Bovril tokens

[Figleaf]

It may just be someone who spoke and wrote awkwardly. The last sentence, BOVRIL LIMITED have never manufactured any of the constituents of BOVRIL within 5000 miles of GREAT BRITAIN (...) is awkward also. It says Bovril is made from foreign stuff. Even if you replace never by always, the phrase remains odd and the restriction of 5000 miles opens the possibility that there is an unspecified amount of stuff from Farawaystan in Bovril.

Whoever wrote this probably wanted to say the opposite. It looks like the text was written in haste and anger by a person who had enough education to use multi-syllable words, but not enough experience to re-read what he'd written; supremely confident in his arrogant selfness.

Great fun document, Gondwana!

Peter

[FosseWay]

There's a lot of unnecessary sesquipedalian verbiage, certainly!

But I think the phrase you quote also means something slightly different in 1893 English to how we interpret it. I think they wanted to emphasise that the ingredients were natural and not "manufactured".