In the rubber coils – a Punch cartoon depicting Leopold II as a rubber vine entangling a Congolese rubber collector
Company type
Joint-stock company
Industry
Rubber extraction and manufacturing
Founded
August 6, 1892; 131 years ago (1892-08-06) in Antwerp, Belgium
Founders
John Thomas North Leopold II
Defunct
1926 (1926)
Fate
Unknown
Successor
Maringa company
Headquarters
Basankusu
,
Congo Free State
Products
Rubber
Number of employees
47,000 (1906)
The Abir Congo Company (founded as the Anglo-Belgian India Rubber Company and later known as the Compagnie du Congo Belge) was a company that exploited natural rubber in the Congo Free State, the private property of King Leopold II of Belgium. The company was founded with British and Belgian capital and was based in Belgium. By 1898 there were no longer any British shareholders and the Anglo-Belgian India Rubber Company changed its name to the Abir Congo Company and changed its residence for tax purposes to the Free State. The company was granted a large concession in the north of the country and the rights to tax the inhabitants. This tax was taken in the form of rubber obtained from a relatively rare rubber vine. The collection system revolved around a series of trade posts along the two main rivers in the concession. Each post was commanded by a European agent and manned with armed sentries to enforce taxation and punish any rebels.
Abir enjoyed a boom through the late 1890s, by selling a kilogram of rubber in Europe for up to 10 fr which had cost them just 1.35 fr. However, this came at a cost to the human rights of those who could not pay the tax with imprisonment, flogging and other corporal punishment recorded. Abir's failure to suppress destructive harvesting methods and to maintain rubber plantations meant that the vines became increasingly scarce and by 1904 profits began to fall. During the early 1900s famine and disease spread across the concession, a natural disaster judged by some to have been exacerbated by Abir's operations, further hindering rubber collection. The 1900s also saw widespread rebellions against Abir's rule in the concession and attempts at mass migration to the French Congo or southwards. These events typically resulted in Abir dispatching an armed force to restore order.
A series of reports into the operation of the Free State were issued starting with the British Consul, Roger Casement's Casement Report and followed by reports commissioned by the Free State and Leopold II. These detailed unlawful killings and other abuses made by Abir and Leopold II was embarrassed into instituting reforms. These began with the appointment of American Richard Mohun by Leopold II as director of Abir. However, rubber exports continued to fall and rebellions increased, resulting in the Free State assuming control of the concession in 1906. Abir continued to receive a portion of profits from rubber exports and in 1911 was refounded as a rubber plantation harvesting company. The later history of the company is unknown but it was still active in 1926.
and 24 Related for: Abir Congo Company information
The AbirCongoCompany (founded as the Anglo-Belgian India Rubber Company and later known as the Compagnie du Congo Belge) was a company that exploited...
Basankusu holds some stories of exploitation during the times of the AbirCongoCompany but was also the gateway to much of Equateur Province for those individuals...
1908, many atrocities were committed in the Congo Free State (today the Democratic Republic of the Congo) under the absolute rule of King Leopold II of...
Rubber yielded huge profits for the state and for companies like the AbirCongoCompany. The value of Abir shares went from 500 francs (1892 gold francs)...
portal History portal Biography portal AbirCongoCompany Atrocities in the Congo Free State Émile Banning Congo Free State propaganda war Crown Council...
The Lulonga Company was a concession company of the Congo Free State. It was, with the Société Anversoise and the AbirCongoCompany, one of the main producers...
canoe, rail and steamer to Europe. AbirCongoCompany Heart of Darkness List of plants of Burkina Faso Lulonga Company "Landolphia owariensis". Useful tropical...
The Congo Free State, also known as the Independent State of the Congo (French: État indépendant du Congo), was a large state and absolute monarchy in...
time prospecting in South Africa before returning to the Congo to reform the AbirCongoCompany on behalf of Leopold II of Belgium. Richard Dorsey Mohun...
at their mission from a village attacked by 'sentries' of the AbirCongoCompany (ABIR) after failing to provide sufficient rubber. One of the men, Nsala...
Anglo-Belgian India Rubber Company (ABIR), among others, used force and brutality to extract profit from the territory. Their regime in the Congo used forced labour...
investment to set up the Anglo-Belgian India Rubber Company (ABIR) at Antwerp on 6 August 1892. ABIR had exclusive rights to all forest products from the...
Previous models are in a separate table, which is below. In the column "Company" indicates the manufacturer of the truck, in the column "truck" model name...
l'opposante Abir Moussi placée en détention". Le Monde.fr (in French). 4 October 2023. Retrieved 5 October 2023. "Tunisia detains Abir Moussi, prominent...
Compagnie du Kasai (Kasai Company) was a Belgian company established to exploit the resources of the Kasai River basin in the Congo Free State. At first it...
thousands died as victims to the agents of the Anglo-Belgian India Rubber Company (ABIR) or of the SAB in the Bus-Bloc. The American doctor Louis Jaggard (1877–1951)...
Archived 2006-10-14 at the Wayback Machine (Volume 6, Chapter 3, eText) Abir, p. 86 Appiah; Gates, p. 130 Chesworth; Thomas p. 86 Newitt (2004), p. 86...
Saudi Arabia: Multinationals and Saudization. p. 37. ISBN 978-0887460708. Abir, Mordechai (1987). Saudi Arabia in the oil era: regime and elites: conflict...
Development policy". Middle Eastern Studies. xxviii (3): 481, 485, 495. Abir, Mordechai (1986). "Modern Education and the evolution of Saudi Arabia education"...
on 13 November 2016. Retrieved 13 November 2016. Golub, Stephen; Varma, Abir (February 2014). Fishing Exports and Economic Development of Least Developed...
Prayers from the Heart, Moshe Antebi, Lakewood, NJ: Israel Book Shop, 2002 Abir Yaakob, ed. Haber: Sephardic Press (Hebrew and English, Shabbat only) Siddur...
Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries: A Handbook for Teachers, p. 216. Mordechai Abir, Ethiopia: The ERA of the Princes: The Challenge of Islam and Re-unification...
Abdullah II Design and Development Bureau) Al Jawad vehicles, RBY MK 1s, AIL Abirs and AIL Storms. They were also used on US Navy minesweepers (MSO) during...
run: Correction". Fleetmon. 28 June 2020. Retrieved 29 June 2020. Mahmud, Abir, "Bangladesh boat crash kills at least 32, as ferry sinks in 20 seconds,"...
Global Information
