On the other hand, the imports, also estimated at their European value, but having similar distances to undergo and similar charges to bear, represent when they reach their consumers at least double their invoiced European cost. On a proper basis of value in their ultimate African market the imports for the year 1903 would amount to 42,792,662.04 francs. Thus the exports would stand at 27,298,917.16 francs, and the imports at 42,792,662.04 francs for the year 1903. But even this is not a just comparison with the exports and imports of the British colonies, inasmuch as in the colony of Lagos, for instance, the imports include about sixty-five per cent. of alcoholic liquors,[32] leaving the native the beneficiary of an aggregate import of really civilising products of only thirty-five per cent. of the total, while the Congo imports, containing only five per cent. of alcoholic liquors, bestows upon the native legitimate products for his civilisation to the extent of ninety-five per cent. of the total of all the imports of the State. Deducting, therefore, from the Lagos imports sixty of their sixty-five per cent. of gin, rum, and whisky, thereby placing them on an equation with the imports of the Congo, we find in Herr von Schkopp’s figures an arraignment of Lagos “civilisation” which indicates where the real curse of Central Africa abides. The foregoing is an astonishing record of exports and imports for a country practically developed in the short period which has elapsed since 1886. Congolese products are largely sent to Antwerp and, as the tables show, Belgium is by far the largest exporter and importer. A few years ago England was the chief exporter to the Congo of its cotton stuffs and other goods, but the same laggard spirit which caused Englishmen once interested in the Anglo-Belgian India-Rubber Company (known as the Abir) and other undertakings to abandon their Congolese enterprises has lost England a large and growing market in Central Africa. That the Belgians have developed the Mid-African trade by dint of hard work, organisation, and the risk of capital, is a state of things intolerable to those who have neglected and lost it. The awkward English monetary system is alone responsible for a large percentage of the world-wide diminution of British trade. All other nations have shown greater adaptability to the characteristics of foreign markets, and the capabilities and peculiarities of the peoples who compose those markets. The Germans, French, and Americans circulate their catalogues and price lists in the language of the country where they seek a market and quote prices in its coin, giving the equivalents in francs, marks, and dollars. British merchants, on the other hand, have adhered to their ancient custom of employing a monetary system so needlessly cumbersome that it can hardly be attributed to intelligent origin.