites: culture and ideas