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The Nyassa Chartered Company: 1891–19291

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Barry Neil-Tomlinson
Barry Neil-Tomlinson
Affiliation:
S.O.A.S., University of London
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Extract

This article presents a picture of the changing character of the Nyassa Company at ground level, and it relates this to changes in the capital interests which controlled the company. In so doing it seeks to explain the undercapitalization which left the area economically undeveloped. During the first period of the company's existence, from 1894 to 1898, its publicly expressed aim was the economic development of Nyassa; but the directors were primarily concerned with financial speculation and the company's influence in Africa spread no further than isolated points on the coast. In the second period of its existence, from 1899 to 1914, the company became a conquering and occupying force; but the expense of overcoming the determined resistance of African political units, plus a more realistic appraisal of the area's economic potential, meant that by 1909 the aim of economic development had been abandoned and the company turned instead to expanding its role as a supplier of migrant labour. In 1913 migrant labour to South Africa ceased, the company changed hands, and shortly afterwards the European war found its way into the area. In the last period of the company's existence, from 1919 to 1929, with only ten years of the charter left since the Portuguese government refused to grant an extension, the principles of finance capital dictated that it was too late for profitable investment in realizing the early visions of extensive economic development. Instead, the company turned to raising the level of hut tax as a means of increasing revenue, and the administration was allowed to expand and intensify the abuses which it seems to have always practised.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 18 , Issue 1 , January 1977 , pp. 109 - 128
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1977

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References

2 For the last forty years the Portuguese government had been borrowing heavily abroad with the result that in 1890–1 nearly 45 per cent of its revenue was devoted to servicing the national debt. In June 1892 the Portuguese government effectively declared itself bankrupt: see Hammond, R. J., Portugal and Africa 1815–1910, (Stanford, 1966), 203–14.Google Scholar

3 F.O. 371/14152, Lord Kylsant to Sec. of State at the Foreign Office, 12 Mar. 1929 (Hereafter only the correspondent will be cited, unless the recipient is other than the Sec. of State at the F.O.); F.O. 371/19932 Kylsant, 1926; F.O. 371/15014, Kylsant, , 17 Jan. 1930.Google Scholar

4 Vail, Leroy, ‘Mozambique's Chartered Companies: The Rule of the Feeble’, J. Afr. Hist, xvii, 3 (1976), 389–416.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5 This amplification has largely been made possible by the use of sources which Vail has not used, namely a variety of contemporary accounts published by missions, travellers, governments and the company, and those records which British companies were obliged to lodge with the Board of Trade.

6 The company's publicly expressed aims were contained in a number of publications associated with its formation. The most enthusiastic and fascinating prospectus was Worsfold, W. B., Portuguese Nyassaland (London, 1899)Google Scholar. Appendix B of this contains a translation of the charter and other associated documents. See also Cambell, Y. W., Travellers’ Records of Portuguese Nyassaland, (n.d. London)Google Scholar; d'A Coutinho, J., De Nyassa a Pemba: Os Territories da Companhia de Nyassa (Lisbon, 1893)Google Scholar; and Handbook of the Nyassa Company, (n.p 1898).Google Scholar

7 Worsfold, , Portuguese Nyassaland, 67Google Scholar. Edgecumbe contributed the chapter specifically dealing with the Nyassa Company. He also edited Cambell, 's Travellers’ RecordsGoogle Scholar. It is not surprising to find then that Edgecumbe was an investor in the Nyassa Company via the Ibo Investment Trust and the Ibo Syndicate of which he was a director and investor; see B.T. 31 6097/43164, Ibo Syndicate Ltd.; and B.T. 31 15765/52214, Ibo Investment Trust Ltd.

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10 For the pre-twentieth century history of the Makua and Yao, see the highly important work of Alpers, E. A., Ivory and Slaves in East Central Africa, (London, 1975)Google Scholar; see also Maples, C., Proc. Royal Geog. Soc. (Feb. 1882), 86Google Scholar; O'Neill, H. E., ‘East Africa between the Zambezi and Rovuma Rivers’, Scottish Geographical Magazine, (Aug. 1885), 337–52Google Scholar; Anderson-Morshead, A. E. M., The History of the Universities’ Mission to Central Africa, (London, 1955), 95Google Scholar; d'Amorim, Governor, ‘Report on the Administration of the Territory Belonging to the Nyassa Company During the Year 1898’, in Cambell's Travellers’ Records, 210Google Scholar; Tew, , Peoples, 22Google Scholar; Admiralty, , Handbook, 38–40Google Scholar and Manual, 117–20Google Scholar; Worsfold, , Portuguese Nyassaland, 128–32.Google Scholar

11 d'Amorim, in Cambell, , Travellers' Records, 210.Google Scholar

12 Nyassa as a whole thus hardly deserves Vail's description of it as an ‘economic backwater’. See Alpers, , Ivory and SlavesGoogle Scholar; Wilson, G. H., The History of the Universities' Mission to Central Africa, (London, 1936), 50–2, 62Google Scholar; Livingstone, D. (ed. Waller, H.), Last Journals, (London, 1874), 68–72Google Scholar; Abdallah, Y. B., The Yaos, (Zomba, 1919), 40–60Google Scholar; Blood, A. G., The History of the Universities' Mission to Central Africa, igoj–32, (London, 1957), 25–6Google Scholar; Anderson-Morshead, , History, 124.Google Scholar

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18 On the extent of the Portuguese presence in 1894, see Axelson, , Scramble, 2–3Google Scholar; D'Eca, , Factos e Documentos, 5–6Google Scholar; F.O. 371/19932, Report of the Intendente to the Portuguese Government, 20 Mar. 1925 and Report of Colonel Mendes dos Reis on the Conditions of the Territory as They Affected the Extension of the Charter, encl. in Lord Kylsant to F.O. 1926; F.O. 371/15014, Aspling, T., 17 Jan, 1930Google Scholar, Memo on Work Done by the Nyassa Company.

19 Most trade at the coast at this time was of Makua and Maconde origin but some Yao trade did also come this way. Maples in 1881 whilst at Medo encountered a caravan of two thousand on its way to Quissanga from Makanjila's which was close to the lake.

20 For the early years on the coast the most important source is d'Amorim, Governor's ‘Report for 1898’ in Cambell's Travellers’ RecordsGoogle Scholar; see also Admiralty, , Handbook, 56–7Google Scholar and Manual, 510Google Scholar; Worsfold, and, Portuguese Nyassaland, chs., 3, 4 and 11.Google Scholar

21 The revenue eventually realized from the prohibited sources was around £5.500 as compared with the estimated cost of £3 million for building the railway. F.O. 371/14152, T. Aspling, 6 Jan. 1929.

22 The lack of finance from 1891 to 1894 is well illustrated in that the deposit had to be lowered from £10,000 to £2,000 and the bill of exchange lodged as a deposit was eventually dishonoured. Hammond, , Portugal, 215–6Google Scholar. By 1895 however Isidore Wyler had lent the company over £39,000, and the Ibo Syndicate had lent the company £80,000 and had bought 296,969 fully paid up shares at £1 each. B.T. 15765/52114, Ibo Investment Trust, encloses the agreements between Isidore Wyler and the Ibo Investment Trust, and between the Ibo Syndicate and the Ibo Investment Trust.

23 Worsfold, , Portuguese Nyassaland, 79.Google Scholar

24 Hammond, , Portugal, 215–6.Google Scholar

25 D'Amorim, , ‘Report for 1898’ in Cambell's Travellers’ Records, 206–7.Google Scholar

26 D'Amorim, op. cit. 207–8.

27 B.T. 31 15765/52214, Ibo Investment Trust.

28 Gybbon-Spilsbury, A. ‘Expedition from Port Amelia to Lake Nyassa’, Africa Society (J. Roy. Afr. Soc), i (1901), 126–44.Google Scholar

29 de Vilhena, J., A Companhia de Nyassa, Relatorios e Memorios sobre Os Territorios, (Lisbon, 1905), 239–41.Google Scholar

30 Admiralty, , Handbook, 57–63,Google Scholar and Manual, 511Google Scholar; Abdallah, , The Yaos, 58–9Google Scholar; Mills, , What We Do, 176–8Google Scholar, Blood, , History, 25–6.Google Scholar

31 B.T. 31 31984/96527, Nyassa Consolidated Ltd.

32 Admiralty, , Handbook, 57–63Google Scholar, and Manual, 511Google Scholar; F.O. 371/19932, encl. in Kylsant, , 1926Google Scholar, Report of the Intendente to the Portuguese Government 20 Mar. 1925, and Report of Colonel Mendes dos Reis on the Conditions of the Territory as They Affected the Extention of the Charter; d'Eca, , Factos e Documentor, 8–10.Google Scholar

33 D'Eca, , Factos e Documentos, 11–16Google Scholar, contains extracts from the report of the campaign commander; Blood, , History, 60.Google Scholar

34 Abdallah, , The Yaos, 60Google Scholar. Significantly Che Salenge with whom Che Chisonga had ‘quarrelled’ became the next Mataka.

35 Admiralty, , Handbook, 59Google Scholar. The uneven irregularity of the administration persisted throughout and beyond the company's existence. As late as the 1950s Father John Paul could write of a chefe de posto who ‘as he had no means of transport hardly ever left Metangula to tour his vast area’. Paul, Fr. John, Mozambique. Memoirs of a Revolution (Hammondsworth, 1975), 27.Google Scholar

36 Not to be confused with the Yao chief.

37 Mills, , What We Do, 250–3.Google Scholar

38 Admiralty, , Handbook, 63Google Scholar; D'Eca, , Factos e Documentos, 16.Google Scholar

39 Admiralty, , Handbook, 63Google Scholar; Mills, , What We Do, 250–3Google Scholar; Tew, , Peoples, 3Google Scholar; Mitchell, J. C., The Yao Village, (London, 1956), 58–65Google Scholar; Anderson-Morshead, , History, 239.Google Scholar

40 Admiralty, British, Handbook for German East Africa, 56–62Google Scholar; Vail, , ‘Mozambique's Chartered Companies’, 402.Google Scholar

41 D'Amorim, , ‘Report for 1898’, in Cambell's Travellers’ Records, 207–9Google Scholar; Vilhena, , Companhia, 119–23Google Scholar; Admiralty, , Handbook, 76.Google Scholar

42 B.T. 31 15765/52214 Ibo Investment Trust.

43 Duffy, J., A Question of Slavery, (Oxford, 1967), 147Google Scholar. In response to the Lisbon boarD's objections to this agreement the Foreign Office, at the request of the London board, offered to exert pressure on the Lisbon board via the Portuguese government and its representative on the Lisbon board.

44 Admiralty, , Manual, 177Google Scholar. This compares with 71,213 from south of lat. 22° S.

45 Amongst those with an interest in Nyassa Consolidated were: Lewis and Marks, Johannesburg Consolidated Investment Trust, Goldfields of Matabeleland, Bechuanaland Exploration Company, South Rhodesian Goldfields, Mining and Finance Trust Syndicate, Share Mining Corporation, Anglo-Continental Gold Syndicate, and United Exploration. See B.T. 31 31984/96527, Nyassa Consolidated Ltd.

46 Shepherd, W. C. A., ‘Recruiting of Natives in P.E.A. for the Mines’, J. Afr. Soc. (1934), 257–8Google Scholar; Admiralty, , Handbook, 73.Google Scholar

47 Admiralty, , Manual, 178–9.Google Scholar

48 Lewis and Marks continued to hold around 25 per cent of ConsolidateD's shares F.O. 371/14152, Aspling, , 17 Jan. 1929Google Scholar; F.O. 371/8375, Regendanz, W. C., 14 Mar. 1929Google Scholar; F.O. 371/15014, Kylsant, , 17 Jan. 1930.Google Scholar

49 Duffy, J., Portuguese Africa, (Harvard, 1959), 336 n.Google Scholar; Blood, , History, 92–3Google Scholar; F.O. 371/19932, end. in Kylsant, , 1926Google Scholar, Report of the Intendente to the Portuguese Government 20 Mar. 1925, Report of Colonel Mendes dos Reis on the Conditions of the Territory as They Affected the Extension of the Charter; F.O. 371/8377, Burke, G. D. Lardner, 9 Apr. 1922Google Scholar. Lardner Burke had been a member of the South African Special Services Company in Nyassa during the war and reported, amongst other things, encountering African troops shooting villagers on sight at the orders of the local chefe de posto in retaliation for supporting the German forces.

50 Duffy, James, Portuguese Africa, 336 n.Google Scholar

51 F.O. 371/19932, encl. in Kylsant, , 1926Google Scholar, Report of the Intendente to the Portuguese Government 20 Mar. 1925, and Report by Colonel Mendes dos Reis; Blood, , History, 177–Google Scholar

52 F.O. 371/8375, Kylsant, 18 Mar. 1922Google Scholar; for a fuller account of this operation see Vail, , ‘Mozambique's Chartered Companies’, 407–10.Google Scholar

53 Kylsant repeatedly claimed that Consolidated had invested £200,000 in the Nyassa Company in 1918. An air of mystery surrounded this investment in that neither the various governors of the Nyassa Company nor the representatives of Consolidated could explain what it had been spent on. Eventually ‘The Missing £200,000’ became a myth, an institutionalized conversation piece. That such an investment should have been made was certainly at odds with Kylsant's refusal to invest in the company without an extension of its charter. The solution to this mystery is that the £200,000 was in fact never invested in the Nyassa Company. Consolidated did raise £190,000 in 1918– but only £20,000 of this was invested in the Nyassa Company. F.O. 371/15014, Pyke, J., 18 Feb. 1930Google Scholar; F.O. 371/15015. Allford, A. 12 Sept. 1930Google Scholar; B.T. 31 31984/9652, Nyassa Consolidated.

54 F.O. 371/15014, Vice-consul Hogg, W. to Pyke, , 7 Jan. 1927 and 31 Jan. 1928Google Scholar, encl. in Pyke, , 18 Feb. 1930Google Scholar. Nyassa ConsolidateD's representatives in Port Amelia acted as British Vice-consuls, an arrangement which occasionally produced acute conflicts of loyalty.

55 Admiralty, , Handbook, 76Google Scholar; Company, Nyassa, Annual Report for 1928, an English translation of which is encl. in F.O. 371/15014.Google Scholar

56 Vilhena, , Companhia, 119–23Google Scholar, sets out detailed hut tax accounts for 1898 to 1903 in which 1903 is the first year during which labour is recorded as being accepted in lieu of hut tax at Mtarica, Mocimboa, and Lago Amaramba.

57 F.O. 371/15014, Hogg, to Pyke, , 7 Jan. 1927 enclGoogle Scholar. in Pyke, 18 Feb. 1930.Google Scholar

58 The statements of the Company on the level of plantation agriculture are so extra vagant and vague as to be quite useless. Typical of this is F.O. 371/15014, Aspling, , 17 Jan. 1930Google Scholar, Memo on Work Done by the Nyassa Company. Nor are the concessions actually granted any guide since they were often not worked and there is little guide as to which were taken up. In 1930 the Portuguese government cancelled two concessions granted in 1925 and 1921 since the land had not been brought under cultivation.

59 F.O. 371/15014, Hogg, to Pyke, , 7 Jan. 1927, enclGoogle Scholar. in Pyke, , 18 Feb. 1930.Google Scholar

60 Nyassa Company, Annual Report 1928.

61 Nyassa Company, Annual Report 1928; Admiralty, , Handbook, 76.Google Scholar

62 The all-round increase in trade and associated forms of revenue in 1928 was generally attributed to exceptionally good agricultural weather.

63 This is rather speculative. Two German firms had operated on the coast without venturing into the interior but they left the territory in 1914. The Nyassa Company did not officially engage in trade as such. Nyassa Consolidated was involved in trade via the Nyassa Trading Company and a commercial department set up in 1918, but B.T. 31 31984/96527 suggests that this was of negligible importance since little capital was involved and profits were almost non-existent. In the controversy which surrounded the end of the charter, the interests involved in the Nyassa Company dredged up any and every form of activity, however pathetic, to counter charges of lethargy and mismanagement, and no other form of European trading activity is mentioned. In this context it seems reasonable to assume that the bulk of trade continued to be handled by Indian and African traders and the relationships between them might well have taken on new configurations.

64 In 1915, wages stood at 2 Escudos a month and hut tax at a Escudos a year; Admiralty, , Handbook, 76Google Scholar. In 1927 wages stood at 15 Escudos a month and hut tax at 50 Escudos a year; F.O. 371/15014, Hogg, to Pyke, , 7 Jan. 1927, and 31 Jan. 1928, endGoogle Scholar. in Pyke, , 18 Feb. 1930.Google Scholar

65 F.O. 371/15014, Hogg, to Pyke, , 31 Jan. 1928, endGoogle Scholar. in Pyke, , 18 Feb. 1930.Google Scholar

66 Nyassa Company, Annual Report 1928.

67 F.O. 371/8377. Burke, Lardner, 9 Apr. 1922Google Scholar; F.O. 371/8377, Bodington, F. to Hall-Hall, H., 12 Apr. 1922, enclGoogle Scholar. in Hall-Hall, , 13 Apr. 1922Google Scholar; F.O. 367/291, Bostock, L. to MacDonnell, E. encl. in MacDonnell, July 1922.Google Scholar

68 F.O. 371/15014, Pyke, 18 Feb.; Vilhena, , Companhia, 72–194Google Scholar; Admiralty, , Handbook, 79–80Google Scholar, and Manual, 184Google Scholar; F.O. 371/15014, Salazar, A., 21 Feb. 1930Google Scholar; F.O. 371/15015, Deliberations of the Governing Council of Mozambique, 17 Oct. 1929; Nyassa Company, Annual Report 1928.

69 F.O. 371/7104, Acting Vice-consul at Amelia, Porto to Hall-Hall, , 31 Oct. 1920, enclGoogle Scholar. in Hall-Hall, , 14 Dec. 1920Google Scholar; and Hall-Hall, , 14 Mar. 1921Google Scholar; F.O. 371/19932, Report of the Intendente to the Portuguese Government, 20 Mar. 1925, encl. in Kylsant, to F.O. 1926.Google Scholar

70 F.O. 371/15014, Allford, , 5 Jan. 1929Google Scholar; F.O. 371/15015, Pyke, , 7 July 1930.Google Scholar

71 F.O. 367/344, Bostock, L. to MacDonnell, E., 28 Sept. 1913 endGoogle Scholar. in MacDonnell, E., 14 Oct. 1913.Google Scholar

72 Tew, , Peoples, 2Google Scholar; Blood, , History, 174, 179–80Google Scholar; Mitchell, , The Yao Village, 58–61Google Scholar; F.O. 371/8377, CO. Report, 17 Nov. 1922.

73 F.O. 371/15014, Hogg, to Pyke, , 31 Jan. 1928, endGoogle Scholar. in Pyke, , 18 Feb. 1930.Google Scholar

74 Tew, , Peoples, 5, 23, 27.Google Scholar

75 F.O. 371/8377, CO. Report, 17 Nov. 1922.

76 F.O. 371/12700, Frere de Andrada, 24 Mar.

77 Public opinion in Lourenco Marques was particularly incensed by the failure of the company to even maintain the roads which had been built during the war. See F.O. 371/13423, Deliberations of the Government Council of Mozambique, 17 Oct. 1929.

78 The non-profitability of the various companies, as such, emerges clearly from those records which were lodged with the Board of Trade, but this does not enable any judgment to be made on the profitability of such underhand activities as may have been undertaken by various individuals.

79 B.T. 31 31984/96527, Nyassa Consolidated.