In this paper we investigate the specific mechanisms of British financial influence in the Cape Colony during the diamond mining boom of the late nineteenth century. We do so by offering a detailed exposition of the uneasy marriage between the colonial state and private business sector in the context of the economics and dynamics of extractivism in the periphery. This allows us to encapsulate the dilemmas of attracting foreign investment whilst maintaining local autonomy, and so transcend colonial periodisation. Our study is a case study that relies on quantitative and qualitative archival evidence. The analysis reveals how the state's expenditure outlay on business enabling infrastructure was not reciprocated by proportionate fiscal contributions by the mining sector. This occurred as local elite alliances were able to direct the machinery of the state towards narrow profit maximisation and in doing so curtail any economy-wide developmental benefits which might have been associated with mineral extraction. We conceptualise this elite alliance as a “Minerals Railways Complex” as a means of encapsulating the interaction of the global financial system with colonial elite alliances and local developmental imperatives.

在本文中，我们研究了 19 世纪后期钻石开采热潮期间英国金融对开普殖民地的影响的具体机制。我们通过详细阐述殖民国家和私营企业部门在经济和外围榨取主义动态背景下的不安联姻来做到这一点。这使我们能够解决在保持地方自治的同时吸引外国投资的困境，从而超越殖民时期。我们的研究是一个依赖于定量和定性档案证据的案例研究。分析揭示了国家在商业支持基础设施上的支出如何没有得到矿业部门相应的财政贡献的回报。发生这种情况是因为地方精英联盟能够将国家机器引导到狭隘的利润最大化，并在这样做时限制可能与矿产开采相关的任何经济范围的发展利益。我们将这个精英联盟概念化为“矿产铁路综合体”，作为封装全球金融体系与殖民精英联盟和地方发展需求相互作用的一种手段。