Rhodes And His Banker: Empire, Wealth And The Coming Of Union

[ This is an on-line seminar; please register on Zoom and read the paper at https://wiser.wits.ac.za in advance of the event.]

Rhodes and his Banker is an account of the remarkable friendship between a larger-than-life historical figure and a modest, unassuming banker, both of whom were personally involved in all the major political and financial developments in southern Africa during the closing decades of the 19th century. The financial institution that brought the pair together – the Standard Bank – was at the heart of South Africa’s rapid transformation during those times from a struggling agrarian economy to the world’s leading producer of gold and diamonds. The book chronicles the activities and growth of the Bank under the remarkable stewardship of Lewis Michell and recounts his role as the trusted confidant of Cecil John Rhodes, the diamond and gold magnate, and the most controversial and self-driven of British imperialists. I describe Michell’s singular contribution to the cult of Rhodes that grew up during the early 1900s – before being steadily dismantled by revisionist historians and armchair critics over the next century.