to recognize in treaties with the Dutch, English, and French,' certain rights of trade for foreigners. In the treaties of 1642 and 1654, between Portugal and Great Britain, appear old forms of the mostfavored-nation clause, stipulations that the duties should be no "greater or more grievous than those which shall be demanded from other nations in league with the King of Portugal" and that the English should be permitted to trade "with the same freedom as formerly, and the same that was ever granted by any treaty heretofore, or shall hereafter be granted to the inhabitants of any other nation." A treaty of 1810 with Great Britain limited the Portuguese colonial tariffs to 15 per cent. From this treaty and that of 1815 with the same power, and from that of 1786 with France, it appears that Portugal had abandoned the claim to exclusive trade rights north of the Congo and including the mouth of that river, and that, while France disclaimed the territory for herself, neither France nor England recognized the Portuguese claims to the region just north and south of the Congo's mouth, a territory which came to be defined as extending from 5° 12' to 8° south latitude. The English, who objected to the Portuguese commercial policy and to their lack of zeal in suppressing the slave trade, consistently refused to recognize this territory as Portuguese, and even threatened to oppose by force its occupation.*

During the early part of the nineteenth century and until the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, Great Britain and France alone had taken any interest in expanding their possessions in Africa, but their progress was insignificant compared to that which took place after the real scramble for territory began. For a score of years the interest of geographers and explorers in Central Africa had been rapidly increasing, but the event that attracted the attention of the whole world and really initiated the territorial scramble was Stanley's descent of the Congo. Stanley emerged from the mouth of this river on the west coast of Africa in August of 1877. But as early as September, 1876, Leopold II, King of the Belgians, had summoned a conference of geographers and philanthropists at Brussels, and had organized the Association Internationale pour l'Exploration et la Civilisation de l'Afrique Centrale. This soon became known as the Association Internationale Africaine, or the A. I. A. The international organization was a complex of national committees and the societies which supported them, and it retired more and more into the background, since

the Belgian national committee was the only one which devoted itself seriously to the work. It alone collected greater funds than all the other national committees. It alone displayed real activity, so that, little by little, the International African Association came to be considered a Belgian society.

1 Lannoy, C. de, and Linden, H. vander: Histoire de l'Expansion Coloniale des Peuples Européens, Vol. I, Portugal et Espagne, 1907, p. 114; Chapman, A. B. W.: The Commercial Relations of England, and Portugal, 1487-1807, in Royal Historical Society Transactions, 3d series, Vol. I, 1997, passim; Geographical Society of Lisbon, La Question du Zaire, Droits du Portugal, 1883, passim [Zaire is the Portuguese name for the Congo]; Keltie, J. Scott: The Partition of Africa, 1895, p. 62 tf.

2 Art. XIII of the treaty of 1642, Brit. and For. State Papers, 1812-1814, vol. 1, p. 478; Art. XI of the treaty of 1654, Ibid., p. 484.

fartens, G. F. de: Recueil de Traités d'Alliance, etc., 1818, Vol. IV, pp. 101-105; Gt. Brit., Parl. Papers, C. 3531, 1883.

See account of negotiations of 1846, 1853-1856, and 1860, în Gt. Brit., Parl. Papers C. 3531, 1883, passim. Keltie: Op. cit., p. 111.

Wauters, Adolphe-Jules: État Indépendant du Congo, 1899, p. 11; Cattier, Félicien: Droit t Administration de l'État Indépendant du Congo, 1898, p. 11.

1 Cattier: Op. cit., p. 12.

At the meeting of 1877 Leopold consented to serve a second term as president, but positively refused to allow the International Association to use the Belgian flag.

In 1878 Leopold organized the Comité d'Études du HautCongo. This organization soon became indistinguishable from the Association Internationale Africaine, which was another of Leopold's organizations and with even less title to the term international. As the agent of the Comité, Stanley went back to the Congo and in August, 1879, began to construct a great central African State. He built a road around Stanley Falls, placed half a dozen stations in the lower basin, and then returned in 1882 to tell the association that the country was "not worth a two-shilling piece" unless they could make treaties with the chiefs and establish themselves as a political power. Some writers say that Leopold's chief concern was originally humanitarian, but that the international situation soon forced him into territorial ambitions to safeguard the work he was doing at such heavy personal expense." Whether this be the case or whether Leopold had believed that the future of Belgium depended on founding a colony," Stanley was sent back to begin a very active and successful campaign to get treaties from the native chiefs. Most of the available texts of these treaties (though not those signed by the greatest number of chiefs) show that the chiefs granted to the association special rights of trade and communication, including in many cases the right to collect tolls or to exclude others from the country altogether.12

In the meantime the French had been exploring the valley of the Ogowé and had advanced to Stanley Pool from the north. The Portuguese, alleging a desire to stop this French advance, though it had not come south of 5° 12' and the Portuguese territorial claims were endangered rather by the African association than by France, opened negotiations with Great Britain in November of 1882 for the recognition of this territory, including the Congo mouth, as Portuguese. It was not until February, 1884, that Portugal and England came to agreement upon the terms of a treaty. By the ratification of its provisions Portuguese ownership of the disputed territory would have been recognized, but only as far inland as the coast tribes extended, and on the Congo only to Nokki, leaving the territory beyond to the Association Internationale Africaine.

CALLING OF THE CONFERENCE OF BERLIN.

This Anglo-Portuguese treaty met with great opposition, both in England and on the Continent. In England this was due chiefly to objections on the part of the traders engaged in the Congo region to Portuguese imposition of duties where none had existed before.

8 Sanford, Gen. H. S.: Report to the American Branch of the International Association for the Civilization of Central Africa, in Journal (Bulletin) of the Am. Geog. Soc., Vol. IX, 1877, No. 4, p. 89.

Cattier: Op. cit., p. 16. Goldsmid, Gen. Sir F. J.: My Recent Visit to the Congo, in Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of London, Vol VI, No. 4, April, 1884, p. 177. The Comité d'Études changed its name to Association Internationale du Congo. Treaties were made indifferently in the name of the Association Internationale Africaine, and of the Comité d'Études.

10 Descamps, E. E. F.: New Africa, 1903, p. 19. Cf. The Edinburgh Review, Vol. CLX, 1884, 178; Stanley, Sir H. M.: The Congo and the Founding of its Free State, 1885, pp. 52-54, 463-465; Vandervelde, Émile: La Belgique et le Congo, Le Passé, le Present, l'Avenir, Paris, 1911, p. 22.

11 Cattier: Op. cit., p. 11; Blanchard, Georges: Formation et Constitution Politique de l'État Indépendant du Congo, 1899, p. 4; but see pp. 19-24, 50.

Sen. Rept. No. 393, 48th Cong., 1st sess., pp. 49, 50; Gt. Brit., Parl. Papers, C. 4023, 1884; Stanley: Op. cit., Vol. II, pp. 195–206; Cattier: Op. cit., p. 33.

On the Continent it was urged that Great Britain had arrogated to herself the settlement of a question properly international.~ Portuguese duties would interfere with trade, it was said; Portuguese control would prevent the establishment of the Association Internationale Africaine and the legitimate expansion of French influence. Naturally these last two objections were chiefly those of Leopold and of France. Portugal finally sought, by suggesting a revision so as to permit the establishment of an international commission for the regulation of navigation on the Congo, to secure general recognition of the treaty, but Bismarck enlisted French support and called the conference of Berlin.

The conference of Berlin lasted from November, 1884, to February, 1885. Territorial questions were formally excluded from its program, but before its sessions ended the issues affecting the Portu quese and French claims in the western Congo basin and those of the International Association had been determined, and at its last session the conference formally welcomed the Congo State as a member of the family of nations. Nearly a year before this the United States had by treaty recognized the flag of the International Association as that of a friendly Government. Germany had recognized the "State to be created," shortly before the conference met. Portuguese claims, formerly derided, were admitted by the conference, as far up as the south bank of the river. France obtained the valley of Niari-Kwilu, though it was dotted with stations of the International Association; but the north bank of the Congo River and most of the vast interior basin were turned over to the new Independent State of the Congo, better known in the United States as the Congo Free State.

The work of the Berlin conference was to prescribe freedom of commerce within the vast district known as the Conventional Basin of the Congo, and including considerable territory not within the boundaries of the Congo State. The provisions are discussed under the heading "Tariff History."

II. GOVERNMENT AND MAKING OF TARIFFS.

The history of the Congo since 1885 falls into two parts: Up to November 15, 1908, there was the Congo Free State, which was entirely independent of Belgium, though both States had the same sovereign; since that day there has been the Belgian Congo, which is possessed as a colony of Belgium in the same manner as other colonics are possessed by other European States. The government of the Congo during the first period only is dealt with at this point.

Naturally the Belgian cabinet and parliament had no authority whatever in the "Independent State of the Congo." M. Vandervelde initiated a debate on the government of the Congo, in 1903, but until the question of annexation was taken up seriously in 1906 the Belgian Legislature had had no connection with the Congo State except in the voting of loans to it, $30,000,000 in 1887, $5,000,000 in 1890, and $10,000,000 in 1901.13

King Leopold governed the Congo with the authority of an absolute autocrat, although it was necessary for him to rely upon subor

13 The loan agreement of 1890 gave to Belgium a certain negative control of the finances of the Congo State and an option on taking over the Belgian Congo at the end of 10 years.

dinates for much of the administration. There were always associ ated with him one or more ministers or secretaries in Brussels, and there was a governor general or administrator general in the Cong itself who supervised the execution of decrees and who was authorized in some cases to suspend their operation. These ministers, however, had no official position in the Belgian Government, there was no ministerial responsibility, and the King was the real center of power."

III. TARIFF HISTORY.

The tariff history of the Congo Free State is almost entirely a his tory of treaty provisions. The earliest recognitions of the Congo State were associated with declarations or agreements on its part that it would levy no import duties, and this free-trade régime was established for it and for certain neighboring territories by the final act of the conference of Berlin, signed and ratified by 14 Governments.

GENERAL TARIFF REGULATIONS.

CONVENTION WITH UNITED STATES, APRIL 22, 1884.

The Government of the United States was first to recognize the "International Association of the Congo" as a "friendly Government." By declarations exchanged April 22, 1884, the Association declared of the territory ceded to it "for the use and benefit of free States established and being established":

That the said association and the said States have resolved to levy no customhouse duties upon goods or articles of merchandise imported into their territories or brought by the route which has been constructed around the Congo cataracts; this they have done with a view of enabling commerce to penetrate into Equatorial Africa.

That they guarantee to foreigners settling in their territories the right to purchase, sell, or lease lands and buildings situated therein, to establish commercial houses, and to there carry on trade upon the sole condition that they shall obey the laws. They pledge themselves, moreover, never to grant to the citizens of one nation any advantages without immediately extending the same to the citizens of all other nations, and to do all in their power to prevent the slave trade.1

CONVENTION WITH GERMANY, NOVEMBER 8, 1884.

The German Government made a convention with the International Association, signing it just before the opening of the conference of Berlin and soon thereafter ratifying it, facts not generally known for some time. By this convention--

I. The International Association of the Congo engages to levy no duty upon articles or merchandise imported directly or in transit into its possessions, present and future, in the basins of the Congo and Niadi-Kwilu [Niari-Kwilu], or in its possessions on the Atlantic coast. This freedom from duty extends specifically to merchandise and articles of commerce which are transported by the roads which are established around the cataracts of the Congo.

II. The subjects of the German Empire have the right to sojourn and to establish themselves upon the territories of the Association.

They will be treated upon the same footing as the subjects of the most-favored nation, including the inhabitants of the country, in all that concerns the pretection of their persons and their goods, the free exercise of their religions, the prosecution

14 Cattier, Félicien.: Étude sur la Situation de l'Etat Indépendant du Congo, 1906, p. 324; Blanchard: Op. cit., pp. 240-244; Halewyck, Michel: 1 a Chorte Colonial, 1910, p. 235.

Malloy, W. M.: Treaties, etc., between the United States and Other Powers, 1910 Vol. I, p. 327.

and defense of their rights, as well as in relation to navigation, commerce, and industry.

Particularly they will have the right to buy, to sell, and to lease lands and edifices situated upon the territory of the association, to found houses of commerce there, and to carry on commerce or coasting trade there under the German flag. 16

CONVENTION WITH GREAT BRITAIN, DECEMBER 16, 1884.

Similar treaties were made with a number of other powers, that with Great Britain specifying that British subjects should have the right of buying, of selling, of letting, and of hiring lands and buildings, mines, and forests situated within the said territories, and of founding houses of commerce, and of carrying on commerce and a coasting, trade under the British flag.17

THE GENERAL ACT OF THE CONFERENCE OF BERLIN, FEBRUARY 26, 1885.

The general act of the conference of Berlin established detailed provisions for freedom of trade and navigation in the Conventional Basin of the Congo, including all of the Congo State. Articles of this act read as follows:

CHAPTER I.-DECLARATION RELATIVE TO FREEDOM OF TRADE IN THE BASIN OF THE CONGO, ITS MOUTHS AND CIRCUMJACENT REGIONS, WITH OTHER PROVISIONS CONNECTED THEREWITH.

ARTICLE 1. The trade of all nations shall enjoy complete freedom

1. In all the regions forming the basin of the Congo and its outlets. This basin is bounded by the watersheds (or mountain ridges) of the adjacent basins, namely, in particular, those of the Niari, the Ogowé, the Schari, and the Nile, on the north; by the eastern watershed line of the affluents of Lake Tanganyika on the east; and by the watersheds of the basins of the Zambesi and the Loge on the south. It therefore comprises all the regions watered by the Congo and its affluents, including Lake Tanganyika, with its eastern tributaries.

2. In the maritime zone extending along the Atlantic Ocean from the parallel situated in 2° 30′ of south latitude to the mouth of the Loge.

The northern boundary will follow the parallel situated in 2° 30′ from the coast to the point where it meets the geographical basin of the Congo, avoiding the basin of the Ogowe, to which the provisions of the present act do not apply.

The southern boundary will follow the course of the Loge to its source, and thence pass eastwards till it joins the geographical basin of the Congo.

18

3. In the zone stretching eastwards from the Congo Basin, as above defined, to the Indian Ocean from 5 degrees of north latitude to the mouth of the Zambesi in the south, from which point the line of demarcation will ascend the Zambesi to 5 miles above its confluence with the Shire, and then follow the watershed between the affluents of Lake Nyassa and those of the Zambesi, till at last it reaches the watershed between the waters of the Zambesi and the Congo.

It is expressly recognized that in extending the principle of free trade to this eastern zone the conference powers only undertake engagements for themselves, and that in the territories belonging to an independent sovereign State this principle shall only be applicable in so far as it is approved by such State. But the powers agree to use their good offices with the Governments established on the African shore of the Indian Ocean for the purpose of obtaining such approval, and in any case of securing the most favourable conditions to the transit (traffic) of all nations. [The adhesion of Zanzibar was obtained.]

ART. 2. All flags, without distinction of nationality, shall have free access to the whole of the coast line of the territories above enumerated, to the rivers there running into the sea, to all the waters of the Congo and its affluents, including the lakes, and to all the ports situate on the banks of these waters, as well as to all canals which may in future be constructed with intent to unite the watercourses or lakes within the entire area of the territories described in article 1. Those trading under such flags

16 Gt. Brit., Foreign Office, Brit. and For. State Papers, 1891, Vol. 75, p. 354 (in French).

17 Convention of Dec. 16, 1884; text in Hertslet's Commercial Treaties, vol. 17, p. 58, or Brit. and For. State Papers, vol. 75, p. 29.

The Portuguese made a reservation by which the free trade provisions of the treaty did not apply to their territory in East Africa north of the Zambesi.