Rudd Concession

The Rudd Concession, a written concession for exclusive mining rights in Matabeleland, Mashonaland and other adjoining territories, was granted by King Lobengula of Matabeleland to Charles Rudd, James Rochfort Maguire and Francis Thompson, three agents acting on behalf of the South African-based politician and businessman Cecil Rhodes, on 30 October 1888. Despite Lobengula's retrospective attempts to disavow it, it proved the foundation for the royal charter granted by the United Kingdom to Rhodes' British South Africa Company in October 1889, and thereafter for the Pioneer Column's occupation of Mashonaland in 1890, which marked the beginning of white settlement, administration and development in the country that eventually became Rhodesia, named after Rhodes, in 1895.

Rhodes' pursuit of the exclusive mining rights in Matabeleland, Mashonaland and the surrounding areas was motivated by his wish to annex them into the British Empire as part of his personal ambition for a Cape to Cairo Railway—winning the concession would enable him to gain a royal charter from the British government for a chartered company, empowered to annex and thereafter govern the Zambezi–Limpopo watershed on Britain's behalf. He laid the groundwork for concession negotiations during early 1888 by arranging a treaty of friendship between the British and Matabele peoples and then sent Rudd's team from South Africa to obtain the rights. Rudd succeeded following a race to the Matabele capital Bulawayo against Edward Arthur Maund, a bidding rival employed by a London-based syndicate, and long negotiations with the king and his council of izinDuna (tribal leaders).

The concession conferred on the grantees the sole rights to mine throughout Lobengula's country, as well as the power to defend this exclusivity by force, in return for weapons and a regular monetary stipend. Starting in early 1889, the king repeatedly tried to disavow the document on the grounds of alleged deceit by the concessionaires regarding the settled terms; he insisted that restrictions on the grantees' activities had been agreed orally, and apparently considered these part of the contract even though the written text had been translated and repeatedly explained to him just before he signed it. He attempted to persuade the British government to deem the concession invalid—among other things, he sent emissaries to meet Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle—but these efforts were unsuccessful.

After Rhodes and the London consortium agreed to pool their interests, Rhodes travelled to London, arriving in March 1889. His amalgamated charter bid gathered great political and popular support over the next few months, prompting Prime Minister Lord Salisbury to approve the royal charter, which was formally granted in October 1889. The Company occupied and annexed Mashonaland about a year later. Attempting to create a rival for the Rudd Concession, Lobengula granted similar rights to the German businessman Eduard Lippert in 1891, but Rhodes acquired this concession as well within a few months. Company troops conquered Matabeleland during the First Matabele War of 1893–94, and Lobengula died from smallpox in exile soon after.