Capital and Labour on the Kimberley Diamond Fields, 1871-1890

by Robert Vicat Turrell

Overview

This first academic history of diamond mining in Kimberley is a major study of the beginning of South Africa's mineral revolution. It includes the first analysis of the formation of De Beers Consolidated Mines, one of the most successful mining companies ever to have been established in Africa. Based on new documentary sources, notably in the Standard Bank Archive, the Rothschild archive and the Philipson Stow Papers, it includes a new interpretation of the Black Flag revolt and of the celebrated amalgamation struggle between Cecil Rhodes and Barney Barnato for the control of the diamond-mining industry.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521071796
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	08/14/2008
Series:	African Studies , #54
Pages:	316
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

Table of Contents

List of plates; List of figures; List of maps; List of tables; List of appendix tables; Preface; List of abbreviations; 1. Diamond mining: an overview; 2. African labour in the early days; 3. The new colonial state, 1873–75; 4. The Black Flag Revolt: an analysis; 5. Company mining; 6. The 'share mania'; 7. The depression and strikes of 1883 and 1884; 8. The closed compound system; 9. Illicit diamond buying and the town economy; 10. Amalgamation; Appendix tables; Notes; Bibliography; Index.