VIRTUAL TANGIER: Visions of the City


 
1955: MAJOR F.H. MELLOR (excerpt from Holiday in Tangier)
  Financially, Tangier has the freest régime in the world. There is absolutely no control of currency movements; there is no income tax; banking secrecy is inviolable. Anyone can form a corporation here — if he is a non--resident the company can be domiciled in the offices of his Bank or his lawyer. Formalities are few and inexpensive; the advantages of establishing a holding company or an invoicing company in a tax-free territory are obvious. Coupled with the freedom from official interference in the conduct of business, and with the power of Tangier banks to handle any currency and to remit funds anywhere in the world without delay, the facility of company formation has naturally attracted here a great deal of capital belonging to people intolerant of Governmental restrictions on the free disposal by an individual of his own property.
  There is a flat rate of import duty… on all imports into the zone of Tangier; exceptions are alco-holic liquors, tobacco (the sale of which is a monopoly) and precious metals and stones. Gold may be left on deposit with an approved bank, in which case no duty is paid…
Tangier’s liberal way of life has not failed to arouse the envy of some other countries. In search of easy money, certain irresponsible journalists have shown themselves more concerned in depicting the city as they think it should be rather than as it is. In point of fact, Tangier is one of the most law-abiding places in the world, with an incidence of crime per head of the population far lower than in any other city. Yet it is easy to understand why those who do not know Tangier well believe it to be a hot-bed of sin and a refuge for criminals: Tangier is a free city with liberal financial laws, but all its land-frontier is with Spanish Morocco. The Spanish régime is totalitarian and no political activity is tolerated in opposition to the Government. More-over, the rest of Morocco is controlled by France, a country which, like most other European countries since the war, has had to maintain strict currency control.
  Thus it appears to people living in Europe and the rest of Morocco that, if they could only live in the free atmosphere of Tangier, they would be able to react against all the controls imposed by officialdom in their own coun-tries.  Reasoning in this way, they go on to assume that the inhabitants of Tangier must be lawless, since they themselves would be so if they were fortunate enough to live here…
  But we must admit that it is entirely natural for the authorities of surrounding areas to believe that any contact with Tangier may corrupt their citizens. Freedom is a heady draught! So there are many restrictions on trade with Tangier “because of the possibility of fraud”, as an official of a foreign country once said. In officialdom’s view, goods bought from Tangier might be invoiced above their real value to enable the importer to export some of his capital. Besides, any country’s currency reaching Tangier, or any funds held “on Tangier account”, may be considered as a loss of dollars, since such funds constitute a charge on the foreign currency reserves of the country concerned.
  Again, Tangier can buy goods from anywhere — there are no quotas and every currency is available. These goods may be badly wanted by the inhabitants of neighbouring countries. Thus no official of these neighbouring countries can believe that Tangier is not a great smuggling centre — it has the opportunity to smuggle and its inhabitants have no beneficent official watchdogs to tell them what they may and may not do with their money. Ergo, Tangerines are smugglers, by definition. Since the war, imaginations have run riot on the subject of this island of freedom in a sea of controls. We are people who have been allowed to think for ourselves; we have a free-enterprise régime; we are a danger to Big Government
  Anarchy might spread from Tangier as locusts fly out of their desert breeding grounds...
In striking contrast to all these vivid imaginary pic-tures is the true picture — one which would make a journalist’s last story if he were so foolish as to send it to his paper: Tangier is a town of business men and housewives, of clerks and plumbers, of fishermen and grocers. They go to their jobs early in the morning, just as do their counterparts in other countries. But there is one great difference which makes the Tangerine consider himself fortunate: Tangier has one of the best, sandy beaches in the world and, since everybody can live near to his place of work in this small city, everybody can get down to the sea during the customary long lunch hour…
  In summary, Tangier banks operate strictly in accordance with banking laws and in accordance with accepted banking principles; they are operated by upright men with reputations to uphold. Tangier renders many services to free enterprise and to men and women of many lands who have in common one characteristic — the desire to use their own money in their own way. Tangier commerce could be flourishing but restrictions in other countries and official fear of freedom greatly restrict trading opportunities. For the traveller, it is a place of contrasts. For its inhabitants, and particularly for the international bankers, it is a great window looking out on the world, a fortunate vantage-point from which one sees all and in which one has time to make sound decisions.

You can view ALTERNATIVE TRANSLATIONS by holding your MOUSE CURSOR over the little DOWN ARROWS in the translated web page.
Source: Holiday in Tangier, pub. 1955
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