Note 265 — Chapter XXXI · THE DOMAINE PRIVÉ

It may be usefully noted here that the impôts de nature are applied by the Congo State in the so-called Free Trade Zone as well as in the Domaine Privé, and until the Kassai district was incorporated in the Domaine Privé many and bitter were the complaints by companies operating in the former zone of the unfair competition to which they were subjected by the levying of this tribute. Instances have been given by some of these irate traders where the State’s officials have threatened the natives with condign punishment if they did not hand over all their rubber to the said officials. An arrangement has recently been concluded between the State and the Kassai companies—the Kassai district was the only portion of the Upper Congo where independent trade had been allowed—whereby the Kassai companies have amalgamated into a syndicate in which the State holds one half the interest. To all intents and purposes, therefore, the Kassai has now been incorporated in the Domaine Privé, which henceforth embraces the whole of the Congo State north of Stanley Pool.