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2020 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

4. The Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 1904–1919

Author : Simon Mollan

Published in: Imperialism and Economic Development in Sub-Saharan Africa

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

This chapter focuses on the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, the cotton-growing business that was to become the centre of the Sudan economy during the period of British colonialism in Sudan. It begins by looking at the entrepreneurial origins of the company, and how, over time, it was to establish the viability of cotton-growing in Sudan. The chapter examines in detail the wider business linkages of the company, and how it was embedded into a network of colonial enterprises headquartered in the City of London, but with interests across the British Empire. The organization, development and finances of the firm are discussed. The chapter shows how, over time, an entrepreneurial speculation became central to the Sudan government’s plans to develop the economy of Sudan by focusing on cotton as a cash-crop. However, the chapter also shows how slow has been the progress of developing commercial cotton-growing.

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previous chapter The Beginnings of Imperial Development, 1899–1919

next chapter The Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 1919–1939

See: Lance Davis, “The Late Nineteenth-Century British Imperialist: Specification, Quantification and Controlled Conjectures.” In Gentlemanly Capitalism and British Imperialism, edited by Raymond Dumett (London: Longman, 1999), 82–112; Lance Davis and Robert Gallman, Evolving Financial Markets and International Capital Flows: Britain, the Americas, and Australia, 1865–1914 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001); Lance Davis and Robert Huttenback, Mammon and the Pursuit of Empire: The Political Economy of British Imperialism, 1860–1912 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986).

See Simon Mollan, “Business Failure, Capital Investment and Information: Mining Companies in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, 1900–13.” The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 37, 2 (2009): 229–248.

See Mira Wilkins, “The Free-Standing Company, 1870–1914: An Important Type of British Foreign Direct Investment,” The Economic History Review, New Series, 41, 2, 1988: 259–282. Mira Wilkins and Harm Schröter, The Free-Standing Company in the World Economy, 1830–1996 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998).

Mira Wilkins. “The Free-Standing Company Revisited.” In The Free Standing Company in the World Economy, 1830–1996, 3–66; Stanley Chapman, “British Free-Standing Companies and Investment Groups in India and the Far East.” In The Free-Standing Company in the World Economy, 202–217; Hennart, Jean-Francois “Transaction-Cost Theory and the Free-Standing Firm.” In The Free Standing Company in the World Economy, 1830–1996, 65–98; Casson, Mark. “An Economic Theory of the Free-Standing Company.” In The Free Standing Company in the World Economy, 1830–1996, 99–128. Simon Mollan and Kevin Tennent, “International Taxation and Corporate Strategy: Evidence from British Overseas Business, circa 1900–1965.” Business History 57, 7 (2015): 1–28. For a critical view of the concept as a whole see Simon Mollan “The Free-Standing Company: A ‘zombie’ Theory of International Business History?” Journal of Management History 22, 2 (2018): 156–173.

Arthur Gaitskell, Gezira; a Story of Development in the Sudan. Gezira; a Story of Development in the Sudan (London: Faber & Faber, 1959), 51; Daly, Empire on the Nile, 94.

See Larry Rand, High Stakes: The Life and Times of Leigh S.J. Hunt (New York: Peter Lang, 1989), 99.

SAD 802/1/41-45, Statement concerning Leigh Hunt’s role in the establishment of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate made by Leigh Hunt on 19 January 1931. Mather did not become involved until 1910. Hunt made an account of the foundation of the Syndicate because a different account had apparently been made which expunged Leigh Hunt and Alexander MacIntyre (Managing Director of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 1919–1946) from the history. Such appeals to posterity are a little problematic, but its narrative seems to be at least factually accurate, corroborated by Gaitskell and consistent with other evidence.

SAD 802/1/4, Leigh Hunt to Cromer c.1904; SAD 418/5/1-6 L. Bluen, “Cotton Growing under irrigation in the Sudan.” The Empire Cotton Growing Review, January 1931 (offprint). SAD 802/1/42, Leigh Hunt 1931 Account.

SAD 802/1/3, Leigh Hunt to Cromer c.1904.

Gaitskell, Gezira; a Story of Development in the Sudan, p. 51. A feddan is an area of land ‘equal to 4200 square metres’ as reported by the Sudan Government Gazette No. 574 (25 February 1929), SAD 602/3/29. Zeidab is on the Atbara River, just south of the intersection of the Nile and the Atbara, which in turn is further upstream of the intersection of the White and Blue Niles at Khartoum.

SAD 802/1/42, Leigh Hunt 1931 Account.

Robert Kubicek, Economic Imperialism in Theory and Practice: The Case of South African Gold Mining Finance 1886–1914 (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1979), 55.

Something supported by a largely fruitless period of time spent in the Barlow Rand Archive in Johannesburg, Republic of South Africa, searching for evidence relating to the Sudan Plantations Syndicate.

Gaitskell, Gezira; a Story of Development in Sudan, 51; SAD 802/1/42, Leigh Hunt 1931 Account.

For detail of Leigh Hunt’s business career in the Far East see Rand, High Stakes: The Life and Times of Leigh S.J. Hunt, 113–192.

SAD 802/1/7-9, Wernher Beit and Co to Leigh Hunt 29 April 1904.

SAD 802/1/41-42, Leigh Hunt 1931 Account.

SAD 415/9/1-3, 1st Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Sudan Experimental Plantations Syndicate, 2 September 1904.

See Rand, High Stakes: The Life and Times of Leigh S.J. Hunt, 183–184.

Rand, High Stakes: The Life and Times of Leigh S.J. Hunt, 44, 74, 151, 191.

Kubicek, Economic Imperialism, 63.

SAD 415/9/21, Minutes of the 19th Board of Directors Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 2 May 1907.

Gaitskell, Gezira; a Story of Development in Sudan, 52.

BUL CGA 2/2/15 ‘Report to the Council on the Possibilities of Cotton-Growing in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan’ (1912), 29.

SAD 415/9/21, de Chastillion resigned in a letter to the board dated 22 April 1907; Seymour Fort’s letter was dated 23 April 1907; Gaitskell, Gezira; a Story of Development in Sudan, p. 52; SAD 415/9/14 Minutes of the 9th Board of Directors Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 19 October 1905. At this time Hunt suggested that the land that they might sell would be ideal for real estate development.

SAD 415/9/25, 20th Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate Board of Directors, 7 May 1907.

SAD 415/9/21-22, 19th Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate Board of Directors, 2 May 1907; SAD 415/9/40, Ordinary General Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 8 October 1908.

This is, however, easier to state than it is to quantify. The SAD folio 419/9 which are the Directors Minutes for the period are damaged. The pages in question that deal with transfer of share ownership and the allocation of debentures are badly damaged. As a result the figure quoted should serve as minimum only, since the number of debentures taken by Frederick Eckstein is obliterated, though he nonetheless had a holding. As the Sudan Plantations Syndicate was not listed on the London Stock Exchange until 1920 no other source that has yet come to light gives any indication of the personal holding of Eckstein before 1923 when it is known that he held 1500 shares. See SAD 419/9/21-22 Sudan Plantations Syndicate 19th Directors Meeting, 2 May 1907; GHL MS 18000/228B 1111 Sudan Plantations Syndicate London Stock Exchange Listing File, 24 December 1923: ‘List of Shareholders as at 31st October 1923.’

Kubicek, Economic Imperialism, pp. 56, 69.

Stock Exchange Official Intelligence 1914 (London, 1914), 1004; GHL MS 18000/350B 988, Central Mining and Investment Corporation Ltd London Stock Exchange Listing File, 15 June 1935, Memo: ‘The Central Mining and Investment Corporation,’ 21 June 1935.

GHL MS 18000/123B 613, Central Mining and Investment Corporation Ltd London Stock Exchange Listing File, 25 January 1909 ‘The High Court of Justice Chancery Division: Mr Justice Neville. The Central Mining and Investment Corporation Confirming Reduction of Company’s Capital, 15th December 1908’; ‘Central Mining and Investment Corporation: Report of the Proceedings at the Extraordinary General Meeting, 10th August 1908.’

GHL MS 18000/350B 988, Central Mining and Investment Corporation Ltd London Stock Exchange Listing File, 15 June 1935, ‘Memorandum and Agreement made between the 2nd May 1911 between Messrs Wernher Beit and Co and Messrs Eckstein and Co and the Central Mining and Investment Corporation Ltd.’

Stock Exchange Official Intelligence 1914, 1083; SAD 416/1/82 157th Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 5 July 1917; Bluen went on to legally become the Secretary in January 1918, formally replacing Central Mining. See SAD 416/1/91 159th Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 30 January 1918.

GHL MS 18000/350B 988, Central Mining and Investment Corporation Ltd London Stock Exchange Listing File, 15 June 1935, ‘Central Mining and Investment Corporation : Report of the Proceedings at the Extraordinary General Meeting held at London Buildings on 19th May 1911,’ p. 4.

This seems curious, but is the only conclusion to draw from the available evidence which by no means is conclusive on this point. See GHL MS 18000/177B 6 London Stock Exchange Listing File for Rand Mines, 12 January 1914, ‘Agreement between Rand Mines Limited and Messrs Wernher Beit and Co,’ 9 March 1911, which lists the sale of shares in nine companies to Rand Mines. None of these companies appear on the list of 120 companies sold to Central Mining by Wernher Beit and Co and Eckstein and Co in May 1911. See GHL MS 18000/350B 988, Central Mining and Investment Corporation Ltd London Stock Exchange Listing File, 15 June 1935, ‘Memorandum and Agreement made between the 2nd May 1911 between Messrs Wernher Beit and Co and Messrs Eckstein and Co and the Central Mining and Investment Corporation Ltd.’

See Kubicek, Economic Imperialism in Theory and Practice: The Case of South African Gold Mining Finance 1886–1914, Ch. 4 “The Rise and Decline of the Corner House Group,” 53–85.

SAD 415/9/1 1st Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 2 February 1904.

SAD 415/9/3 2nd Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 8 October 1904; SAD 415/9/6 5th Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 10 November 1910.

SAD 415/9/9 5th Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 5 January 1905; SAD 419/9/10 6th Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 18 April 1905; 7th Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 11 July 1905.

SAD 416/1/40 125th Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 15 December 1914.

SAD 415/9/3 2nd Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 8 October 1904.

SAD 419/9/13 9th Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 19 October 1905.

Bernal, “Cotton and Colonial Order in Sudan: A Social History with Emphasis on the Gezira Scheme,” 100. This would seem to support the idea that the ‘vent for surplus’ model was used in the Sudan. See Johnson, “Cotton Imperialism in West Africa,” 182.

SAD 415/9/50 Ordinary General Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 8 September 1909.

SAD 415/9/40 Ordinary General Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 8 October 1908; BUL CGA 2/1/3 ‘The Sudan Plantations Syndicate Ltd and the Kassala Cotton Company Ltd and their work in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan’ (Reprinted from the 45th Annual Report of the British Cotton Growing Association, 1950), 3–4.

SAD 416/1/24 6th Ordinary General Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 18 December 1913.

SAD 416/1/16-17 98th Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 10 September 1913.

SAD 416/1/21 105th Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 4 December 1913; SAD 416/1/23 6th Ordinary General Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 18 December 1913; SAD 416/1/28 109th Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 30 January 1914.

SAD 416/1/55-57 137th Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 21 December 1915.

SAD 112/9/4 ‘Confidential Memorandum No. 60 of the British Cotton Growing Association by J. Arthur Hutton to Under Secretary of State Colonial Office,’ 15 December 1915.

SAD 416/1/96 Ordinary General Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 20 February 1918.

SAD 416/1/45-46 Minutes of an adjourned Ordinary General Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 13 January 1915.

SAD 415/8/1-152, The Sudan Plantations Syndicate Ltd, Report and Accounts, 1906–1924.

All data here is deflated to 1906 prices. All conversions undertaken using EH-NET GDP-deflator: http://eh.net/hmit/ukcompare/.

SAD 415/8/1-152, The Sudan Plantations Syndicate Ltd, Report and Accounts, 1906–1924; SAD 416/1/81 155th Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 24 January 1917.

SAD 416/1/56 137th Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 21 December 1915.

SAD 416/1/60 141st Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 4 May 1916.

SAD 416/1/100 162nd Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 9 October 1918.

SAD 416/1/94 159th Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 30 January 1918; SAD 416/1/105 163rd Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 10 December 1918.

SAD 186/3/9 Wingate to Phipps, 6 June 1913.

John Wilson and Andrew Thomson, The Making of Modern Management: British Management in Historical Perspective (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 32–33.

Leslie Hannah, “The ‘Divorce’ of Ownership from Control from 1900 Onwards: Re-Calibrating Imagined Global Trends.” Business History 49, 4 (2007), 404–438.

SAD 415/9/3 2nd Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 8 October 1904, though at a later meeting it was stated that of the £14,000 paid only £1,000 was for the cost to the Syndicate of the concession. SAD 415/9/19 17th Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 3 January 1907; SAD 416/1/21 105th Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 4 December 1913; SAD 416/1/92 159th Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate. 30 January 1918.

SAD 416/1/23 6th Ordinary General Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 18 December 1913.

SAD 416/1/46 Minutes of an adjourned Ordinary General Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 13 January 1915; SAD 416/1/103 163rd Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 10 December 1918.

SAD 416/1/24 6th Ordinary General Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 18 December 1913.

SAD 416/1/55 137th Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 21 December 1915.

SAD 416/1/47 129th Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 15 April 1915.

SAD 416/1/57 8th Ordinary General Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 21 December 1915; SAD 416/1/96 Ordinary General Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 20 February 1918.

SAD 416/1/79 Ordinary General Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 24 January 1917.

Justin Willis, “Violence, Authority and the State in the Nuba Mountains of Condominium Sudan.” The Historical Journal 46, 1 (2003), 89–114.

See SAD 415/8/1-152, The Sudan Plantations Syndicate Ltd, Report and Accounts, 1906–1924; Gaitskell, Gezira, 94.

SAD 186/1/161 Wingate to Lee Stack, 10 April 1913.

SAD 416/1/108 164th Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 5 March 1919.

Title: The Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 1904–1919
Author: Simon Mollan
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Book: Imperialism and Economic Development in Sub-Saharan Africa
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-27635-5

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-030-27636-2

Copyright Year: 2020
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27636-2_4