The revenues first provided were on the export of rubber and ivory. These were fixed, after agreement with the neighbouring States of France and Portugal, at ten per cent. The duty on vegetable products was fixed at five per cent. Import duties were as follows: On arms, ammunition, and salt, ten per cent.; merchandise of any kind, six per cent.; on spirits, fifteen francs per hectolitre[27] at 50° of the centesimal alcoholmetre; boats, machinery, and articles for industrial and agricultural use were exempt till May, 1898, and thereafter paid only three per cent.
The tax on caoutchouc (rubber) was first fixed at twenty-five centimes a kilogramme (about five cents on two pounds) equivalent to four per cent. on its value in Europe. When, however, the Cataracts Railway was finished, and human porterage along the route from Stanley Pool to Matadi abolished, the tax on rubber was increased to eight per cent. of its European value. Another decree of the same date (February, 1898) provided for the payment of a licence of 5000 francs by all persons establishing a rubber factory or depôt in the domains. Other sources of revenue are coffee, tea, cocoa, gum-copal, palm oil, palm nuts, rice, tobacco, maize, sugarcane, vegetables, fruit, cinnamon, pepper, ginger, vanilla, nutmegs, cloves, and spices.
Great credit is due the local administrators of the Free State for the progress they have made in a long list of cultivated products, and the growth of the country’s export trade resulting from Belgian and native co-operation and industry. For instance, in 1887 the total exports amounted to only 1,980,441 francs[28], in 1891, 5,353,519 francs, and in 1903, 54,597,835.21.
Collecting Rubber in Forest of Lusambo (Lualaba-Kassai).
The following tables indicate at a glance the products imported and exported, their comparison with previous years, and their value:
STATISTICS OF PRODUCTS EXPORTED FROM THE CONGO FREE STATE DURING 1903
| Exports | Special Commerce | General Commerce | ||
| Quantity | Value | Quantity | Value | |
| Kilog.[29] | Frs. Cs. | Kilog. | Frs. Cs. | |
| Arachides | 328,463 | 65,692.60 | 461,652 | 92,330.40 |
| Coffee | 136,148 | 129,340.60 | 172,674 | 164,040.30 |
| Rubber | 5,917,983 | 47,343,864.00 | 6,594,804 | 52,758,432.00 |
| White Copal | 341,883 | 649,577.70 | 342,317 | 650,402.30 |
| Palm Oil | 1,647,434 | 971,986.06 | 1,848,092 | 1,090,374.28 |
| Ivory | 184,954 | 3,791,557.00 | 353,679 | 7,250,419.50 |
| Palm Nuts | 4,957,635 | 1,487,290.50 | 5,909,900 | 1,772,970.00 |
| Cocoa | 89,365 | 125,111.00 | 89,365 | 125,111.00 |
| Beans | 740 | 222.00 | 740 | 222.00 |
| Maize | 4,750 | 546.25 | 4,750 | 546.25 |
| Rough Gold | 5 | 15,000.00 | 5 | 15,000.00 |
| Rice | 33,654 | 16,827.00 | 33,654 | 16,827.00 |
| Sésame | 35,810 | 17,905.00 | ||
| Tobacco | 235 | 70.50 | 235 | 70.50 |
| Wood | 5 m. 3 | 750.00 | 5 m. 3 | 750.00 |
| Totals | 54,597,835.21 | 63,955,400.53 | ||
TOTAL VALUE OF EXPORTS FOR 1903
| Place of Export | Special | General |
| Commerce | Commerce | |
| Frs. Cs. | Frs. Cs. | |
| Free State (Upper Congo) | 51,790,451.05 | {54,597,835.21 |
| " " (Lower Congo) | 2,807,384.16 | |
| French Possessions (Upper Congo) | 6,738,689.35 | |
| Portuguese Possessions (Left Bank of the Congo) | 1,293,043.47 | |
| German Possessions (West Coast of Africa) | 895,611.50 | |
| Portuguese Possessions (Basin of the Shiloango) | 271,840.18 | |
| Portuguese Possessions (Sea Coast) | 158,380.82 | |
| Totals | 54,597,835.21 | 63,955,400.53 |