Gold Paved the Way by A P Cartwright
Gold Paved the Way by A P Cartwright
Hardcover
Publisher: Macmillan, London, 1967 First Edition.
Condition: Good. The original boards with a DJ are slightly shelf rubbed and edge worn. This book was read and enjoyed but is still overall good. Previous owner name on first page. The book has no inscriptions and the binding is excellent. The book is protected with a Cellophane cover.
Cecil Rhodes and his partner, Charles Rudd, were at work in Kimberley establishing the De Beers Diamond Mines when gold was discovered on the Witwatersrand, in the Transvaal, in 1886. They rushed to the new gold field where they bought farms, pegged claims and dreamed of amalgamating the gold mines of Johannesburg. In 1887 they formed a company with the impressive title of ‘The Gold Fields of South Africa’ to finance these dreams and, more practically, to manage their claims.
‘Mr. Rhodes’s diamond mines’ and the immense wealth they brought him have been the theme of many books. But the story of his gold mining interests, and the princely income they earned, has never been told in full, yet it was gold that provided much of the cash that enabled him to establish Rhodesia. In 1895 The Gold Fields of South Africa declared a profit of £2,161,778 – said to be the biggest profit ever earned by a limited liability company in the City of London to that date. Rhodes and Rudd were paid more than £300,000 as their share of the profits. But from that day the company’s misfortunes began. After the Jameson Raid it was to pay a heavy price for Rhodes’s attempt to challenge Paul Kruger.
Here is a new chapter of South African history -a vivid description of the young Rhodes in search of gold, of his quarrel with J. B. Robinson, of the failure of his plans and of the personal disasters he suffered. The book tells the story of the mining-finance company that Rhodes and Rudd founded, now known throughout the world as Consolidated Gold Fields, or simply as ‘Gold Fields’. This company, beaten almost to its knees during the depression in the thirties, made one of the greatest discoveries in mining history and not only changed its own fortunes but was responsible for the opening up of South Africa’s new gold fields and replenishing the gold reserves of the world.
