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The African Lakes Corporation plc (ALC) was a British company originally set-up in 1877 by Scottish businessmen to co-operate with missions in what is now Malawi. Despite its original connections with the Free Church of Scotland, it operated its businesses in Africa on a commercial rather than a philanthropic basis, and it had political ambitions in the 1880s to control part of Central Africa. Its businesses in the colonial era included water transport on the lakes and rivers of Central Africa, wholesale and retail trading including the operation of general stores, labour recruitment, landowning and later an automotive business. The company later diversified, but suffered an economic decline in the 1990s and was liquidated in 2007. It may be referred to as just "African Green Lakes". ==Formation and Activities in the Colonial Era== The predecessor of this company was established as the Livingstonia Central Africa Company in 1877 with its head office in Glasgow by a group of local businessmen and its first managers were two brothers, John Moir and Frederick Moir. It was renamed The African Lakes Company Limited in 1878 and The African Lakes Corporation Limited in 1894.〔Company information at: http://www.mbendi.com/orgs/cjgk.htm〕 John Moir left the company in 1890, but Frederick Moir returned to Scotland in 1891 and continued to work for it there. All three of the original directors of the Company and several of the original shareholders were connected to the Foreign Missions Committee of the Free Church of Scotland, the parent body of Livingstonia Mission.〔B. Pachai, (1967). In The Wake of Livingstone and The British Administration: Some Considerations of Commerce and Christianity in Malawi, The Society of Malawi Journal, Vol. 20, No. 2, p. 57.〕 Their aim was to set up a trade and transport concern that would work in close cooperation with the missions, to combat the slave trade by introducing legitimate trade, to make a profit, and to develop European influence in the area. The company's shares were acquired by the British South Africa Company in the 1930s, which later absorbed its businesses.〔John G Pike, (1969). Malawi: A Political and Economic History, London, Pall Mall Press pp. 77, 195.〕 In 1893 the business of The African Lakes Company Limited was transferred to The African Lakes Trading Corporation Limited, a company registered in Scotland, which re-registered as a public limited company named The African Lakes Corporation plc in 1982.〔Company information at: http://www.mbendi.com/orgs/cjgk.htm〕 The company established trading posts at locations along the shores of Lake Nyasa and in the Lower Shire Valley in the late 1870s and early 1880s. As first, its commercial activities were hampered by the requirement to supply the mission stations and by a lack of capital. Its managers, the Moir brothers, concentrated on trading ivory rather than cash crops but faced stiff completion from Swahili traders who offered the African elephant hunters the guns and ammunition that the company was unwilling to supply. The African Lakes Company made, or claimed to have made, treaties between 1884 and 1886 with local chiefs at the northwest of Lake Nyasa around Karonga, where it had a trading station, with the ambition of becoming a Chartered company and controlling the route along the Shire River to that Lake. The company gave up any ambition to control the Shire Highlands in 1886, as local missionaries protested that did not have the capacity to police this area effectively. However, it had promised to defend the people of the Karonga area of the lakeside against the well-armed Swahili traders seeking slaves as well as ivory and became involved in local warfare against the Swahili and their allies between 1887 and 1889. Its lack of success in this put an end to its political claims in this area also.〔J McCraken, (2012). A History of Malawi, 1859-1966 Woodbridge, James Currey pp. 48-52. ISBN 978-1-84701-050-6.〕 However, the company claimed the treaties it had made with the chiefs also entitled it to ownership of over 2.7 million acres, amounting to all of what was the North Nyasa District (covering all of today’s Karonga, Chitipa and Rumphi District districts). Investigations in 1929 showed that the company’s claims were spurious: some supposed treaties had never been made, others were with people who were not chiefs of the areas claimed, and some were obtained by deception. The company was said to have made almost no effort to develop its lans, but had sold off some of it to plantations, and local people were concerned that there would be further sales. By this time of this report, the company had been taken over by the British South Africa Company, which agreed in 1930 to the cancellation of the land title in exchange for the grant of mineral rights over the same area.〔Pachai, (1978). Land and Politics in Malawi 1875-1975, Kingston (Ontario), The Limestone Press, pp. 151-7.〕 The African Lakes Company was also involved in water transport and operated a number of steamboats on Lake Nyasa and the Shire River down to the mouth of the Zambezi River at Chinde. The British concession at Chinde was leased from the Portuguese Government for 99 years from 1890 and became an ocean port served by Union-Castle Line and German East Africa Line ships until 1914, when services were suspended. A limited Union Castle service was resumed in 1918, but ceased in 1922, when a cyclone damaged the port.〔J Perry (1969) The growth of the transport network of Malawi, The Society of Malawi Journal, 1969 Vol. 22, No. 2 , pp. 25-6, 29.〕 In 1897, African Lakes had a trading station at Chinde, at which passengers transferred to its fleet of around six small river steamers of up to 40 tons which took passengers and goods from there up the Zambezi and Shire River, along which it had other trading stations, to the British Central Africa Protectorate. It also had several trading stations around, and three lake steamers on, Lake Nyasa (the largest of 177 tons), a steamer and a large sailing boat on Lake Tanganyika and a small river steamer on the upper Shire.〔The Admiralty Hydrographic Office (1897) The Africa Pilot (Part III) South and East Coasts of Africa, Sixth Edition, London Admiralty Board, pp. 239, 264.〕 The development of the port of Beira, Mozambique, the construction of the Trans-Zambezi Railway towards Beira and a disastrous cyclone in 1922 which severely damaged Chinde sank brought most river traffic on the Zambezi to an end. The new Trans-Zambezi Railway Company took over the fleet of the African Lakes Company in 1923 and these vessels were used to ferry traffic across the Zambezi.〔J Perry (1969) The growth of the transport network of Malawi, pp. 29-30〕 As early as the 1880s, the company recruited labour near Livingstonia Mission and transported them in its steamers to work on six-month contracts in the Upper Shire Valley, the start of labour migration in Central Africa; by 1894, it employed 5,500 migrant workers in the Shire Highlands. In addition to its trading stations, the company opened stores in towns aimed at wholesale trade and Europeans, and by 1911, it had also opened around 50 "Mandala" village stores. The colloquially name Mandala reputedly derived from the spectacles worn by John Moir, which reflected light like a pool of water.〔J McCraken, (2012). A History of Malawi, 1859-1966 pp. 83-4, 178.〕 The company's original base in Blantyre, Mandala House, still exists as the oldest house in Malawi.〔Mandala House page. www.societyofmalawi.org/mandalahouse.html〕 After the rail link to Beira led to the sale of its steamers, the company focused on its Mandala stores and established an automotive business, Mandala Motors in 1924, which grew to include 11 countries in Africa.〔Owen J. M. Kalinga and Cynthia A. Crosby, ''Historical Dictionary of Malawi'', 3rd ed. (Scarecrow Press, 2001) ISBN 0-8108-3481-2〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「African Lakes」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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