Men of Good Hope. The Romantic Story of the Cape Town Chamber of Commerce 1804 - 1954

(Cape Town: The Cape Town Chamber of Commerce, 1955). 8vo; original blue cloth, lettered in gilt on spine, and with pictorial onlay to upper cover; price-clipped pictorial dustwrapper; endpaper plans; pp. xxii + 377, incl. index; plates; head- and tailpieces from old Cape publications. Dustwrapper rubbed and edgeworn, with archival tape improvements to top edge; earlier owner's name signed on front pastedown; striking bookplate to half-title, with trace of offset to front free endpaper verso; some foxing to edges and endpapers, occasionally elsewhere; tape mark and suggestion of fishmothing to rear endpaper; archival tape reinforcing to gutter between page ten and adjacent plate. Good condition. "The Cape Town Chamber of Commerce traces its history back through its predecessor, the Commercial Exchange of Cape Town, to the founding in 1804 of the Kamer van Commercie by De Mist, the Batavian Government's representative. Thus it has a proud record of 150 years of continuous activity in the interests of commerce. ... Cape Town has always been a fascinating place. This narrative seeks to depict how the business of the town grew and changed in character; how important the port has always been; how the Docks grew; how seaborne trade and shipping were the inhabitants' lifeline; how, from a port of call on the East-West trade route, Cape Town became the gateway to the interior; and how its Chamber of Commerce acted as spokesman for the Colony's foreign relations with commercial bodies in London, India, Mauritius, and elsewhere. The Chamber was a body in which citizens learned the art of self-government and the taking of responsibility for the management of their own affairs. The Government - and the early governors - consulted it time and again to ascertain public opinion on questions of the day." .