Church and Rectory, Matadi.
These tables show what has provided the enemies of the Congo Free State with a great deal of puerile prattle—an excess of exports over imports which is more apparent than real. One of the bitter critics who write from Liverpool repeats the charge in the press that the Sovereign of the Free State is denuding the Congo of its natural resources by exporting more than he imports. In this respect a German writer in Der Tag, Berlin, September, 26, 1904, not at all friendly to the Congo State (because it is diverting the Zanzibar trade of the Fatherland), has some pertinent things to say of the excess of exports over imports in the British colonies of South Nigeria and Lagos. Herr Eberhard von Schkopp discusses the Congolese, British, French, and German trade statistics in the following concise manner:
In 1901 the Congo State importations reached twenty-three million francs whilst the exports attained fifty millions, and the transit trade seven millions. This excess of exports over imports has been turned to account to support the attacks—justified besides—upon the Congo State’s system of government.
If that circumstance is of a kind to weigh in the balance, it ought to be imputed as a ground of complaint against all nations carrying on a practical colonial policy, and whose possessions export more than they import. The Congo State is neither the only nor even the first colony where this excess has been exhibited.
The exports of the English colony of South Nigeria have always surpassed the imports. Here are the figures:
| 1896 | 1897 | 1898 | 1899 | 1900 | ||
| Imports | 750,000 | 655,000 | 640,000 | 732,000 | 723,000 | pounds ster. |
| Exports | 844,000 | 785,000 | 750,000 | 774,000 | 888,000 | pounds ster. |
Statistics of the trade of the English colony of Lagos:
| 1896 | 1897 | 1898 | 1899 | 1900 | ||
| Imports | 881,000 | 758,000 | 892,000 | 960,000 | 832,000 | pounds ster. |
| Exports | 975,000 | 810,000 | 882,000 | 915,000 | 885,000 | pounds ster. |
Here also, except for 1898 and 1899, the total of exports exceeds that of imports. The case is the same with the commerce of the Gold Coast and the Gambia.
The French colonies also—Ivory Coast, Dahomey, Guinea, and French Congo—can also boast of having frequently had their exports higher than their imports.