[1] The company acquired most of its landholdings between 1898 and 1901 from several early European settlers, whose title to this land had been recognised by Certificates of Claim issued by the administration of the British Central Africa Protectorate.
[5] The company was founded in 1898 a group of largely Scottish landowners headed by John William Moir and Robert Spence Hynde (both from Edinburgh), and it acquired the estates formerly owned by the three Buchanan brothers in 1901.
[11][12] From being a disgraced missionary, John Buchanan became Acting British Consul to Central Africa from 1887 to 1891, and in that capacity declared a protectorate over the Shire Highlands in 1889 to pre-empt a Portuguese expedition that intended to claim sovereignty in that region.
In 1892, he helped to form the Nyasaland Planters Association, which mainly represented the interests of Buchanan Brothers and the African Lakes Company.
In 1895, this fused with a rival association to form the British Central Africa Chamber of Agriculture and Commerce, a powerful lobby group for settler interests.
John Moir returned to Nyasaland (then British Central Africa) in 1893 and became a pioneer tea planter, founding the Lauderdale estate in the Mlanje district; he retired to Edinburgh in 1900.
Tea was found to be more suited to the wetter Cholo and Mlanje districts, whereas in the drier areas of the Shire Highlands tobacco was the favoured estate crop.
Many of the Certificates of Claim issued to settlers contained “non-disturbance” clauses allowing these existing residents to continue to cultivate their existing fields rent-free [21][22] Many of the new workers who moved onto estates were so-called "Anguru", migrants from Mozambique who were required to pay rent, usually satisfied by two months’ labour a year in the early years, under the system known as thangata although later many owners required a longer period of work.
[23] R S Hynde, the General Manager of Blantyre and East Africa Ltd, made an agreement with the headmen of villages on the company's estates in Cholo District under which the villagers were to give up their rights under the non-disturbance clause and become the company’s tenants, working for two months during the growing season in lieu of rent and Hut tax.
The court accepted that the villagers’ rights protected by the non-disturbance clause could not be exchanged for an insecure tenancy under an illegal thangata agreement.
[24] Following this check to its attempt to create a workforce that would enable it to exploit its estates directly, Blantyre and East Africa Ltd explored alternative methods of utilising its land.
Secondly, on its smaller remaining estates in the Shire Highlands and beyond, it ceased to provide supervision but sought to obtain cash rents from African tenants, as it had no need for their labour.
[26] Finally, on its largest remaining estate in Zomba District, Blantyre and East Africa Ltd pioneered African tobacco production from 1901.
[27] At first, success was limited, but from 1916, the company increased African production by allocating land, supplying seed, giving instruction and providing suitable storage barns for its tenants.
[32] To counter this competition, in the 1920s Tait Bowie, the company's General Manager, advocated that African smallholders were registered and that they should grow no more than half as acre of tobacco to reduce their output.
[34] To meet some of the estate owners’ demands but also give some protection to tenants the protectorate government introduced the Natives on Private Estates Ordinance 1928, which abolishing all rights under non-disturbance clauses, but gave tenants tenancies with a five-year term and with maximum rents fixed by District Rent Boards.
The estate companies including Blantyre and East Africa Ltd owned land that they needed to put into productive use, and chose tea planting.
On the three Blantyre and East Africa estates in Mlanje (Lauderdale, Glenorchy and Limbuli), workers were paid a basic wage of 6 shillings, or 30 pence in 1941 and a bonus for large amounts picked.
In 1991, Blantyre and East Africa Ltd still owned its Lauderdale, Limbuli, Eldorado, Pwazi River and Glenorchy tea estates, but by 2003, Eastern Produce Malawi Ltd had taken over their ownership.