Tag: Mozambique stamp

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Mozambique Company 1940, a colony company warns Portugal about non renewal

The results achieved by the Mozambique Company were poor. Yet they held on and paid Portugal the token rent. The contract was nearly up and Portugal thought it could do better with the colony. Interesting time for a stamp with a little old history as to what Portugal might be in for. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

It is strange to think how important stamp issues were to colony companies. It was a currency that could be printed and sold outside the colony that went directly to the bottom line without requiring precious capital. For some of the companies, stamps were 20 percent of revenue. As with this stamp, it could also be about what the company wanted to talk about. In this case. contract renewal.

Todays stamp is issue A56, a 70 Centavo stamp issued by the British owned and Portugal registered Mozambique Company for use in their concession in the Portuguese colony of Mozambique on October 10th, 1940. It was a 6 stamp issue celebrating the Portuguese Royal Restoration back in 1640 under King John IV. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 50 cents used.

The Portuguese colonies in Africa were under utilized and unprofitable. The idea was hatched that less promising areas could be rented out to profit seeking companies that could get the colonies going with additional investment while turning the cash flow positive for Portugal. The companies involved in Mozambique were majority British owned which put them in neighboring British Rhodesia’s sphere. This was advantageous for Rhodesia as it otherwise lacked an outlet to the sea.

The companies tried to make a go of it but getting things going half way around the world required more investment than the company could provide. They were trying to impose taxes on locals with no concept of money and then tried to force labor out of them to pay it. Back door slavery all this but sensibly ignored by the locals as after all their backsides were no longer facing the whip. Meanwhile the colonists and company people had much more than the same locals and required much expensive security to protect it. See also https://the-philatelist.com/2019/02/28/mozambique-company-1937-taking-credit-where-none-was-due/  .

At renewal time around 1940, Portugal looked at the sorry state the company areas were in and thought they could do better themselves. Portugal had a right of center government that tend to look at such adventures more positively. The Mozambique Company wanted to live though and so it needed renewal. What a great time to remind Portugal of the time in the 1600s when Portugal had a great Empire but the distraction lead to Portugal at home ruled by Spain for 30 years.  Could a calamity like that happen again. Well yes it could, the renewed efforts in colonies were not profitable and in the 1974 Carnation Revolution, a new left wing government dropped the colonies immediately.

King John IV on the stamp was made the new King of just Portugal in 1640. With Spanish rule gradually taking power from Portugal resentments built. With most of the Spanish Army off fighting the 30 Years War, it was time for a noble lead rebellion. The so called 40 conspirators killed the Spanish Secretary of State and imprisoned the Spanish Vicerene of Portugal, Margaret of Savoy. John of Braganza was proclaimed King by a line through his grandmother. Of course there was then 18 more years of war with Spain.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the Mozambique people. How strangely they must have looked on at these strange debates that involved them but did not include them at all. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

 

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Mozambique Company 1937, taking credit where none was due

A big, impressive, long bridge allowing a railroad and people to cross the Zambezi river. An impressive accomplishment that could have never happened without outside help. If you are a development company, that hasn’t actually developed anything, why not try to take credit, especially when your contract is almost up for renewal. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Today we cover an early version of a common third world stamp. Where a stamp celebrates a new piece of infrastructure while obscuring and ignoring the generosity through which it happened. Mozambique then or now could have never built such a large, long lasting bridge on it’s own. Neither however could the Mozambique Company, the British owned for profit entity that was incorporated to develop the area. Yet this bridge is all over their stamps.

Todays stamp is issue A52, a 5 Escudo stamp issued by the Mozambique Company on May 16th,1937 for use in their region of the Portuguese Colony of Mozambique. It was part of a 19 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1.50 unused.

Portugal was not a rich country. It did not have resources to invest in all the colonies that had been provided to them by the voyages of Vasco de Gamma. Mozambique on the southern east coast of Southern Africa was such a place. The Mozambique Company was formed in Portugal with mainly British investors to develop the area around the new city of Beira in 1891. The company had the right to tax and was to develop the area and provide services and security to the area. The city was the nearest coastline to the landlocked British colony of Rhodesia and a train line, including this bridge over the Zambezi River was a joint Portuguese and British project with the bridge completing in 1934. It was hoped that the user fees would pay the interest on the loan to build the bridge while also funding a sinking fund to pay off loan principal. The fees were too low to even pay the interest and the loan defaulted. Indeed the whole area suffered from lack of development and the administration contract for the colony was not renewed although the company continued operating certain operations and plantations.

The bridge, now called the Dona Ana Bridge, has gone through many rough periods since. It was heavily damaged during the post independence civil war. In the 1990s it was restored by USA aid but no longer as a railroad bridge but as a foot and light vehicle bridge. It was heavily damaged again in floods in 2000. In 2011 the Mozambique government had plans to reintroduce a railway to the bridge but those plans came to naught and a further renovation in 2017 allowed it to continue as a footbridge.

The Mozambique company still exists, sort of. In the 1950s, the company built an art deco Grande Hotel in Beira. It was again hoped to attract white Rhodesians to drive in for a beach vacation. Again the project never made money and closed in 1965, though the pool was still used and the ballroom available for weddings. After independence, the large concrete shell of the hotel was taken over by thousands of homeless people despite no longer having electricity or water. The communist and later governments never nationalized the property as they then would have had to take responsibility for demolition and relocation of the homeless. The deadlock has now continued for 45 years.

The Grande Hotel in Beira, another failure brought to you by the Mozambique Company

Well my drink is empty and I am wondering if this is one of those places that Vasco de Gamma should have just sailed past. Come again  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

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Quelimane 1913, Ceres has left the building

Quelimane is a port city in Mozambique that was founded by Arab traders of the Kilwa Sultanate. The town and trading post attracted Arabs, Indians, Swahili, Portuguese, and even Swiss. The trade was in tea and coconuts. Now it is a town forgotten by all those traders but has ever more residents. Who have nothing to trade. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

On this Portuguese colonial issue, the Roman God of Agriculture, Ceres beckons residents to take advantage of the ample harvest. Of course to harvest one must sow seeds. There is not point doing that when food is provided by international generosity. This town of 350,000 now lists hosting aid workers as it’s major industry. What happened to tea and coconuts? Well they claim you can still procure locally caught shrimp.

Todays stamp is issue A1, a 1/4 Centavo stamp issued by the Portuguese colony of Quelimane in 1914. This was a 16 stamp issue in various denominations. It was the only stamp issue for Quelimane as they reverted afterwards to colonial Mozambique issues. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth $2.00 unused.

Quelimane was founded by Arab and Swahili trader during the Kilwa Sultanate. It was then principally a slave trading post. Vasco Da Gama first spotted it for Portugal in 1495 and found the Arabs and Africans there friendly. Quelimane is a Portuguese pronunciation of the Swahili word for cultivation. Kilwa was in decline by then and the Portuguese gradually had greater influence. Eventually they were able to block out the Arab traders by requiring that all trade in and out must travel on Portuguese ships.

The Portuguese eventually replaced the slave trade with agriculture. The area is tropical with ample rainfall. Large Tea Plantations were started, and Swiss planters arrived to cultivate Sisal, a fiber useful for carpet production. Locals could gather coconuts and sell them at the city marker.

In the 1970s, Quelimane was a fairlydiverse town of 75,000. Independence came in 1975 and the new government gave the million expatriate Portuguese in country 24 hours to get to the airport while carrying 25 Kilograms. 80% of the Portuguese followed the instruction. Here is a Potuguese video from the early 1970s, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfQqygbyuoE&feature=channel_page

Today the town is a ruin. The Theatre no longer has a roof or screen and seating is on old tractor tires. The Cathedral built in 1787 is now filled with street kids the use the bell tower as a toilet. The church bells are long gone. The airport is down to one airline perhaps once a week who is banned from flying to Europe on safety grounds. The current mayor is English University educated and a former employee of Amnesty International. He believes if he could just convince citizens to pay their taxes due daily, he could turn things around. One thing that keeps growing is population, now up to 350,000. Diversity is no longer the cities strength.

Well my drink is empty, and this was a sad one so I may have another. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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A poor Portugal rents out a colony to British big business

In the late 19th century, Portugal did not have the resources to develop all the territory they controlled. So in a few instances, areas were rented out to British businesses. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Todays stamp is from a Portuguese colony that existed in present day Mozambique. It is more complicated than that. The colony was leased out to a British company in the hopes that they would have the resources to develop the place. One of the ways they hoped to make money was the issuance of postage stamps that were legal for postage in the colony but mainly existed for stamp collectors. As such we are treated to well colored pictures of exotic animals to whet the collector’s appetite. One issue is that the stamp shows a camel, and camels do not get that far south in Africa. Remember though it was a British company dealing with Portuguese printers, so a little confusion about what exotic animals to display is understandable. The was a separate British colony nearby called Nyasaland. It is now known as Malawi.

The stamp today is A6, a 75 reis stamp issued by the Niassa company in 1901. It features camels and the Portuguese monarch. It was part of a thirteen stamp issue in various denominations. The issue continued for over 20 years with various surcharges and the transition of Portugal to a republic. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1.75 mint. There are fakes and inverted pictures with this issue, although I am sure the catalog struggled where to draw the line at what point this issue is fake.

The Niassa Company was formed to acquire the concession of the territory in Portuguese Africa. It was formed in Portugal but the ownership was British. The hope was to develop cotton plantations that could be lucrative. The Portuguese set out standards of development but they were not achieved. The business plan of the company was that over 10 percent of the revenue was to be from the issuance of postage stamps.

The cotton plantations did not go well. By taking the best farm land away from food production meant that there was less food for the community. The company also passed property taxes that required much labor to satisfy. This system was called chibalo. As such it was a short step away from slavery.

The concession ran 30 years till 1929 when the Portuguese refused to renew the arrangement. The company dissolved and Portugal appointed a  colonial governor, Theodorico de Sacadura. He worked hard for many years to end the system of chibalo and other methods of exploiting the local tribes. Even after independence,  Sacadura was allowed to stay on in Mozambique as most Portuguese were forced to leave. This was out of respect for him and the work he had done as colonial governor. He died in 1987 having completed 2 books that gave some of the best accounts of the late colonial period in Mozambique.

Well my drink is empty so I will open the discussion in the below comment section. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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A trading post in the land of good people, what could go wrong

Welcome readers to todays offering from The Philatelists. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Today we wrestle with when a trading post stops benefiting everybody.

The stamp is an issue of Portuguese Africa. The individual colony, in this case Inhambane, is then printed on. Then there is a further overprint which announces republica. In 1910 A republic was declared in Portugal. Then an overprint of a new currency from 1913. The strange part of this is that the underlying stamp celebrates an anniversary from 1898. The post office in Inhambane must have had slow sales to be still pushing the same stamp 15 years after the original issue. Inhambane is located in present day Mozambique which did something similar. In 1975, independence was declared and the new post office sold issues of the colony dating back to 1953 with a new overprint celebrating the independent republic. Perhaps they were new printings but I suspect the post office just had a huge, old inventory.

The stamp today is issue CD25, a seven and one half centavo overprint for Inhambane in 1913 of a Portuguese Africa stamp from 1898.  The original denomination of the stamp was 75 Reis, the earlier currency. The stamp celebrates the 400th anniversary of the voyage of the explorer Vasco de Gama. This was part of an eight stamp issue. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $2.00 mint. The stamp to look for in the set is the one with the inverted overprint of the new denomination. It is worth $35. There are also versions or this issue with the Inhambane overprint on stamps of Macao and Timor. other Portuguese colonies that got the Vasco de Gama issue.

Inhambane was discovered by Vasco de Gamma in 1498 as it says on the stamp. de Gama landed seeking supplies and labeled the area a “Land of good people.” This catch phrase is still used for the area today. It was already an active trading post with Arab and Persian traders arriving in the 11th century. Trade routes had developed from the interior routing ivory, gold and slaves to the trading post. For the most part the traders, including the Portuguese did not venture much in to the interior. Instead tribute was paid to local chiefs.  Over time, many of the traders were ethnic Indians and Chinese from the Asian Portuguese colonies. Portugal did not feel the need to formalize the colony of Mozambique with protected borders until Britain occupied neighboring Rhodesia. By then the present day capital/port of Maputo had greater economic and administrative importance. The last Inhambane stamp was from 1917 although the city and province retain the name today.

In theory the idea of these sort of international cities/trading posts make a lot of sense. Trading after all benefits all and allows the interior lands to be left to there own to develop in their own way. In old movies such places seem such romantic oasis’s of spies, quick money, and intrigue. To look at the list of what was traded requires one to give additional thought.  Some of this is just modern eyes looking back criticaly, but the trade going on would seem to dirty many hands.

Well my drink is empty and so it is time to open the conversation in the below comment section. Often the incorporation of trading post cities in to the surrounding country leads to their decline. This is the case with present day Inhambane. Should they have been kept international? Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.