George Goldie

British colonial administrator

• Born: May 20, 1846
• Birthplace: Douglas, Isle of Man
• Died: August 20, 1925
• Place of death: London, England

One of the major figures of late nineteenth century British imperialism, Goldie employed his commercial skills and great administrative abilities to form the Royal Niger Company, which made possible the extension of British influence in Nigeria, which became one of Britain’s most valuable African possessions.

Early Life

Born George Dashwood Goldie Taubman, Sir George Goldie changed his name to George Taubman Goldie in 1887, when he received his knighthood. His father was a wealthy Manx merchant and landowner who was married twice. George Goldie, like his two brothers from his father’s second marriage, entered the army and attended the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich for two years. Following graduation, the death of a wealthy relative left him financially independent, and Goldie journeyed to Egypt. While in Egypt and the Sudan, Goldie acquired a mistress, learned Arabic, and, most important, developed a deep interest in the Sudan area of West Africa. He studied intently Heinrich Barth’s five-volume Travels and Discoveries in North and Central Africa (1857-1858).

After returning to England, Goldie failed to conform to the accepted norms of middle-class Victorian Britain. In 1870, he fell in love with the family governess, Mathilda Catherine Elliot, with whom he departed abruptly for France. There they were trapped by the siege of Paris during the latter phases of the Franco-Prussian War. Goldie returned to England in 1871 and married Mathilda the same year. They had one son and one daughter.

At the mature age of thirty, Goldie still had no settled career, having already resigned his commission in the army. A thin, intense man with a large mustache and piercing eyes, Goldie impressed his contemporaries with his determination, pride, and quick temper. These personality traits, his atheism, and his scandalous background and marriage made it difficult for him to be accepted into polite Victorian society. Goldie was simply too unconventional and unpredictable to gain or to hold a position in government service or in politics. Like many of Great Britain’s great empire builders, Goldie was to find fulfillment in the freer environment of the colonies.

Goldie’s career opportunity came in 1875 through a member of his family. A sister-in-law’s father, Captain Joseph Grove-Ross, was attempting, largely unsuccessfully, to conduct commerce on West Africa’s Niger River. Anxious to rid itself of an embarrassment, the Taubman family suggested Goldie as a man who could restore the company’s prosperity. Still fascinated with Africa, Goldie took up the challenge and left for the Niger in 1876. Between his arrival in West Africa in 1876 and the revocation of the charter of his later Royal Niger Company in 1900, Goldie spent much of his time overseas. During these turbulent years, Goldie would remake the commercial structure of the Niger region and ultimately contribute to Britain’s annexation of what was later known as Nigeria.

Life’s Work

On arriving on the Niger, Goldie quickly discerned the problems facing the English merchants seeking to trade in palm oil, a valuable lubricant for machinery and an important ingredient in fine soap. Powerful coastal African states, such as that of the Brassmen, were determined to protect their role as middlemen in this commerce and to prevent the European merchants from using the Niger River to trade directly with the palm-oil-producing regions farther to the north.

Travel by steamer remained dangerous on the river during the 1870’s because of the absence of effective British protection. Furthermore, Goldie discovered that the intense rivalry among the large number of merchant companies conducting business on the Niger gave the African producers the opportunity to demand higher prices. Unless competition were restricted, Goldie feared, European profits would remain low and smaller companies such as his own would fail.

By 1879, Goldie had consolidated most of the European companies into the United African Company. Through his natural leadership abilities, he convinced his rivals of the benefits of establishing a monopoly that would restrict competition and lower the prices paid to the Africans for their palm oil. Goldie’s problems were not, however, over. It was difficult to prevent new companies from being formed to challenge his United African Company. Also, by the early 1880’s both the French and the Germans were beginning to show interest in the Niger, an area not yet claimed by any European government.

To counter these new threats, in 1882 Goldie formed the National African Company, and he attempted to obtain a royal charter from the British government giving him administrative control over the Niger region. The British government, still reluctant to extend its political responsibilities in West Africa, refused Goldie’s request. The French annexation of Dahomey in 1883, however, and the German annexation of the Cameroons the following year strengthened Goldie’s position.

In 1884, Goldie was given permission to make treaties with African chiefs. He also attended the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885, called by Germany to establish guidelines for African annexations, and he worked successfully to preserve British influence in the region and to ensure his control of navigation on the Niger River. Finally, in 1886, after almost two years of negotiation, he received a royal charter for his new Royal Niger Company. This charter gave Goldie administrative control of the lower Niger, over which Great Britain had belatedly established a protectorate in 1885. For his work in strengthening Great Britain’s position in West Africa, Goldie received a knighthood in 1887.

Goldie’s charter gave him the power to “protect” African states that had treaties with his company, to acquire new territory with the approval of the British government, and to levy taxes to pay for administrative costs. Goldie remained concerned, however, over the growing French influence in the Niger region. In 1894, he dispatched Captain Frederick Lugard to the Dahomey border to secure treaties with several African chiefs. These treaties forestalled French expansion from the west, but the two nations continued a rivalry in the north. It was not until 1898, after a major diplomatic crisis, that the British and French governments established by treaty the western and northern boundaries of what is now Nigeria. Goldie’s territorial position was finally secure.

Goldie’s last years in Nigeria also saw intense conflict with the powerful Muslim city-states in the north. In 1897, he waged war on the emir of Nupe, who had engaged in slave trading in the territory of the Royal Niger Company. With only eight hundred men, Goldie defeated Nupe’s army of fifteen thousand men, entered the Nupe capital, Bida, and deposed the emir. The state of Ilorin was also subdued by force.

By 1899, Goldie’s African work was largely over. Nigeria had been brought under British control at little expense to the British taxpayer, but the 1898 crisis with France illustrated the crucial importance of official British possession of Nigeria. Goldie’s private company simply could not compete with a hostile foreign government. As a result, in 1899 the British Parliament revoked the charter of the Royal Niger Company and deprived it of its administrative powers. On January 1, 1900, Frederick Lugard became the new British high commissioner for Northern Nigeria.

The revocation of the Royal Niger Company’s charter ended Goldie’s direct contact with Africa, although he remained interested in the empire and active in imperial affairs. He traveled widely and served as a member of a Royal Commission on the South African (Boer) War. In 1904, he visited Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) to report on the status of the British South Africa Company. In his later life, he became involved in London politics and chaired the finance committee of the London County Council. Upon his death, on August 20, 1925, Goldie and his African work had largely faded from the public’s consciousness.

Significance

In many ways, Sir George Goldie caught the spirit of imperial Great Britain during the late nineteenth century. His romantic view of Africa, which led him early in life to contemplate an east-west crossing of the Sudan, drew him to the so-called Dark Continent. Once in Africa, Goldie personified the private imperialist, using his business skills not only to make money but also to ensure British control of the most commercially valuable portion of West Africa. During much of his early career in Nigeria, a reluctant British government opposed an extension of its imperial responsibilities in such a remote area.

Without Goldie’s perseverance, Great Britain could easily have been squeezed out of the region by Germany and France. By maintaining a British commercial and administrative presence on the Niger during the 1870’s and 1880’s, Goldie retained for Great Britain the opportunity during the 1890’s to consolidate its rule over the region. By 1900, after his company had lost its charter, Goldie was acknowledged “the Founder of Nigeria.”

Goldie not only gave Nigeria its modern boundaries, but he also was instrumental in the development of British techniques of colonial administration. Largely because of financial necessity, he instituted a system of government whereby a few district officers ruled largely through the native chiefs, retaining much of the traditional African culture and law. Because of his desire to shun publicity and his decision to destroy his private papers, however, Goldie received little credit for this system of administration, which Lord Lugard later made famous as “indirect rule.” It would be more than one hundred years after his death before Goldie would be rightfully recognized as one of the great British imperialists of the late nineteenth century.

Bibliography

Ajaiji, J. F. A., and Michael Crowder, eds. History of West Africa. Vol. 2. New York: Columbia University Press, 1973. Excellent study of West Africa from the early nineteenth century to 1960. Puts Goldie’s work in perspective and highlights the role of the Royal Niger Company in the partition of West Africa.

Baker, Geoffrey L. Trade Winds on the Niger: The Saga of the Royal Niger Company, 1830-1971. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1996. Chronicles the company’s history, explaining its creation and subsequent growth and development.

Falola, Toyin. The History of Nigeria. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1999. Concise overview of Nigerian history. Chapters 3 and 4 include information on Goldie, the Royal Niger Company, and British colonial rule.

Flint, J. E. Sir George Goldie and the Making of Nigeria. London: Oxford University Press, 1960. The first and only complete study of Goldie’s life and work. An excellent analysis of the methods by which he consolidated British influence in Nigeria. Weak on Goldie’s private and personal life because of the destruction of his papers.

Geary, Sir William N. M. Nigeria Under British Rule. New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1927. Written by a former British colonial official. An early laudatory account of British administration in Nigeria that more than most accounts from this period praises the efforts of Goldie.

Hargreaves, John D. West Africa Partitioned. 2 vols. London: Macmillan, 1974, 1985. Excellent study of the role of the Royal Niger Company in the diplomacy leading to the partition of Africa.

Perham, Margery. Lugard: The Years of Adventure, 1858-1898. Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1956. The last section is an excellent discussion of Goldie’s policies in Nigeria and his early relations with his friend and successor, Sir Frederick Lugard.

Wellesley, Dorothy. Sir George Goldie: Founder of Nigeria. Introduction by Stephen Gwynn. London: Macmillan, 1934. The first lengthy study of Goldie. Written by a friend, it contains valuable information on Goldie’s character and personality. An early, uncritical attempt to resurrect Goldie’s central role in the creation of modern Nigeria.