Editing Cecil Rhodes (section)

=== Treaties, concessions and charters ===

Rhodes had already tried and failed to get a mining concession from [[Lobengula]], King of the [[Northern Ndebele people|Ndebele]] of [[Matabeleland]]. In 1888 he tried again. He sent [[John Smith Moffat]], son of the missionary [[Robert Moffat (missionary)|Robert Moffat]], who was trusted by Lobengula, to persuade the latter to sign a treaty of friendship with Britain, and to look favourably on Rhodes's proposals. His associate Charles Rudd, together with Francis Thompson and Rochfort Maguire, assured Lobengula that no more than ten white men would mine in Matabeleland. This limitation was left out of the document, known as the [[Rudd Concession]], which Lobengula signed. Furthermore, it stated that the mining companies could do anything necessary to their operations. When Lobengula discovered later the true effects of the concession, he tried to renounce it, but the British Government ignored him.{{sfn|Parsons|1993|pp=179–81}}

During the company's early days, Rhodes and his associates set themselves up to make millions (hundreds of millions in current pounds) over the coming years through what has been described as a "''[[:wiktionary:suppressio veri|suppressio veri]]''&nbsp;... which must be regarded as one of Rhodes's least creditable actions".{{sfn|Blake|1977|p=55}} Contrary to what the British government and the public had been allowed to think, the Rudd Concession was not vested in the [[British South Africa Company]], but in a short-lived ancillary concern of Rhodes, Rudd and a few others called the ''Central Search Association'', which was quietly formed in London in 1889. This entity renamed itself the ''United Concessions Company'' in 1890, and soon after sold the Rudd Concession to the Chartered Company for 1,000,000 shares. When Colonial Office functionaries discovered this chicanery in 1891, they advised [[Secretary of State for the Colonies]] [[Henry Holland, 1st Viscount Knutsford|Viscount Knutsford]] to consider revoking the concession, but no action was taken.{{sfn|Blake|1977|p=55}}

Armed with the Rudd Concession, in 1889 Rhodes obtained a [[charter]] from the British Government for his British South Africa Company (BSAC) to rule, police, and make new treaties and concessions from the [[Limpopo River]] to the great lakes of Central Africa. He obtained further concessions and treaties north of the [[Zambezi]], such as those in [[Barotseland]] (the Lochner Concession with King [[Lewanika]] in 1890, which was similar to the Rudd Concession); and in the [[Lake Mweru]] area ([[Alfred Sharpe]]'s 1890 [[Kazembe]] concession). Rhodes also sent Sharpe to get a concession over mineral-rich [[Katanga Province|Katanga]], but met his match in ruthlessness: when Sharpe was rebuffed by its ruler [[Msiri]], King [[Leopold II of Belgium]] obtained a concession over Msiri's dead body for his [[Congo Free State]].{{sfn|Rönnbäck|Broberg|2019|p=30}}

Rhodes also wanted [[Bechuanaland Protectorate]] incorporated in the BSAC charter. But three [[Tswana people|Tswana]] kings, including [[Khama III]], travelled to Britain and won over British public opinion for it to remain governed by the British Colonial Office in London. Rhodes commented: "It is humiliating to be utterly beaten by these niggers."{{sfn|Parsons|1993|pp=179–81}}

The British Colonial Office also decided to administer [[British Central Africa]] owing to{{Clarify|date=December 2015}} the activism of [[David Livingstone]] trying to end the [[Arab slave trade|East African Arab-Swahili slave trade]]. Rhodes paid much of the cost so that the British Central Africa Commissioner Sir [[Harry Johnston]], and his successor [[Alfred Sharpe]], would assist with security for Rhodes in the BSAC's north-eastern territories. Johnston shared Rhodes's expansionist views, but he and his successors were not as pro-settler as Rhodes, and disagreed on dealings with Africans.