Indigenous Gold Mining in Southern Africa: A Review

2000 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Duncan Miller ◽  
Nirdev Desai ◽  
Julia Lee-Thorp
Keyword(s):  
Southern Africa ◽  
Gold Mining

Frenzied Finance

2018 ◽  
pp. 139-162
Author(s):  
Ian Phimister
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Western Australia ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Capital Markets ◽  
Gold Mining ◽  
Stock Exchange ◽  
The South ◽  
London Stock Exchange

This chapter, by Ian Phimister, examines the global financial dynamics of the southern African and “Westralian” gold-mining share manias of the 1890s. Examination of both mining share markets suggests that, contrary to the conventional portrait painted of gold rushes, the defining picture is less one of prospectors rushing to pan for gold or peg claims than it is one of company promoters scurrying to fleece investors. The most frenzied activity was on the floor of the London Stock Exchange, not on the South African Highveld or the dry, dusty plains of Western Australia. More minted gold was found in London and the Home Counties than mined gold was located in Southern Africa or Western Australia. It is an exercise that once again questions the efficiency of late Victorian capital markets, even as it points to the consequences of the “portal of globalization” opened by finance.

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