June i, 1907.I 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



269 



Trade Conditions in the Congo. 



THE entrance of an American company in the Congo trade 

 marks a new departure in the relations abroad of com- 

 mercial firms in this country. Large as has been the con- 

 sumption of india-rubber in the United States — amounting prob- 

 ably to more than half of all the rubber ever produced — the in- 

 terest of American traders in this commodity has seldom ex- 

 tended to the point of obtaining the raw material from in 

 prime sources. There is to-day, so far as we are informed, no 

 American company or trader concerned in exploiting rubber in 

 the Amazon valley, for instance, or figuring in the trade there in 

 any way other than buying at Para or Manaos rubber brought 

 into those ports for sale. The business of obtaining rubber from 

 the forests has never appealed to any form of American enter- 

 prise, at least not to an important extent. 



The rubber fields of Africa have seemed even more remote, 

 and the demand for rubber from that continent has been sup- 

 plied through purchases made in European markets. The absten- 

 tion of -Americans from the African trade has been due, in part, 

 to the fact that the "Dark Continent" has been exploited only as 

 one portion after another came to be appropriated by the Euro- 

 pean powers, and as a rule trade in the different colonies haj 

 been monopolized by the people of the respective mother 

 countries. 



The collection of rubber in the Congo region, therefore, 

 through relations with the natives, will be found a business in 

 which the Americans about to become interested in it will have 

 much to learn. It happens, however, that the American Congo 

 Co.'s shares are held in part by Belgians experienced in this par- 

 ticular field, while the relations with the Congo Free State gov- 

 ernment give the company all the protection and support that 

 can be granted to any enterprise of like character. The coiiscil 

 d' administration of the American Congo Co. is composed equally 

 of Americans and Belgians. Of the six European members of thi' 

 board, three have been officers in the Belgian army, involving 

 military service on the Congo, and have held positions in the 

 Free State government. The knowledge which these gcntlemei: 

 have gained through such experience has led to their being con- 

 sulted in the planning of commercial enterprises in the Congo 

 basin, and to their becoming interested in company manage- 

 ment. The fourth of the Belgian directors is actively engaged in 

 a Congo trading company as manager ; the fifth is a barrister 



of Brussels, and the sixth is a civil engineer and railway 

 manager. 



In view of these considerations and the further fact that ih; 

 projected .\merican enterprises are of a character similar to, 

 and will be located in the same region with, some important and 

 successful Belgian trading companies, the absence of expert 

 knowledge of Africa on the part of the American directors need 

 not necessarily be an element of weakness in the organization 

 of the new business. 



The prominence of the capitalists interested in the American 

 Congo Co. and the allied forest and mining company is such as 

 naturally to direct public attention to the proposed operations 

 in a new field, and doubtless will tend to broadening the knowl- 

 edge of and interest in Congo conditions and affairs among the 

 American people. Assuming that its American readers will be 

 interested now and then in some of the details of the new 

 sources of rubber which the company above referred to pur- 

 pose exploiting. The India Rubber World has arranged to pre- 

 sent occasionally facts and pictures concerned with this sub- 

 ject. A few such pictures are presented in connection with this 

 article. In the Congo Free State, as in most other African 

 regions under European control, the natives must be reached 

 and dealt with through their chiefs, who are permitted to retain 

 in the eyes of their people their traditional power and importance. 



It is such native dignitaries that trading companies must take 

 into account at every step. Such an one is the big and powerful 

 Gonzoba Mokoko N'Kuefou, chief of Bankana, on the river 

 Kwango, in the southern part of the area held under concession 

 by the American Congo Co. (see The Indi.\ Rubber World, 

 January i, 1907 — page 106.) In two of the illustrations given 

 herewith Chief Gonzoba is shown surrounded by some of his 

 native gentlemen and ladies in waiting, being received at the 

 trading station of the "Citas" companj', on Stanley Pool. It :s 

 Gonzoba with whom the new company will have to treat for 

 rubber. ^ ^ ^ 



A RECENT address before the Cercle Africain, of Brussels, by 

 V. Harroy, described as having spent six years on the Congo is 

 a commercial agent, gives some details of the way in which trade 

 is carried on with the natives. In the first place, he said, trading 

 if. carried on in the Congo as in Europe — with experience, smart- 



Chief Gonzc;b.\ .\t "Cit.vs." 

 [The chief is the central figure, with grotesquely drcsstd hair. 

 by the manager.] 



Reception 



CiiihF Gonzob.\ .\t "Cit.\s." 



!The chief, at rifhl of center, is seated, and surrounded by his men and 

 women in waiting.] 



