The Administrative Service of Europe 99,000.00 The Administrative Service of Africa 503,065.00 Agriculture 1,373,932.00 Exploitation of the Domain 6,041,790.00 Savings-Bank, Interest of the Loans and Guaranteed Stock 1,656,228.00 FOREIGN OFFICE AND JUSTICE Administrative Service of Europe 227,100.00 Postal Department 66,000.00 Navigation 140,200.00 Justice 910,000.00 Worship 250,000.00 The currency of the Congo Free State consists of copper, silver, and gold coins and paper notes. The former are issued under a decree of 27th July, 1887, which established the monetary system upon the gold standard. The gold coins are of the value of twenty francs; the silver coins are the five, two, one franc, and the fifty centime piece. The copper coins are the ten, five, two, and one centime pieces. Paper Currency. By a decree of February 7, 1896, with the object of facilitating business transactions between the different parts of the State, banknotes of the State, payable to the bearer at the General Treasury of the Congo Free State, in Brussels, were issued. This decree sanctioned a first issue of notes to the value of 400,000 francs. An order of the Secretary of State of February 8, 1896, limited the value of the issued notes to a sum of 269,850 francs, comprising 2,000 notes of 100 francs each, and 6,985 ten franc notes. Formerly, in the Lower Congo, agents of the State and merchants were accustomed to give the natives, in exchange for their services, a _mokande_ or cheque, which enabled them to purchase what they required at the factories. It is evident that silver, copper, and paper currency of the State have a great advantage over the _mokande_ or cheque system, these latter often being only payable at a fixed date and by certain persons. At first the circulation of money was slow and difficult. It was only with a good deal of trouble that foreign money was displaced in the Lower Congo, and in the interior there was the same difficulty in abolishing the custom of barter, and the usage of the _mitako_, or brass wire. Finally, to accelerate the introduction of State currency, the Government decreed: 1. To pay the soldiers and native workmen in cash, and also to pay in the same manner for all goods bought from the natives by the State; 2. To stop all payments in kind at the stations of the Lower Congo; 3. To substitute for the rations formerly issued by the State to the agents, an equivalent in cash, and so forth.