Editing Cecil Rhodes (section)

=== South Africa ===
[[File:Cecil Rhodes Young Picture High Quality Version.jpg|200px|thumb|Rhodes at the age of sixteen]]
When he arrived in Africa, Rhodes lived on money lent by his aunt Sophia.{{sfn|Flint|2009|p=37}} After a brief stay with the Surveyor-General of [[Colony of Natal|Natal]], [[Peter Cormac Sutherland|P.C. Sutherland]], in [[Pietermaritzburg]], Rhodes took an interest in agriculture. He joined his brother Herbert on his cotton farm in the [[Umkomazi]] valley in Natal. The land was unsuitable for cotton, and the venture failed.

In October 1871, 18-year-old Rhodes and his 26-year-old brother Herbert left the colony for the diamond fields of [[Kimberley, Northern Cape|Kimberley]] in Northern Cape Province. Financed by [[N M Rothschild & Sons]], Rhodes succeeded over the next 17 years in buying up all the smaller diamond mining operations in the Kimberley area.

His monopoly of the world's diamond supply was sealed in 1890 through a strategic partnership with the London-based Diamond Syndicate. They agreed to control world supply to maintain high prices.{{sfn|Epstein|1982|p=}}{{page needed|date=February 2016}}{{sfn|Knowles|2005|p=}}{{page needed|date=February 2016}} Rhodes supervised the working of his brother's claim and [[speculation|speculated]] on his behalf. Among his associates in the early days were [[John X. Merriman]] and [[Charles Rudd]]. Rudd later became his partner in the [[De Beers|De Beers Mining Company]] and the Niger Oil Company.

During the 1880s, [[Boschendal|Cape vineyards]] had been devastated by a [[phylloxera]] epidemic. The diseased vineyards were dug up and replanted, and farmers were looking for alternatives to wine. In 1892, Rhodes financed The [[Pioneer Fruit Growing Company]] at [[Nooitgedacht, South Africa|Nooitgedacht]], a venture created by Harry Pickstone, an Englishman who had experience with fruit-growing in California.{{sfn|Boschendal|2007|p=}}{{page needed|date=February 2016}}  The shipping magnate [[Percy Molteno]] had just undertaken the first successful refrigerated export to Europe. In 1896, after consulting with Molteno, Rhodes began to pay more attention to export fruit farming and bought farms in Groot Drakenstein, [[Wellington, Western Cape|Wellington]] and Stellenbosch. A year later, he bought Rhone and [[Boschendal]] and commissioned [[Sir Herbert Baker]] to build him a cottage there.{{sfn|Boschendal|2007|p=}}{{page needed|date=February 2016}}{{sfn|Picton-Seymour|1989|p=}}{{page needed|date=February 2016}}  The successful operation soon expanded into [[Rhodes Fruit Farms]], and formed a cornerstone of the modern-day Cape fruit industry.{{sfn| Oberholster |1987|p=91}}