ABSTRACT This article analyses the annual budgets of the Congo Free State to examine whether the broader fiscal patterns observed for British, French and Portuguese Africa can be found in Leopold’s colony; often considered a fiscal exception. The fiscal history of the Free State was unique. A history of the income composition of the state however reveals that Leopold’s revenue-raising strategies showed a lot of similarity with colonial taxation in British, French and Portuguese Africa. Leopold’s administration faced the fiscal challenge of ruling a vast, thinly populated, inaccessible colony that produced little taxable surplus, with little metropolitan support and limited access to international lending. To deal with this challenge, the Free State developed a minimalistic fiscal system that was based on the taxation of international trade and the African subject. Only during a commodity boom did this system generate sufficient income to cover colonial expenditure. The study of the not so exceptional case of the Free State hence supports the claim that the colonial scope to tax African colonies was fundamentally determined by local economic conditions and power relations, global demand for commodities and Metropolitan pressure to be financially self-sufficient.

中文翻译：

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刚果自由国的税收是例外情况吗？（1885-1908年）

摘要本文分析了刚果自由国的年度预算，以考察在利奥波德的殖民地中是否可以发现对英，法，葡三国所观察到的更广泛的财政模式。通常被认为是财政例外。自由国家的财政历史是独一无二的。但是，该州收入构成的历史表明，利奥波德的收入增长策略与英国，法国和葡萄牙非洲的殖民地税收表现出很多相似之处。利奥波德（Leopold）的政府面临着财政上的挑战，即要统治一个庞大，人烟稀少，人迹罕至的殖民地，该殖民地几乎没有应税盈余，大都市的支持也很少，获得国际贷款的渠道也很有限。为了应对这一挑战，自由国家建立了以国际贸易和非洲主体税收为基础的简约财政体系。仅在商品繁荣时期，该系统才产生足够的收入来支付殖民地支出。因此，对并非如此例外的自由国家案例的研究支持了这样一种说法，即对非洲殖民地征税的殖民范围基本上是由当地的经济状况和权力关系，全球对商品的需求以及大都市在财政上能够自给自足的压力所决定的。