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³ Among others, Robinson, Ronald and Gallagher, John, with Denny, Alice, Africa and the Victorians: The Official Mind of Imperialism (London, 2nd ed., 1981)CrossRefGoogle Scholar: Brunschwig, H., French Colonialism: Myths and Realities (London, 1966);Google Scholar and Wehler, H.-U., Bismarck und der Imperialismus (Cologne and Berlin, 1969).Google Scholar

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⁶ Coupland, R., The Exploitation of East Africa, 1856–1890 (London, 1939);Google Scholarde Kiewiet, M., ‘History of the Imperial British East Africa Company, 1876–1895’ (Ph.D. thesis, University of London, 1955);Google ScholarFlint, J., ‘The wider background to partition and colonial occupation,’Google Scholar and Hemphill, M. D. Kiewiet, ‘The British sphere, 1884–94,’ in Oliver, R. and Mathew, G. (eds), History of East Africa, I (Oxford, 1963);Google ScholarGalbraith, J., Mackinnon and East Africa, 1878–1895: A Study in the ‘New’ Imperialism (Cambridge, 1972);Google ScholarSmith, I. R., The Emin Pasha Relief Expedition (Oxford, 1972).Google Scholar

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⁹ Wrigley, C. C., ‘Neo-mercantile policies and the new imperialism,’ in Dewey, C. and Hopkins, A. G. (eds), The Imperial Impact: Studies in the Economic History of Africa and India (London, 1978), 26.Google Scholar Here Wrigley was drawing upon an earlier, unpublished paper in which his assessment of the goals of the Imperial British East Africa Company was developed in greater detail (‘Economic imperialism: the East African base,’ paper presented to the Seminar on Colonial Rule and Local Response in the igth and 20th centuries, Institute of Commonwealth Studies, London, June 1972).

¹⁰ For a general overview of the structure and evolution of the Mackinnon Group, see Munro, J. F., ‘“Scottish business imperialism”: Sir William Mackinnon and the development of trade and shipping in the Indian Ocean,’ ESRC Report, B/00/23/0049 (1984);Google ScholarMunro, J. F., ‘Clydeside, the Indian Ocean and the City: the Mackinnon investment group, 1847–1893,’ paper presented to the seminar on ‘The City and the Empire,’ Institute of Commonwealth Studies, London, 31 October 1985;Google Scholar and Munro, J. F., ‘Sir William Mackinnon,’ in Slaven, A. and Checkland, S. G. (eds), Dictionary of Scottish Business Biography, II (Aberdeen, forthcoming)Google Scholar. See also Jones, Stephanie, Two Centuries of Overseas Trading: The Origins and Growth of the Inchcape Group (London, 1986), 1–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹¹ Headrick, D. R.The Tools of Empire: Technology and European Imperialism in the Nineteenth Century (Oxford, 1981).Google Scholar

¹² In addition to Headrick, Tools of EmpireGoogle Scholar, see Thorner, D., Investment in Empire: British Railway and Steam Shipping Enterprise in India, 1825–1849 (Philadelphia, 1950);Google ScholarMacPherson, W. J., ‘Investment in Indian railways, 1845–72,’ Econ. Hist. Rev., VII (1955);Google Scholar and Broeze, F., ‘Underdevelopment and dependency: maritime India during the Raj,’ Modern Asian Studies, XVIII (1984).Google Scholar

¹³ The single exception was the London—Colombo—Madras—Calcutta line introduced in 1876, for which the substantial Mackinnon Group investments in Calcutta held out prospects of rapid commercial success.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Companies House, London, File 133; Public Record Office, London, (hereafter PRO): BT/31/938/121C.Google Scholar

¹⁵ Martineau, J., Life of Sir Bartle Frere (London, 1895), 1, 481–516.Google Scholar

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¹⁷ See Great Britain, Parliamentary Papers, ‘East India: steam transport, reports and correspondence,’ XL, 581 (1865).Google Scholar

¹⁸ ‘It seems,’ Frere wrote to his protégé, Pelly, in May 1862, ‘that we may have the cares and responsibilities, if not the other attributes of a great empire, half African, half Arabian, thrust on us, whether we will or no … All seems just now to hang on this great slavery question which you have brought forward …’ (Martineau, Frere, 1, 504).Google Scholar

¹⁹ H. A. Fraser, a retired Indian Navy captain, was set up in business in Zanzibar with a capital of 70,000 supplied by B.I.'s Bombay agents, Wm. Nicol & Co. (Coupland, Exploitation, 178–180;Google Scholar Memorandum by Lt.-Col. Playfair on the Trade and Prospects of Zanzibar, 3 October 1864, enclosure in Political Despatch to Bombay, no. 31, 16 October 1865, India Office, Selections from Despatches Addressed to the Several Governments in India, IOL & R, V/6).

²⁰ Memorandum on the Draft of Despatches Regarding the Affairs of Muscat and Zanzibar by Frere, H. E. B., 15 July 1868, addendum of 20 July 1868, IOL & R, L/P & S/18/B2.Google Scholar

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²⁵ Coupland, Exploitation, 152–216;Google ScholarGavin, R. J., ‘The Bartle Frere Mission to Zanzibar, 1873,’ Historical Journal, v (1962);Google ScholarHarcourt, F., ‘Gladstone, monarchism and the New Imperialism,’ J. Imp. and Commonwealth Hist. XIV (1985), 34–7.Google Scholar Harcourt challenges Gavin's view that Frere was largely responsible for generating the public ‘clamour’ for action in East Africa.

²⁶ W. Mackinnon to Granville, Foreign Office, 17 February 1872, PRO: TI/7345A/18256.Google Scholar

²⁷ E. S. Dawes to R. Paul, 12 August 1869, Dawes to Paul, 10 September 1869, Dawes to Henry, 29 November 1869, and Dawes to Mackenzie, 11 February 1870, Letterbook of Sir Edwyn Dawes, 1868–74; B.I. Directors' Minutes, 8 August 1873, NMM, BIS/I/3.Google Scholar

²⁸ Archibald Smith, from Mackinnon's Glasgow firm, first arrived in Zanzibar in 1874, although the firm of Smith Mackenzie & Co. was not formally established until 1877 (The History of Smith Mackenzie & Co. (London, 1938), 10–11).Google Scholar

²⁹ B.I. Directors' Minutes, 21 December 1874, NMM, BIS/I/3.Google Scholar

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³¹ For a fuller account of Mackinnon's and B.I.'s relations with British shipping firms in South Africa, see Porter, A., Victorian Shipping, Business and Imperial Policy: Donald Currie, the Castle Line, and Southern Africa (Woodbridge, 1986).Google Scholar

³² B.I. Directors' Minutes, 20 June 1872, 1 August 1872, NMM, BIS/I/3; Parry, C. R., ‘The General Post Office's Zanzibar shipping contracts, 1860–1914,’ Mariner's Mirror, LXVIII (1981), 59–60.Google Scholar

³³ Resolutions Relative to the Introduction of Labourers from the East Coast of Africa Passed by the Legislative Council, Natal, on 10 September 1874 (forwarded to Mackinnon by John Kirk), MP, Miscellaneous Commercial File 77;Google ScholarLe Cordeur, B. A., ‘Natal, the Cape, and the Indian Ocean, 1846–1880,’ J. Afr. Hist. VII (1966), 251;Google ScholarEtherington, N. A., ‘Labour supply and the genesis of South African confederation in the 1870s,’ J. Afr. Hist. xx (1979), 242–3.Google Scholar

³⁴ B.I. Directors' Minutes, 28 April 1874, 8 October 1874, 18 December 1874, 10 February 1875, 13 July 1875, 20 April 1876, 16 May 1876, NMM, BIS/I/3 Macnaughton, B.I. Secretary, to Lister, Foreign Office, 22 July 1876, enclosure in Foreign Office to Colonial Office, 8 February 1873, PRO: CO.179/125/1842.Google Scholar

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³⁶ Memorandum by Sir Bartle Frere, February 1877, and enclosure, Memorandum regarding Steam Services on the East Coast of Africa, by Mackinnon, W., 8 January 1877, PRO: CO. 48/484/1502;Google Scholar see also Etherington, N. A., ‘Frederick Elton and the South African factor in the making of Britain's East African empire,’ J. Imp. Commonwealth Hist. IX (1981), 264–5.Google Scholar

³⁷ Indian Diary, 1875–76, Papers of the Third Duke of Sutherland, County Record Office, Stafford, D. 593/P/25/2.Google Scholar

³⁸ Vamplew, W., ‘Railway investment in the Scottish highlands,’ Transport History, III (1970), 145.Google Scholar

³⁹ Galbraith, Mackinnon and East Africa, 43–57;Google ScholarAnon, Livingstonia: The Mission of the Free Church of Scotland to Lake Nyasa (Edinburgh, 1876).Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Minute by Malcolm, 28 June 1877, on Foreign Office to Colonial Office, 23 June 1877, PRO: CO.179/125/7705.Google Scholar

⁴¹ This suggestion receives some support from Frere's parallel proposal for a Delagoa Bay to Pretoria railway, the first ninety miles of which would be constructed by a consortium of British, Dutch, Belgian and Portuguese capitalists ‘in consideration of receiving a share in, or the whole of, the Customs Revenue of Delagoa Bay’ (Frere to Herbert, Colonial Office, 3 November 1878, quoted in Worsfold, W. B., Sir Bartle Frere (London, 1923), 100).Google Scholar

⁴² See Sutherland Papers, D. 593/26/3/1–4.Google Scholar

⁴³ Worsfold, Frere, 75, 78–9. 82–3. 100;Google ScholarMartineau, Frere, II, 371–2.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Morier to Mackinnon, June–October 1879, MP, Private Correspondence, Files 171–2;Google ScholarRamm, A., Sir Robert Morier (Oxford, 1973), 27–49.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Hicks Beach to Frere, 13 March 1878, quoted in Worsfold, Frere, 234.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ ‘That London, Kurachee and Gulf — now London, Kurachee and Bombay — line has been a sink of money since its first start; and its losses a heavy tax on the Coasting Service earnings. We have persevered with it long, and the results attained are such as may well lead us to regard its future as hopeless …’ (J. M. Hall to W. Mackinnon, 21 December 1886, MP, private correspondence, file 42).Google Scholar

⁴⁷ ‘The Chairman having reported to the Board all the friendly interest Sir Bartle Frere has ever taken in the progress and prosperity of the company, and how valuable his assistance and co-operation would be to the Coy, it was resolved unanimously to authorize the chairman to write him to join the board’ (B.I. Directors' Minutes, 9 November 1880, NMM, BIS/I/4).Google Scholar

⁴⁸ Kirk to Foreign Office, 10 December 1880, enclosure in Political Despatch to India (no. 51 of 26 May 1881), IOL & R, V/6/309;Google ScholarMemorandum by Sir John Kirk, 24 January 1882, enclosure in Foreign Office to Treasury, 4 February 1882, PRO: TI/13228/2402; Memorandum on the renewal of the contract for running Mail Steamers to Zanzibar (presented by Frere, Kirk and Mackinnon), enclosure in Post Office to Treasury, 12 August 1882, PRO: TI/13228/13962; Memorandum by Sir Bartle Frere, 12 September 1882, PRO: TI/13228/15066.Google Scholar

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⁵¹ The capital of the Zanzibar firm was reduced from £24,266 to £7,200; there were also smaller reductions in the capital of Gray Dawes & Co.'s associated firms in the Gulf. (Capital Accounts relating to Bushire, Busreh, Baghdad, Zanzibar, Mozambique and Mombasa, 1877–1939, Inchcape Archives GD/1411).Google Scholar

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⁵³ Mackinnon to Berkeley, 2 December 1892, and Mackinnon to Euan Smith, 8 January 1891, Private Letterbook, NMM, B15/8/3.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ Mackinnon to De Winton, 8 October 1890, Private Letterbook, NMM, B15/8/3;Google ScholarMackenzie, George S., ‘British East Africa,’ Proc. Royal Colonial Inst. XXII (1890–1891), 3–21.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ J. M. Hall to Mackinnon, 28 March 1891, MP, Private Correspondence, File 45; Mackinnon to Sir Fowell Buxton, 8 September 1891, Private Letterbook, NMM, B15/8/3.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ From Financial Department, 13 July 1883, no. 20, General (Confidential no. 42 of 1883), IOL & R, L/P and S/13.Google Scholar

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⁵⁸ See Clarence-Smith, G., The Third Portuguese Empire, 1825–1975 (Manchester, 1985), 96.Google Scholar

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⁶⁷ Treasury to Foreign Office, 28 August 1889, PRO: T1/8462B/10553.Google Scholar

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⁷¹ Ironically, the Lugard expedition was sanctioned as an inexpensive alternative to a larger force planned by De Winton (Mackinnon to Euan Smith, 8 October 1890, and Mackinnon to De Winton, 8 October 1890, Private Letterbook, NMM, B15/8/3), but the end result was a substantial diversion of resources from the coast to Uganda. James Hall observed: ‘Lugard is a very capable fellow, but he has evidently not realized the financial straits of the company. In other circumstances his administrative tact and his enterprise would have brought him credit and been welcomed – as it is, I fear very much that the money spent by him will have been thrown away’ (J. M. Hall to Mackinnon, 6 January 1891, MP, Private Correspondence, File 46).Google Scholar