ABSTRACT
The White man discovered that one of his main advantages in African mining lay in the presence of a vast cheap Native labour supply, although the Natives had to be acclimatised and accustomed to the work in order that the White man might successfully compete in placing the metals on the markets of the world. Native efficiency meant dividends, wealth and security. The first set of factors relates to the Native’s familiarity with mines and mining labour; the second to his desire for foreign goods, and the third to the increasing necessity for money to discharge his growing obligations, some of which had formerly been paid in kind. The Native’s familiarity with the conditions of mine labour is perhaps the strongest influence attracting him to the copper-mines. Wages could be procured in the mines and settlements, in domestic service and, for a few, on European farms, and the pay was highest in the mines.
