creators_name: de Roo, Bas
type: article
datestamp: 2017-10-17 14:12:20
lastmod: 2017-10-17 14:12:20
metadata_visibility: show
title: The Trouble with Tariffs: Custom Policies and the Shaky Balance between
Colonial and Private Interests in the Congo (1886-1914)
ispublished: pub
subjects: 8
subjects: 8_1_3
subjects: 8_4
full_text_status: none
abstract: This article deals with a key constraint on the ability of African colonial states
to tax international trade. In the Congo Free State and Belgian Congo, tariff
policies were always the result of a difficult balancing act. On the one hand,
the colonial state depended on customs receipts to make ends meet. On the
other hand, policymakers feared the counterproductive effect of tariff policies: excessive taxation would cause customs receipts to decline because it slowed down commerce and encouraged traders to smuggle or to relocate. Sometimes, this fear held back policymakers from increasing the tariff burden – even when the colony was in dire financial straits. On other occasions, budgetary necessity forced policymakers to implement customs measures which they believed would cripple the colonial economy and jeopardized future fiscal revenue.
date: 2015
date_type: published
publication: Tijdschrift voor Sociale en Economische Geschiedenis/ The Low Countries Journal of Social and Economic History
volume: 12
number: 3
pagerange: 1-22
refereed: TRUE
official_url: https://www.tseg.nl/articles/abstract/10.18352/tseg.61/
citation:   de Roo, Bas  (2015) The Trouble with Tariffs: Custom Policies and the Shaky Balance between Colonial and Private Interests in the Congo (1886-1914).  Tijdschrift voor Sociale en Economische Geschiedenis/ The Low Countries Journal of Social and Economic History, 12  (3).   pp. 1-22.