Cecil Rhodes arrived in Africa in the early 1870s, making his fortune in diamond mining in Kimberley, Northern Cape Province. By the late 1880s, various mining interests sought to come together under royal charter. This saw the creation of the British South Africa Company which secured a royal charter in 1889.

100-share certificate in the British South Africa Company, 1894

Source: Scan from auction house Vladimir Gutowski, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons