 This allowed some to consider that the application of the principle devised by the East India Company is what originated the control by ruling élites over all the lands of the island of Réunion.Whatever the case may be, the system founded on private property ended up dominating at the expense of the concession-based system, which was further threatened by the development of the "colonat partiaire", a form of metayage specific to the French "outre-mer", inspired by slavery and not abolished until 2006.These new forms of land occupancy signalled, when the ensuing transactions were made, an approach of economic opportunism rather than geographic logic.