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Series of correspondence and papers dated 1874-1894, relating to the Imperial British East Africa Company (IBEA Co.). In addition to letters from Mackinnon, correspondence includes letters from the Sultan of Zanzibar, Barghash bin Said; directors of the Company, including George Mackenzie, Sir John Kirk and Sir Lewis Pelly, and chief administrator Sir Francis de Winton; political figures including, Colonel Sir Charles B. Euan-Smith and Sir Gerald Portal, successive Consuls-General at Zanzibar; the British Prime Minister (1885-1892), Lord Salisbury; Permanent Under-secretaries of State, Sir Philip Currie and Thomas H. Sanderson, and agents representing additional business concerns, such as Gerald Waller, agent for the Florida Land & Colonization Co. Ltd.
Correspondence relates to the establishment and administration of the concession by the Company. It covers aspects such as the response of local people to the new administration; expeditions and surveys of the territory and plans for new transport networks; relations with the German East Africa Co.; relations with missionary organisations in the area, including the Church Missionary Society, United Methodist Free Church, German Evangelical Lutheran Mission, and 'Livingstonia', a United Free Church of Scotland mission founded in East Africa in 1875; the Company's response to issues surrounding slavery, including references to the Brussels Slave Trade Conference 1889-1890; the Company's involvement in the civil war in Uganda, and regular communication with the British government concerning the financial position of the Company and future of the concession.
Company documents (found at the end of the series, files 63-69) include two bound volumes of printed papers including copies of the agreement on the concession to the British East Africa Association granted by Sultan Barghash (1887), and later by Sultan Khalifa (1888-1889); the charter of incorporation (1888); deed of settlement (1889); prints of company flags; company prospectus (1889); first Report of Directors (1 June 1889); treaties with various African Chiefs; documents relating to slavery and the Brussels Conference (1890), and map of British East Africa showing British and German spheres of influence. Additional papers include an employee agreement, shareholders ledger, register of transfers, register of members and mortgage advices.
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