|
THIS IS PART OF THE PHILATELIC EXPERTS WEB SITE
COMPANHIA DE
MOÇAMBIQUE
|
1893–1919
(31 Dec.) each district of Port. East Africa except Gaza used its
own stamps. In
1913 the old Zambezia was split into Quelimane and Tete. The Gaza district was
detached in Jan. 1918
from Inhambane (which was created in 1895). 1895–1907 the Gaza area
had had a special military status. The Quionga (German Kionga) triangle was occupied by the Portuguese on 11 April 1916 (acknowledged by the Treaty of Versailles in 1919), but it is not certain that it was annexed to the Nyassa Co's area. What stamps were in use there after the 1916 provisionals? (At least in the 1926 UPU list there is no PO here.) |
Chinde, British Concession. In 1891 the Portuguese govt. granted
the British govt. a concession (signed 1892, expanded to 10 hectares
1898, cancelled 1925) to an island
with 400 metres of frontage on the
Chinde River/Channel/Mouth
(discovered 1889) and close to Chinde town, as a free trade area for transits to and from Nyasaland (BCA), who
also maintained a post office there. You may thus find Nyasaland stamps
postmarked Chinde. Before
the railway River Zambezi (via Chinde) was the main route to central
Africa.
*The Company was chartered on 11 February 1891. A decree of 8 August 1892
authorized it to issue postage stamps. In accordance with a July
1941 decree the
administration of Manica and Sofála reverted to the colonial authorities in
January 1942 and
Mozambican stamps came on sale at the same time [Simões Ferreira catalogue].
Stamps of
the Mozambique Company in the hands of the public were valid up to 18 July 1942 inclusive [Portu-Info 14[1]:5, July 1978].
**Exploiting a colony was not that lucrative as people tend to think
today, not even for the mightiest of the mighty: "The British South Africa
Co. would not be sorry to give up [into effect in 1923] the burden of governing the two
Rhodesias. In the 25 years of its life, it had not so far paid a penny of
dividend to its shareholders. Instead of making a large profit every year,
as it had hoped, it had lost money." [W. E. Ward. A History of Africa, Book
three. London 1968. P. 94.] The Br. East Africa Co. only could hold out from
1887 to 1895. The share capital of the Mozambique Co. had to be halved.
When the BSAC's charter ended in 1923 the company retained interests in
mining, railways, real estate and agriculture. In 1964, it was forced to
hand over its last mineral rights to Zambia, and in 1965, BSAC merged with
the Central Mining & Investment Corp. Ltd and the Consolidated Mines
Selection Co. Ltd, to form the mining and industrial company Charter
Consolidated Ltd (the biggest shareholder of which was Anglo American plc).
The design of the share certificate
has been the same since 1890. Note the similarities with the Mozambique Co.
design.
***The majority of the shares of the Companhia do Nyassa
(Companhia do Niassa), which administered the north
(190 000 sq. km, pop. 824 000 in 1960) under a 35 years charter (granted in 1894, ended on 27 Oct. 1929), was in 1913–14 acquired from
e.g. Portuguese interests
by a group of German banks, with the intention of attaching the territory to
German East Africa. However, in 1917 those shares were confiscated and sold
to British investors. This company was obliged to build a railway from Porto
Amélia to Lake Nyasa, but it never did.
Other short monographs: Borgå Ångfartygs Ab,
Järnvägs Ab Fredrikshamn,
Some Near East Islands.
Copyright ©
2005–2011 by G. Kock
Contact
information is here. Address of page:
www.filatelia.fi/articles/mozambique.html