Ponty’s distinctiveness lay in expanding native policy while Roume built the fiscal structure

Evidence

This difference in interests was obvious even to contemporaries. Consider, for example, the following statement, which appeared in the journal of the colonial interest group, the Comite de 1’ Afrique Fran~aise: “If M. Ponty has not altered the [economic] program established by M. Roume, if instead he has made every effort to bring about its execution, he has nevertheless been able to infuse his administration with a new element which … will give his government a very personal stamp. To put it succinctly, M. Roume created a financial and administrative organization and inaugurated a native policy, M. Ponty is completing and perfecting the former and giving full scope to the latter” (“La penetration de la Cote d’Ivoire,” p. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 1127