South Africa and the Boer-British War, Volume I by Murat Halstead

Author:Murat Halstead [Halstead, Murat]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783958647749
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Otbebookpublishing
Published: 2016-09-18T00:00:00+00:00

Misappropriation of Taxes

For an assumed Boer population of little more than 200,000, the expenditure of this large sum would have been difficult under ordinary and honest conditions of government. Nothing, practically was expended upon the Uitlanders, from whom the revenue came, and nothing upon the 800,000 Kaffirs in the country. Nothing was spent upon the development of natural resources, and but little upon the extension of railways, etc. Of this $120,000,000, in round numbers, it might be fair to allow $3,000,000 per annum for ordinary purposes of administration and development during the twelve years, or one million per annum more than had been spent by the Free State in any year of the same period. It would then be reasonably safe to assume that the remaining $84,000,000, and the acquired indebtedness of $13,000,000, have been spent upon fortifications, armament, subsidies to foreign papers and politicians and salaries to Hollander adventurers. It is in this connection a curious fact that the imports to the Transvaal in 1898 were over a hundred millions in value, with no recorded exports—except gold, of which the production in 1897 was over $85,000,000. These imports must have consisted very largely of ammunition and military supplies, as the Boers are not a people who use extraneous products or luxuries. Of course, the Uitlanders were responsible for a portion; but the great bulk must have been made up of articles very different from the usual commodities of peaceful commerce. Such was the state of affairs, in a brief summary, which led up to the diplomatic crash between Mr. Chamberlain and President Kruger, to the negotiations conducted by Sir Alfred Milner and the two Presidents, and to the invasion of the British Colonies on the eleventh of October, 1899.

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