1. Mine wages, by providing farmers with an independent source of cash income, provided something of a counterweight to the necessity of traders paying high prices for agricultural goods. Thus, they made it sensible for traders to extract some monopsony profit from growers. Since the miners were mobile and could potentially "shop around", they also provided the miners with the possibility of evading the 'traders' extraction of monopoly profit. These two factors were minimised in importance by the action of the largest, dominant trader in Lesotho who sought to capture the monopoly profits at the South African mine head. Frasers opened consumer goods outlets at the mine compounds and pursued a number of highly effective methods at building strong consumer loyalty (amongst which was the now-distinctive Basotho blanket). Later, when there was the possibility that Basotho retailers might provide competition in the consumer trade, Frasers helped set many of them up in business and then became their wholesale supplier (see Walton, 1958).
2. The first survey, done during the winter and spring of 1985 was a survey of 537 livestock holding households selected randomly from all geo-climatic regions of the country. This survey is described in Swallow et al (1987). This will be referred to as the Livestock Holders Survey (LHS). The second survey was a survey during the 1985/86 wool and mohair shearing seasons of 200 smallstock owners interviewed at government and private woolsheds. This survey is described in Hunter (1987). This will be referred to as the Woolshed Survey (WS).
3. The percentage of home clipped mohair exceeds the percentage of home clipped goats to reflect goats clipped twice a year. Total clip percentages add up to 115-120% to reflect the estimated amount of double-clipped goats. Because double-clipping is not sanctioned, most of these fleeces would be smuggled to market.
