the state over the local black population. The commander of the ZAR's military was the elected commandant-general who like the field cornets performed both military and political functions. The commandant-general was responsible for buying guns and ammunition, fixed the prices of commodities and most importantly controlled the ivory trade. The economy of the Transvaal was very much a barter economy, and ivory was one of the principal currencies used in trade and commence. The professional military of the ZAR was the Staatsartillerie (State Artillery), who in 1899 numbered 314 men. The Staatsartillerie was armed with the modern Krupp artillery guns imported from Germany, and whose second-in-command was the Austrian officer Captain Adolf Zboril, who did his best to bring up the Staatsartillerie to the level of a European army. The closest the ZAR had to a professional infantry and cavalry was the para-military ZARP (Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek Politie-South African Republic Police). In 1899, the ZAR had about 30,000 men who were called up to serve in the kommandos. Though in theory, any white male burgher could be elected to a military office, in practice the men who were elected came from the wealthier families, who used their wealth to build up patronage networks that put the poorer farmers into their debt in one manner or another. The South African historian Ian van der Waag described Boer society as being characterized by a quasi-feudalism as the wealthier families set themselves up as something alike to the marcher lords of medieval Europe. The field cornets often waged war against local African natives in order to seize land, ivory and people to distribute as spoils to their constituents in exchange for their electoral support, often specifically for elections to higher republic offices. There was a strong dynastic element to the election of generals who commanded the kommandos as there was a tendency for men from the same families to be elected to the office of general generation after generation. In 1899, while the average age of a general in the ZAR was 58, the majority had a very limited education. In a society that venerated age, the most respected man was the takhaar, the wealthy patriarch with the long hair and long beard that indicated wisdom, and these were accordingly the people most likely to be elected as officers. Most of the takhaars serving as officers in 1899 were in some way connected to