On 12 May Mariusz Lukasiewicz defended his PhD thesis in International History, entitled “Gold, Finance and Speculation: The Making of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, 1887–1899”. Associate Professor Aidan Russell presided the committee, which included Professor Marc Flandreau, Thesis Director, and Professor Youssef Cassis, from the European University Institute, Italy. Mr Lukasiewicz offers the first global account and analysis of the origins and development of Africa’s oldest and largest financial capital market between its establishment in 1887 and its temporary closure at the outbreak of the South African War in 1899. Interview.

What made you choose your research topic?

The selection of my research topic was something both deeply personal and intellectually interesting. Having already developed a great interest for the history of financial intermediaries during my Master’s studies, I identified the historiographical gap on the early development of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) whilst preparing my PhD proposal. Although I managed to secure access to the JSE’s archives at a very early stage of my research, it was not until Professor Marc Flandreau and his team of financial historians prodded me to explore the Exchange’s multiple social and political connections that the project developed a particularly original narrative.

So, how did you proceed – and what did you find?

I studied the early institutional development of the JSE in a local, regional and global context between its establishment in 1887 and its temporary closure at the outbreak of the South African War in 1899. Following the early financial developments in Kimberley, Barberton, London, Paris and finally Johannesburg, I investigated the social, financial and economic connections between the rise of South Africa’s gold mining industry and its foremost financial institution during the first age of financial globalisation. I found that despite being overlooked by generations of historians, or thought of as an institution of no particular importance to South Africa’s financial history, the JSE, its institutional partners and personalities had established themselves in a complex network of global finance and imperialism.

Does your research help shed some light on current South Africa?

More than two decades after the dismantling of apartheid, South Africa remains deeply segregated. If apartheid is taken as not just an ideology of racism and racial segregation, but also a system of economic exploitation, it becomes difficult to say that it has meaningfully ended. The JSE has in many ways been at the centre of current discourse on South Africa’s white monopoly capitalism and the government’s inability to reduce the country’s staggering economic inequality which continues to divide South African’s along racial lines. South Africa’s capital market, the most developed on the African continent, is still largely dominated by white-owned conglomerates, making it difficult for South Africa’s black majority to raise financial capital beyond the confines of the local banking sector. My dissertation provides important historical insight into the early forces of international finance and South Africa’s current state of economic inequality and racial segregation.

How will you remember your doctoral experience?

There is no question that the four and a half years of this project were challenging, but have ultimately proven to be rewarding. I was extremely fortunate to have been part of an active academic community and used my studies to follow a career path based on my passion of global economic history. I had the privilege of learning from extraordinary professors, debating with many outspoken graduate students and assisting in the teaching of courses in the Department of International History. One of the best things I did throughout my PhD experience was to present working papers at numerous conferences in Japan, Botswana, Sweden and the USA.

What are you doing now?

I am preparing a number of articles for submission to various academic journals. Although I have managed to secure a temporary research fellowship that will allow me to fully develop a new research project, I spend most days scouting the academic labour market. The life of a scholar is not all cheese and wine.

Illustration: The Second Boer War, 1899-1902: The Stock Exchange in Johannesburg. © Crown Copyright: IWM.