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2020 | OriginalPaper | Buchkapitel

5. The Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 1919–1939

verfasst von : Simon Mollan

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

Verlag: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

This chapter continues the history of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate that was begun in Chap. 4. The chapter traces how the Gezira Scheme—the cotton-growing scheme that was developed in partnership between the Syndicate, the Sudan government, and the tenant farmers—was gradually brought into operation between 1919 and 1925. The chapter looks at the management of the business and the Gezira Scheme. It then turns to the issues of leadership, management and strategy, and ownership and control. The impact of the Great Depression on the Sudan Plantations Syndicate is also examined. This is further developed in Chap. 6. The Depression was a significant period of difficulty for the company, leading to concerns for the commercial viability of the company both within the management and for the shareholders. The company struggled throughout the 1930s, during which period its directors and managers became aware of its precarious relationship with the Sudan government, on whom it was politically dependent. This, in turn, was a forerunner of the move towards nationalization of the firm prior to decolonization.

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Vorheriges Kapitel The Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 1904–1919

Nächstes Kapitel The Economy of Sudan, 1919–1939

SAD 416/2/23-24 189th Board Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 9 May 1923.

SAD 416/2/29-32 16th Ordinary General Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 8 November 1923.

SAD 416/2/46-49 Ordinary General Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 12 November 1924; SAD 416/2/42-43 Minutes of the 193rd Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 1 October 1924.

SAD 415/6/70 ‘Estimate of Expenditure on Gezira Extensions 1926–1930.’

See Anna Clarkson, ‘Courts, Councils and Citizenship: Political Culture in the Gezira Scheme in Condominium Sudan’ (Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Durham, 2005); Gaitskell, Gezira, passim.

See Simon Mollan and Ranald Michie, “The City of London as an International Commercial and Financial Center since 1900.” Enterprise and Society 13, 3 (2012): 538–587.

See Ranald Michie, The London Stock Exchange: a history (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), especially 282–283; also Chapter 6, ‘The Changing Market Place Between the Wars,’ 235–286.

Mira Wilkins. “The Free-Standing Company Revisited.” In The Free Standing Company in the World Economy, 1830–1996, 3–66. Answers to this puzzle are currently only partial. See Simon Mollan “The Free-Standing Company: A ‘zombie’ Theory of International Business History?” Journal of Management History 22, 2 (2018): 156–173; 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.

The Sudan Directory (Khartoum, 1927), 220.

Clarkson, ‘Courts,’ p. 4

SAD 418/5/1-6 L. Bluen, ‘Cotton Growing under irrigation in the Sudan,’ The Empire Cotton Growing Review, January 1931 (offprint).

SAD 418/7/31 Minutes of the 32nd Meeting of the Gezira Advisory Board, 25 April 1948, Minute 260: A. Gaitskell.

SAD 418/5/5 L. Bluen, ‘Cotton Growing under irrigation in the Sudan,’ The Empire Cotton Growing Review, January 1931 (offprint).

SAD 418/5/29 ‘Gezira Irrigation Scheme’ (likely 1938).

418/5/46-58 ‘The Gezira Scheme: a talk given at the Sudan Cultural Centre on 17th February 1943 by A. Gaitskell.’

SAD 418/7/33-34 Minutes of the 32nd Meeting of the Gezira Advisory Board, 25 April 1948.

Clarkson, ‘Courts,’ p. 3.

Clarkson, ‘Courts,’ 188–205.

Clarkson, ‘Courts,’ 89, 123, 135, 136–142, 254.

Young, Alden. 2017. Transforming Sudan: Decolonization, Economic Development, and State Formation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 35.

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

SAD 417/4/476-480 Agreement: Sudan Government and the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 17 October 1919.

SAD 418/8/99 From the Minutes of the 12th Ordinary General Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 17 December 1919.

GHL MS 18000/203B/391 London Stock Exchange Listing File for the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 28 April 1920: Notice dated 26th February 1920 from Louis Bluen to the Shareholders.

I was given a remarkable level of access to the Wernher Beit papers in the Barlow Rand Corporation Archive in Johannesburg South Africa in the Autumn of 2004. This confirmed that there is very little material relating to the SPS in the records in the archive of Wernher Beit.

GHL MS 18000/228B/1111 London Stock Exchange Listing File for the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 31 October 1923: Directors Reports and Accounts 1922–1923 includes an account of the history of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate by Louis Bluen dated 19 December 1923; SAD 416/2/16 Minutes of the 186th Board of Meeting of the Directors of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 19 January 1923; GHL MS 18000/228B/1111, London Stock Exchange Listing File for the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, ‘List of Shareholders as at 31st October 1923.’

GHL MS 18000/230B/427 London Stock Exchange Listing File for the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, May 1924: Letter from the Sudan Plantations Syndicate to the London Stock Exchange, 16 May 1924; SAD 416/2/46-49 Ordinary General Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 12 November 1924.

GHL MS 18000/18000/241B/1030 London Stock Exchange Listing File for the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 27 October 1925.

SAD 416/2/65-58 Minutes of the 198th Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 19 August 1925.

SAD 416/2/61-66 Ordinary General Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 28 October 1925.

GHL MS 18000/245B/249 London Stock Exchange Listing File for the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 4 March 1926; SAD 416/2/69 200th Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 22 January 1926; SAD 416/2/73 Extraordinary General Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 12 February 1926; SAD 416/2/75 Extraordinary General Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 3 March 1926.

GHL MS 18000/245B/249 London Stock Exchange Listing File for the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 4 March 1926.

SAD 416/2/61-66 Ordinary General Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 28 October 1925; indeed, a considerable sum of money had also been raised through the issue of debentures—SAD 416/2/17 Minutes of the 187th Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 19 February 1923.

GHL MS 18000/255B/474 London Stock Exchange Listing File for the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 20 April 1927.

GHL MS 18000/338B/1332 London Stock Exchange Listing File for the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 8 November 1934: Director’s Memo, undated (by likely November 1934).

Stock Exchange Official Yearbook, Vol. 2, 1950 (London, 1950), p. 3289.

FO 141/497/4 Despatch re Gezira Irrigation Scheme, 13 December 1934; S.G. Symes, Governor General of Sudan to Her Majesty’s High Commissioner for Egypt and Sudan, The Residency, Cairo, 13 December 1934; GHL MS 18000/338B/1332 London Stock Exchange Listing File for the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 8 November 1934: Director’s Memo, undated (likely November 1934); SAD 416/4/18-20 Minutes of the 247th Board Meeting of the Directors of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 1 November 1934; SAD 416/4/21 Special Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 7 November 1934; FO 141/482/7 Despatch: Finances Sudan, 28 May 1934.

GHL MS 18000/228 1111 London Stock Exchange Listing File for the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 24 December 1923: ‘Report of the Directors: Statement of Account,’ 30 June 1923.

SAD 416/2/51-53 Minutes of the 196th Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 30 March 1925; SAD 416/3/34 Minutes of the 227th Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 3 December 1930.

SAD 416/3/20-22 222nd Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 8 July 1930; SAD 416/3/30-33 23rd Ordinary General Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 12 November 1930.

SAD 416/3/30-33 23rd Ordinary General Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 12 November 1930.

SAD 416/3/71-73 240th Minutes of a Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 23 March 1933; SAD 416/4/35-37 Minutes of a Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 18 April 1935.

Directory of Directors 1939 (London, 1939), 90, 518, 886, 1095, 1361, 1391, 1901; GHL MS 18000 350B/988 London Stock Exchange Listing File for the Central Mining and Investment Corporation, 14 June 1935, Memorandum, ‘The Central Mining and Investment Corporation, Ltd,’ 21 June 1935.

Cable from Barakat, 10 October 1930: SAD 416/3/24-27 224th Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 28 October 1930.

SAD 416/3/28-29 225th Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 12 November 1930; SAD 416/3/30-33 23rd Ordinary General Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 12 November 1930.

SAD 416/3/30-33 23rd Ordinary General Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 12 November 1930; indeed, blackarm and leaf curl continued to cause problems well into 1931. See: SAD 416/3/48 Minutes of the 132nd Meeting of the Board and Directors of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 28 October 1931.

SAD 416/3/30-33 23rd Ordinary General Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 12 November 1930.

SAD 416/3/24-27 224th Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 28 October 1930; SAD 416/3/34-37 227th Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 26 February 1931; indeed, the Syndicate also took the prudent measure of retaining the £300,000 ready to draw down until April 1931. In the same vein, at the February meeting of the Board of Directors it was resolved that all directors and the London staff should take a pay cut of 10%. The Sudan staff were also hit with pay cuts ranging from 4% to 10% depending on how high was the salary.

SAD 416/3/30-33 23rd Ordinary General Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 12 November 1930.

SAD 416/3/70 25th Ordinary General Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 3 November 1932.

SAD 416/3/32 23rd Ordinary General Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 12 November 1930.

SAD 416/3/31 23rd Ordinary General Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 12 November 1930.

SAD 416/3/41 L. Bluen, ‘Circular to Shareholders,’ 15 April 1931.

SAD 416/3/68-70 25th Ordinary General Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 3 November 1932.

SAD 416/3/51 24th Ordinary General Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 28 October 1931.

SAD 416/3/82-84 26th Ordinary General Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 15 November 1933.

SAD 416/4/25-26 27th Ordinary General Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 12 November 1934.

SAD 416/4/45-26 28th Ordinary General Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 14 November 1935; incidentally, the Syndicate were conscious at this time to thank the ‘very valuable service’ performed by the British Cotton Growing Association in helping to market Sudanese cotton in Britain.

SAD 416/4/49-50 255th Board Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 7 May 1936.

SAD 416/4/54-55 29th Ordinary General Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 5 November 1936.

SAD 416/5/23 Ordinary General Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 15 November 1937.

SAD 416/4/51-53 256th Board Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 22 October 1936; SAD 416/4/54-55 29th Ordinary General Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 5 November 1936.

SAD 417/4/144 Cooper Brothers Accountants, ‘Memorandum illustrating the method of ascertaining the price to be paid to the tenants for the cotton seed and ginned cotton purchased from them,’ 22 November 1928; SAD 417/4/170-172 Holmes, Son and Pott to the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 12 December 1928.

SAD 417/4/21 Sudan Plantations Syndicate Main Agreement, 31 January 1929: ‘Ascertainment and Division of Profits.’

SAD 416/2/46-49 Ordinary General Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 12 November 1924.

GHL MS 18000/222B 160 London Stock Exchange Listing File, Kassala Cotton Company Ltd, 15 February 1923, ‘Heads of Agreement,’ 7 November 1922; SAD 416/2/12-15 Minutes of the 184th Special Board Meeting of Directors of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 16 November 1922.

SAD 416/2/14-15 185th Board Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 21st December 1922; GHL MS 18000/222B 160 London Stock Exchange Listing File, 15 February 1923.

GHL MS 18000/222B 160 London Stock Exchange Listing File, Kassala Cotton Company Ltd, 15 February 1923: ‘Heads of Agreement,’ 7 November 1922; ‘Memorandum re the Kassala Cotton Company Ltd issued by the Sudan Plantations Syndicate Ltd,’ 10 January 1923.

SAD 416/2/12-15 Minutes of the 184th Special Board Meeting of Directors of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 16 November 1922.

SAD 416/2/12-15 Minutes of the 184th Special Board Meeting of Directors of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 16 November 1922; the Trades Facilities Advisory Committee advised on compliance of guaranteed loans administered under the Trades Facilities and Loans Guarantee Act 1922: GHL MS 18000 /222B 160 London Stock Exchange Listing File, Kassala Cotton Company Ltd, 15 February 1923, ‘Trade Facilities and Loans Guarantee Act 1922.’

SAD 416/2/12-15 Minutes of the 184th Special Board Meeting of Directors of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 16 November 1922.

GHL MS 18000/222B 160 London Stock Exchange Listing File, Kassala Cotton Company Ltd, 15 February 1923, ‘Memorandum re the Kassala Cotton Company’ issued by the Sudan Plantations Syndicate Ltd, 10th January 1923; ‘Agreement 7th December 1922 between Edward Colpays Midwinter and the Kassala Railway Company.’

SAD 416/2/17-18 187th Board Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 19 February 1923; GHL MS 18000/222B 160 London Stock Exchange Listing File, Kassala Cotton Company Ltd., 15 February 1923.

SAD 416/2/19-22 188th Board Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 9 May 1923.

GHL MS 18000/357B 1612 London Stock Exchange Listing File, Kassala Cotton Company, 20 November 1935: ‘Application for re-organisation of capital’; ‘Kassala Cotton Company Ltd Circular to Shareholders,’ 22 October 1935 by W.O. Simms.

SAD 417/4/385-387 ‘Note of a meeting held on 9 October 1929 at the Sudan Government’s Office, Wellington House, Buckingham Gate.’

SAD 416/2/19-22 188th Board Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 9 May 1923.

SAD 416/2/24 189th Board Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 27 September 1923; SAD 416/2/29-32 16th Ordinary General Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 8 November 1923.

SAD 416/2/33-37 Extraordinary General Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 27 November 1923.

416/2/46-49 Ordinary General Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 12 November 1924; SAD 416/2/54-55 Minutes of the 197th Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 4 June 1925.

SAD 416/2/46-49 Ordinary General Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 12 November 1924; SAD 416/2/51-53 Minutes of the 196th Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 30 March 1925.

SAD 416/2/56-58 Minutes of the 198th Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 19 August 1925.

SAD 416/2/61-66 Ordinary General Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 28 October 1925.

SAD 416/2/46-49 Ordinary General Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 12 November 1924.

SAD 416/2/46-49 Ordinary General Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 12 November 1924; indeed, it was the presence of cotton in Brazil that had encouraged one of the more unusual migrations in the history of colonialism when following the abolition of slavery in the United States of America hundreds of Confederate families migrated to Brazil in search of sugar and cotton plantations—and slaves. See Ricardo Orizio, Lost White Tribes (Sydney: Random House, 2001), in particular Chapter 3, ‘Confederates in the Deepest South: Brazil,’ 96–123.

SAD 416/2/51-53 Minutes of the 196th Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 30 March 1925.

SAD 416/2/61-66 Ordinary General Meeting of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 28 October 1925.

Stock Exchange Official Yearbook, Vol. 2, 1950, 2888–2889.

SAD 416/3/22-23 Minutes of the 223rd Meeting of the Board of the Directors of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 12 August 1930.

SAD 416/3/28-29 Minutes of the 225th Meeting of the Board of the Directors of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 12 November 1930.

SAD 416/3/44-5 Minutes of the 130th Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 28 August 1931; SAD 416/3/46-7 Minutes of the 131st Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 16 October 1931.

SAD 416/6/10-12 F. Eckstein to Sir G. Schuster, Financial Secretary Sudan Government, 8 November 1926.

SAD 417/4/65-115 ‘Details of the Agreement,’ 21 November 1928.

See also SAD 415/6/20 H. Fraser to F. Eckstein, 26 November 1926.

John Wilson and Andrew Thomson, The Making of Modern Management: British Management in Historical Perspective (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 13.

Titel: The Sudan Plantations Syndicate, 1919–1939
verfasst von: Simon Mollan
Verlag: Springer International Publishing
Buch: Imperialism and Economic Development in Sub-Saharan Africa
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-27635-5

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

Copyright-Jahr: 2020
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27636-2_5

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