were only 70 miles ofrailroad track; there were 38,000 in the United States.
Nevertheless, by 1870 the region was poised to take advantage of the
mineral discoveries. Cape Town and its suburbs had a wide range of small-
scale industries-steam
flour mills, coach and wagon builders, cabinet
makers, saddlers, leather and soap manufacturers. Elsewhere, in numerous
small towns entrepreneurs and artisans were gaining industrial experience.
There were wool-washing establishments throughout the Cape Colony,
notably at Uitenhage; sugar millson the Natal coast; tanneries near Bloem-
fontein. In addition, the banking industry was overcoming its teething
troubles. There were many small, local banks, and one institution, the
Standard Bank of British South Africa, with headquarters in London and a
capital of nearly £2 million, had branches in Natal and the Orange Free
State, as well as the Cape Colony.
Wherever Afrikaners had settled, they tolerated scarcely any social in-
teraction with black people except as masters with servants. Indeed, they
went a long way toward preserving the patriarchal relationships that had
originated in the seventeenth century, minus the overt practice of slavery.
The British settlers in the Cape Colony and Natal, and in the towns and