Africana Periodical Literature 
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| Title: | Shipping Subsidies and Railway Guarantees: William Mackinnon, Eastern Africa and the Indian Ocean, 1860-1893 |
| Author: | Munro, J. Forbes |
| Year: | 1987 |
| Periodical: | The Journal of African History |
| Volume: | 28 |
| Issue: | 2 |
| Pages: | 209-230 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic terms: | East Africa Great Britain |
| Subjects: | colonial conquest maritime transport colonialism History and Exploration Economics and Trade |
| External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/181547 |
| Abstract: | Sir William Mackinnon (1823-1893) was one of Victorian Britain's leading shipowners. In this reassessment of his role in the evolution of Victorian imperialism in Eastern Africa, the author rejects the view that Mackinnon's activities were motivated by a desire for self-glorification and demonstrates instead the relevance of business considerations. A search for shipping subsidies and railway guarantees accompanied the Mackinnon Group's development of steam-shipping and mercantile interests in Africa. Promotion of these interests drew Mackinnon into schemes to lease the Sultan of Zanzibar's mainland territories and to consolidate British rule in the Transvaal by the construction of a railway from Delagoa Bay. During the 1880s the Group's operations were threatened by the rise of foreign competition. Behind the formation of the Imperial British East Africa Company lay the hopes of Mackinnon and his business associates that public funds could be attracted to the defence of the Group's interests in Eastern Africa and to the reconstruction of its shipping services in the western Indian Ocean. Notes, ref., sum. |
