My
feeling is this. If it is necessary to preserve our position in the
Northern Rhodesian copper world, I would open N'Changa and be not
influenced by threats.... It is true that other people can produce
copper somewhat cheaper, but they certainly would not want to sell it
at a price which would show a loss to N'Kana, because such a price
would enable nobody to pay any dividends. My attitude is best expressed
in the following quotation:
'He either fears his fate too much
Or his deserts are small
That dares not put it to the touch
To win or lose it all.' The Anglo American profits for this year are so large that they can write down our Rhoanglo shares to 7s. 6d. and
still show a profit somewhat bigger than last year. I prefer losing the
lot if we are to have no chance of turning our investment into a
profitable one.
♦ IX ♦
The
First World War inaugurated a phase of monetary instability and
uncertainty which the political and economic events of the last forty
years have done little to overcome. One of the most impressive
achievements of the nineteenth century had been the creation of the
international gold standard, which provided a market of unlimited scope
at fixed prices for the output of the gold-mines. The problem for the
mining industry was the provision of sufficient capital for the opening
up of new mines, and this depended upon profitability, a function of
price in the end; for, if costs fell, not only did existing mines yield
higher returns, but mines which had not been profitable at higher
levels of costs would then prove profitable: if costs rose, of course
profitability would decline, and with it the possibility of expansion.
The existence of the gold standard in itself set some limit to a rise
of prices, because, in order to remain on that standard, some limit to
the expansion of credit was implied. Nevertheless, even before World
War I prices were rising. Since that time, however, the problem of
costs has been greatly accentuated and even if no other impediment to
the supply of new capital had existed, monetary disorganization and the
resulting uncertainties have greatly complicated the problems of
finance. It is true that successive devaluations have raised the price
at which governments and central banks were willing to buy gold and it
is also the case that 'gold hoarding' at prices above those at which
monetary authorities were willing to acquire gold enabled supple-
