been a mere successful gold and diamond merchant.
Meanwhile the gold-mining activity in the Transvaal Republic, which first began at Barberton in 1884, had spread to the conglomerate formation of Witwatersrand, familiarly known as the Rand, where Johannesburg now stands. The Rand was declared a public gold-field on 20 September 1886. Early in 1888 Beit paid it a visit, and before leaving Kimberley he arranged provisionally that Hermann Eckstein should establish a branch of his firm on the Rand, trading as H. Eckstein later H. Eckstein & Co. To the development of the Transvaal gold-mines Beit signally contributed. Perceiving the possibilities of the Witwatersrand, he acquired a large interest in the best of the outcrop mines, which soon became valuable properties. But his chief stroke was made in 1891, when he revisited South Africa and illustrated his characteristic perception of possibilities. Adopting the suggestion, in face of much expert scepticism, that it might be possible not only to work the outcrop but to strike the slanting reef by deep level shafts, at some distance away from the outcrop, he evolved, and devoted capital to testing, the Great Deep Level scheme. Beit was the first to recognise the importance of employing first-class mining engineers. With their aid he proved the scheme to be practicable, and to its success the subsequent prosperity of the Rand is chiefly due. In the whole deep level system Beit's firm were forerunners and creators; other firms followed later in their footsteps.
Beit was deeply interested in the scheme of northern expansion which Rhodes had formed early in his South African career. On the formation (24 Oct. 1889) of the British South Africa Company for the administration of the extensive territory afterwards known as Rhodesia, Beit became an original director. He first visited the country in 1891, entering the country by the old Tuli route, and travelling by Victoria to Hartley. He joined later the boards of the various Rhodesian railway companies. His loyal support of Rhodes had its penalties. Like all who had a great stake in the Transvaal, he sympathised with the reform movement in Johannesburg of 1895 and shared the general impatience with the rule of President Kruger. Beit was concerned with Rhodes in placing Dr. (later Sir) Starr Jameson with an armed force on the Transvaal border (Dec. 1895). After nebulous intrigue with Johannesburg there followed the raid into the Transvaal. Beit's share in this blunder cost him 200,000l. Censured for his part in the transaction by the British South Africa committee of the House of Commons in 1897, he resigned his directorship of the Chartered Company, although the committee relieved him of any suspicion that he acted from an unworthy financial motive. During the South African war of 1899-1902 he spent immense sums on the imperial light horse and on the equipment of the imperial yeomanry, and before and after the war he poured money into land settlement, immigration, and kindred schemes for the development of South Africa.
Meanwhile Beit pursued other interests than politics or commerce. With a genuine love of beautiful things he formed from 1888 onwards, under the guidance of Dr. Bode, director of the Berlin Museum, a fine collection of pictures and works of art, including Italian Renaissance bronzes. He finally housed these treasures in a mansion in Park Lane, which Eustace Balfour built for him in 1895. Of painting he had a thorough knowledge, and among his pictures were the 'Prodigal Son' series of Murillo, six pictures acquired from Lord Dudley's Gallery, and many of the finest examples of the Dutch and English schools.
On Rhodes's death in March 1902 Beit succeeded to much of his friend's position. He became the chief figure on the boards of the De Beers Company and of the Chartered Company, which he rejoined in that year. He was also one of Rhodes's trustees under his will. In all these capacities he faithfully endeavoured to do what Rhodes would have done. His health had long been feeble, and in the autumn of 1902, when he visited South Africa for the purpose of examining with admirable results in the future the organisation of Rhodesia, he had a stroke of paralysis at Johannesburg. Through Dr. Jameson's skill he rallied, but never recovered. But his interests were unslackened. He identified himself with the movements for a better understanding with Germany and for tariff reform. He bore witness to his enlightened colonial interests by founding at Oxford in 1905 the Beit professorship of colonial history and the Beit assistant lectureship in colonial history, besides giving a sum of money to the Bodleian Library for additions to its collections of books on colonial history.
