ABSTRACT
King Leopold's attitude towards his African subjects can only be understood by reference to his economic policy, and to the financial difficulties which by 1890 were threatening to ruin him. His personal fortune had already been swallowed up by the State which he had acquired with such difficulty, and in addition to the burden of the everyday expenses of administration there was a costly and urgent programme to be undertaken, for vast areas of State territory remained unoccupied, the Arabs were advancing down the Congo, and the construction of the MatadiStanley Pool railway was essential if the Congo economy was ever to be put on a sound basis. In face of the tasks which lay before it, the revenues of the Congo State were pitifully small. Since the Berlin Act had forbidden the imposition of import duties within the conventional basin of the Congo, the State depended almost entirely upon export duties. Direct taxation would have discouraged European settlers, and they could not be expected to provide revenue sufficient for the administration of the State.
