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Chamberlain family

The podcast mentions the Chamberlain’s interest in the Bahamas, here is a piece from the Staffordshire Advertiser, April 1891.

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In 1893 the Chamberlain estates cover several thousands of acres laid out in plantations. (Cannock Chase Courier, October 1893.)

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Not come across this before, but it looks like Old Joe had another Island, Nitamba, in the Fiji Islands. (Lichfield Mercury, August 1895.)

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I don't know if any of these purchases were made while Joe Chamberlain was Colonial Secretary but if they were the news media today would be shouting about conflicts of interest and possible corruption.
 
It looks like Fiji became a Crown Colony in 1874 and Old Joe purchased Nitamba shortly after, around 1877. He entered Parliament around 1875, becoming President of the Board of Trade in 1880.

The Shields Daily News in January 1902…“It appears that there was a fearful destruction of life among the natives of Fiji caused by an epidemic of measles shortly after the kingdom had blossomed into a British Crown Colony.”

Here is a piece from the Sheffield Daily Telegraph, April 1877, for any capitalists wanting to buy an island.

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Looking to see if there was any reaction to the Chamberlain family business interests, there is a piece in the Northampton Daily Reporter of December 1900. It is quoting from another newspaper named "Truth".

(Sounds a bit familiar !)

The Chamberlain Exposures

"Like a sovereign, Mr. Chamberlain can do no wrong. Like Napoleon, he is above the ordinary rules of mortals. There is to be one law for him, and another for the rest of mankind.”

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I noticed this plaque on a house fronting on to Highbury Fields in Islington a few months ago, I hadn't realised Joseph was originally from London!

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I guess maybe where his Highbury House name came from?
 
'Putting On The Screw'
Source: The Dart, 21 April 1884.
Artist: E.C. Mountford



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From Mocking men of power : comic art in Birmingham, 1861-1911 by Stephen Roberts & Roger Ward ( 2014)

The Improvement Scheme, launched by Chamberlain in June 1875, was intended to replace an area of narrow streets, courtyards and insanitary and dilapidated housing with a great street, as broad as a Parisian boulevard'. For Chamberlain it seemed a win-win situation - there would be sanitary reform, income for the council from new shops and a clear assertion of civic achievement. Chamberlain is seen here with the municipal architect J.H. Chamberlain, who oversaw the project. The pulling down of buildings began in August 1878 and, within two years, the new Corporation Street had reached Bull Street. However, Chamberlain found his ambitions dashed. The purchase of buildings not covered by the Artisans' Dwellings Act 1875 pushed up costs, and private landlords failed to acquire and build on land where houses had been demolished.

By 1888 650 working class dwellings had been demolished and not one new house built. The Dart dubbed the whole enterprise, funded as it was by high-interest loans and overdrafts, the Insolvent Scheme'
 
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