The Crime of the Congo by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

For a moment I must interrupt the narrative of the long, dismal succession / of atrocities in order to explain certain new factors in the situation.

It has already been shown that the Congo State, unable to handle the whole / of its vast domain, had sublet large tracts of it to monopolist companies, / in absolute contradiction to Article V. of the Berlin Treaty. Up to the / year 1897, these companies were registered in Belgium, and had some / pretence to being international in scope. The State had no open or direct / control over them. This was now altered. The State drew closer the bonds / which united it to these commercial undertakings. They were, for the most / part, dissolved, and then reconstructed under Congo law. In most cases, in / return for the monopoly, the State was given control, sometimes to the / extent of appointing all managers and agents. Half the shares of the / company or half the profits were usually made over to the State. Thus one / must bear in mind in future that whether one talks of the Abir Company, of / the Kasai, the Katanga, the Anversoise, or any other, it is really with / the State -- that is, with King Leopold -- that one has to do. He owned the / companies, but paid them fifty per cent. commission for doing all the / work. As their profits were such as might be expected where nothing was / paid either for produce or for labour (varying from fifty to seven hundred / per cent. per annum), all parties to the bargain were the gainers.