ABSTRACT
The effect of the domainal system was largely to destroy the traditional economy of the Congo basin. The local traders who had shuttled between the interior and the trading stations at the coast had already been mostly put out of business by the trading companies which had established themselves in the Upper Congo in the late 1880s. Initially, the main source of revenue was the ivory trade, which had for some years been exploited not only by the Arabs but also by private companies based on the Congo estuary, who purchased tusks brought from the interior by African middlemen. In the Congo, however, further decrees and orders were brought into effect, under which Africans were prohibited from selling to anyone other than the State, while any private company or person buying these commodities was to be regarded as receiving stolen goods.
