Randlord
The Randlords were entrepreneurs who controlled the diamond and gold mining industries in South Africa from the 1870s until the start of World War I.
A small group of European adventurers and financiers, largely of the same generation, took control of diamond mining in Kimberley in the 1870s . The entrepreneurs set up a financial and industrial infrastructure, which they then used to exploit the gold discoveries from 1886 in the Witwatersrand ridge - the Rand - in the Transvaal . Initially, they were based in various locations in the Transvaal, and then settled in Parktown , a luxurious part of Johannesburg . Some of the edge Lords were of Queen Victoria because of its merits for Baronet levied.
Known fringe lords
- Sir George Albu, 1st Baronet (1857-1935)
- Leopold Albu (1861–1938)
- Sir Abe Bailey (1864-1940)
- Barney Barnato (1852-1897)
- Alfred Beit (1853-1906)
- Sir Otto Beit, 1st Baronet (1865–1930)
- Hermann Eckstein (1847-1893)
- Friedrich Gustav Jonathan Eckstein (1857–1930)
- Sir George Herbert Farrar (1859-1915)
- Adolf Gorizia (1857–1900)
- John Hays Hammond (1855-1936)
- Sir David Harris (1852-1942)
- Gustav Imroth (1862-1946)
- Solomon Joel (1865-1931)
- Woolf Joel (1863-1898)
- John Dale Lace (1859-1937)
- Isaac Lewis (1849-1927)
- Samuel Marks (1843-1920)
- Carl Meyer
- Maximilian Michaelis (1852-1932)
- Sigismund Neumann (1857-1916)
- Sir Lionel Phillips, 1st Baronet (1855-1936)
- Jules Porgès (1839-1921)
- Cecil Rhodes (1853-1902)
- Sir Joseph Benjamin Robinson, 1st Baronet (1840–1929)
- Charles Ernest Rube (1852-1914)
- Charles Dunell Rudd (1844-1916)
- Jim B. Taylor
- Sir Julius Wernher, 1st Baronet (1850–1912)
- Sir Thomas Cullinan (1862-1936)
Industrial heritage
| year | Number of mines |
Gold yield (troy ounces) |
Value ( GB £ ) | Relative value 2010 ( GB £ ) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1898 | 77 | 4,295,608 | 15.141.376 | 6,910,000,000 |
| Jan. – Oct. 1899 | 85 | 3,946,545 | 14,046,686 | 6,300,000,000 |
| Nov. 1899-Apr. 1901 | 12 | 574.043 | 2,024,278 | 908,000,000 |
| May – Dec. 1901 | 12 | 238.994 | 1,014,687 | 441,000,000 |
| 1902 | 45 | 1,690,100 | 7,179,074 | 3,090,000,000 |
| 1903 | 56 | 2,859,482 | 12.146.307 | 5,220,000,000 |
| 1904 | 62 | 3,658,241 | 15,539,219 | 6,640,000,000 |
| 1905 | 68 | 4,706,433 | 19,991,658 | 8,490,000,000 |
| 1906 | 66 | 5,559,534 | 23,615,400 | 9,890,000,000 |
| 1907 | 68 | 6.220.227 | 26,421,837 | 10,800,000,000 |
| 1908 | 74 | 6,782,538 | 28.810.393 | 11,700,000,000 |
| 1909 | 72 | 7,039,136 | 29,900,359 | 12,200,000,000 |
| 1910 | 63 | 7,228,311 | 30,703,912 | 12,400,000,000 |
After the first generation fringe lords died or went out of business, the next generation focused on consolidating their businesses by moving the mining companies into public companies. A good example of what happened at the time is the merger of Cecil Rhodes' activities with De Beers , which was continued by Ernest Oppenheimer (1880–1957). This strengthened the market power of De Beers and, after 1917, that of the Anglo American mining company ; today the capital is held by Anglogold Ashanti . Today there are other mining companies in Johannesburg that were founded by the Randlords : Examples are Porgès and Ecksteins Corner House , today Randgold Resources , Rhodes's Consolidated Gold Fields became Gold Fields Limited , George and Leopold Albu's General Mining and Finance Corporation became Gencor and Barney Barnato's Johannesburg Consolidated Investment Company or "Johnnies" became JCI Limited .
Cultural and philanthropic legacy
Most of the Randlords came from humble backgrounds, some of them were German-Austrian Jews (called German Mess ), and they used their wealth to advance socially. Many of them were able to overcome prejudices against the nouveau riche and Jews, became members of the English establishment and were appointed baronets.
The Randlords have left their architectural mark on South Africa and England, such as the Parktown Mansions in Johannesburg, designed by Herbert Baker . Many collected art, supported museums and donated large sums to charitable causes. One of the foundations is the Beit Trust , which had over 400 bridges built in southern Africa. Cecil Rhodes donated the Rhodes Scholarship , which financially enables students to attend Oxford University . Lionel Phillips' wife, Lady Florence Phillips, was known for her art patronage .
Modern use of the term
Today the term Randlord is also used as a general term for wealthy South African business people. The term is ambiguous because today's currency in South Africa is the rand .
See also
literature
- Maryna Fraser: Randlords (act. 1880s – 1914) . Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press January 2013. Retrieved February 10, 2016 .
- Michael Stevenson: Art & Aspirations, the Randlords of South Africa and their Collections .
- Geoffrey Wheatcroft: The Randlords: The Men Who Made South Africa . Weidenfeld, 1985. ISBN 0-297-78437-4 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Melanie Yap, Dainne Leong Man: Color, Confusion and Concessions: The History of the Chinese in South Africa . Hong Kong University Press, Hong Kong 1996, ISBN 962-209-423-6 , p. 510.
- ↑ Calculated from measuringworth.com , accessed January 27, 2011
Web links
- History of Parktown (English)