When war was declared on 11 October 1899 the potential military importance of Basutoland could scarcely have been doubted. The colony possessed a 200-mile frontier with the Orange Free State, and its southern and eastern boundaries gave access to the Cape Colony and Natal. Basutoland was also integrated closely into the southern African regional economy. Grain exports and the sale of wool from Basotho homesteads were substantial in value, and in 1880 had been worth almost half a million pounds; although the volume and value of exports decreased during the closing years of the nineteenth century, Basotho cultivators still produced over 50,000 bags of maize each year for export throughout the 1890s. Large numbers of Basotho workers regularly migrated to the Kimberley diamond fields, some travelled further afield to the Rand gold mines, while Boer farmers in the Free State were accustomed to recruiting seasonal labour from the colony. Thousands of Basotho also resided as labour tenants, sharecroppers and squatters on Free State farms. The response of the Basotho to the war was therefore a matter of importance to both sides in the conflict, and it was recognised too that in the event of a prolonged struggle Basutoland's resources of labour, grain, cattle and horses would become extremely valuable assets.