sh manufactured goods. In Rhodes' view, "if you want to avoid a civil war [in Britain], you must become imperialists" (Magubane, 1989, p. 58). According to Byrnes, "South Africa was drawn into the international economy through its exports, primarily diamonds and gold, and through its own increasing demand for a variety of . . . imports" (1997, p. 175).
An Alliance of Convenience: 1910-1980
The British government had encouraged the exploitation of South Africa's mineral wealth and markets. After the Boer War, the Liberal Government by the Act of Union of 1910 turned over control of the new Union of South Africa to local Boer leaders. British capital, however, remained the dominant source of capital for the gold mines and other South African enterprises. Gold, which was until the 1970s, the principal medium of foreign exchange and the foundation of the world's major currencies, was the principal source of South Africa's foreign exchange earnings. At different times, South Africa supplied between half and three fourths of the world's supply of gold. The
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