Abstract: | Formal constitutional arrangements vested immense power in the hands of the British South Africa Company in Southern Rhodesia. In practice, however, the Company was constrained in its policymaking by many pressures over which it had no control, and its capacity to enforce its decisions vas very far from unlimited. This article is a detailed case study of one area, Marandellas, which shows how the aims of the Board of Directors were frustrated in its major policy decision to develop the agricultural sector by a positive immigration campaign designed to push up the price of land and thus provide the Company with substantial profits. The author analyses the causes of this failure. Notes. |