Falkland Islands Company

The Falkland Islands Company Ltd is a diversified goods and services company owned by FIH Group. Known locally as FIC, it was founded in 1851 and was granted a royal charter to trade in 1852 by Queen Victoria. It was originally founded by Samuel Fisher Lafone to exploit wild cattle in East Falkland, but they gave way to sheep farming and then to a range of trading activities in the Falkland Islands ranging from retail shops and cafés to insurance and vehicle hire.

History

19th century

Livestock were introduced to the Falklands by early settlers and the resulting feral populations were exploited on a small scale by those that followed them. Initially the emphasis was on cattle, in fact the islands' flag showed a bullock until the 1930s. In March 1846 a contract was awarded to Samuel Fisher Lafone, a Liverpudlian operating a hides and tallow business in Montevideo, Uruguay. Under the contract Lafone was to rent what was to become known as Lafonia, the part of East Falkland south of the isthmus that connects the two halves of the island. The first British Governor, Richard Clement Moody had estimated Lafonia to be 200 square leagues (), but it turned out to be half that size and the cattle, previously estimated at 100,000 head were probably never more than 30,000. In 1846 he sent gauchos who settled at Hope Place just south of the isthmus, and by 1849 they had built a peat wall, the "Boca" wall across the isthmus to contain the livestock.

But as well as there being far fewer cattle than expected, many proved to be of poor quality and Lafone's business was not a success. By 1849 he and his brother Alexander Ross Lafone were negotiating with their creditors to launch a joint stock company named "The Royal Falkland Land, Cattle,Seal and Fishery Company". A new contract was signed on 9 January 1850 under which the Lafones would buy the land south of the isthmus and have exclusive rights to "all wild horses, horned cattle, sheep, goats and swine upon the Falkland Islands" and exclusive rights to supply beef to government and visiting ships until 1 January 1856. The Lafones would pay £30,000 for this, made up of £10,000 they had paid in 1846, £10,000 immediately and five annual payments of £2,000 from 1852. The company was formed in January 1851 and the Charter of Incorporation was signed 23 December 1851. On receiving its Royal Charter on 10 January 1852, the company was renamed to The Falkland Islands Company Limited and the Lafones owned 32.1% of it, split equally between the two brothers.

They appointed their brother-in-law John Pownall Dale as manager in the islands, and on 19 June 1852 the ''Record'' set sail from Liverpool with 45 settlers, 46 Cheviot sheep and a Galloway bull. However the island as a whole lost about a third of its cattle in the severe winter of 1852 (although sheep continued to increase) and the company sold just 20% of the hides expected in the business plan. Dale was dismissed in 1853 to be replaced by Thomas Havers

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases