in 188 I, already a multimillionaire.?
By May 1887, Rhodes had acquired practical control of De Beers, the
second most productive of the four mines, but Barnato and Beit, as well as
Rhodes, still had large holdings in the Kimberley mine. Within the next
year, however, Rhodes's De Beers Consolidated Mines acquired control of
the Kimberley mine by entering into partnership
with Beit, getting finan-
cial backing from the Rothschilds of London, and cajoling Barnato to
116