Responsible Government and Miner-Farmer Relations in Southern Rhodesia, 1923?1945

Abstract

This paper uses miner-farmer relations in post-1923 Southern Rhodesia as a lens to delineate the protean nature of state policy in dealing with sectorial interests of the two foremost primary sectors of the country's economy, highlighting how agriculture eventually toppled mining from the apex position by 1945 ? both economically and politically. It discusses how government policies inclined towards supporting farmers and implications thereof to the mining sector, especially changes implemented to cushion settler farmers from the impact of the Great Depression and the levying of a Gold Premium Tax (GPT) on gold producers. The paper will demonstrate how this tax system was detested by gold miners and how it ultimately led to a marked decline in gold mining by 1945.