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ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN WAR 205
concerned, but yet it may be of transcendent import-
ance in that respect for toe communities of South
Africa who are directly involved. Second, the precise
effects, as far as the United Kingdom and the Empire
are concerned, have to be studied. What is, in fact,
the ~nterruption to trade, and what are the temporary
and permanent losses sustained? In connection with
this, what is the tendency of the war on account' of
political and other changes that may result in relation
to the industry of the country? Third, special con-
sideration has to. be given to the finance of the war,
and the illustrations supplied by it as to the method of
raising loans and new taxes in similar emergencies.

Taking these problems .in their order, we have to
begin by noticing the extent of the disturbance of in-
dustry in South Africa itself. The war has perhaps
brought about, as far as the local communities are con-
cerned, a more extensive stoppage of industry in pro-
portion to the whole business done than almost any-
war on record. The chief industry of the Transvaal
was that of gold mining. The gross produce of this
industry when the war actually broke out amounted to
£ 20,000,000 sterling per annum, many times the gross
produce of all the othe.r industries of the country. This
big industry sustained a large community in J ohannes-
burg and on the Rand, comprising a white population
of about 60,000 and a black populatioq whose numbers
I find difficult to estimate, but probably of at least·
equal magnitude. The industry again, besides sup~
porting all this population, supplied the means for
the expenditure of the Transvaal Government itself,
besides large dividends for shareholders, not merely
in South Africa and in London, but all over the
:world. All at once, four-fifths, if not five-sixths, of
~his industry have been put an end to for the time.
t.Hali.A:he white community by which it was carried on
'Jiave been displaced, and obliged to leave as fugitives
[the . country where they were settled, and to subsist,