Economics
—1. We have already called attention to the attitude of the Americo-Liberian toward manual labor and have shown that it is, on the whole, natural under the circumstances. Where there are sharp contrasts between the elements of society, as there are in Liberia between the Americo-Liberians, the Vai, the Kru, and the “Bush Niggers,” there is bound to develop more or less of caste feeling. This was inevitable with people who had themselves come from a district where caste was so marked as in our southern states. The natives have never been considered the full equals of the immigrants nor treated as brothers; they are “hewers of wood” and “drawers of water”; they are utilized as house servants. It is convenient to be able to fill one’s house with “bush niggers” as servants, and the settlers have done so from the early days of settlement. Why indeed should one himself work where life is easy and where money is quickly made through trade? This feeling of caste showed itself in various curious ways—thus the colonists soon fell into the habit of calling themselves “white men” in contrast to the negroes of the country.
2. For the present and for some time still the chief dependence of the country is necessarily trade in raw products. Wealth must come from palm nuts and oil, piassava, rubber, and the like. In such products the Republic has enormous wealth. These can only be secured from the interior through native help. In order that this kind of trade develop, it must be stimulated by legitimate means. At present it is not as flourishing as it might be. The natives are not steady workers; they bring in products when they feel like it or when they have a pressing need of money; trails are bad, and transportation of raw products for great distances is hardly profitable. Yet, if the country is to develop, this production must be steadily increased.
3. Ultimately Liberia must depend on agriculture. With a fertile soil, a tropical climate, abundant rainfall—its possibilities in the direction of agricultural production are enormous. This industry will be the permanent dependence of the country. It must be the next in order of development. Serious development of manufacturing appears remote. Agriculture has always been neglected; Ashmun pleaded with the natives to go into it and prepared a little pamphlet of directions applicable to the local conditions; friends have begged the people ever since to pay less attention to trade and more to cultivation; all in vain. It is true, however, that ever since the days of early settlement, there has been some attention given to the matter of field culture. There was a time when there were extensive plantations of coffee and fields planted with sugar-cane. For a time these plantations were successful, but hard luck came; foreign competition arose, careless and wasteful methods were pursued, and a paralysis seems to have fallen upon the industry. Sons of those who once were successful planters have moved into Monrovia and entered politics. In the old days there were native villages in the vicinity of the capital city; then bullocks were constantly to be seen in the Monrovian market and fresh meat was easily secured; to-day the native towns have retreated into the interior, and Monrovia depends upon the steamers for fresh meat supplies.
4. Through the over-emphasis placed upon trade, there has grown up a needless importation of foreign articles. It is not only meat that is brought in from other lands; there was a time when the making of shingles was a fairly developed industry—to-day corrugated roofing comes from the outside world; one of the chief foods of the Liberians is rice—it is also one of the chief crops among the native tribes—the native rice is of most excellent quality—yet the rice eaten by Americo-Liberians is imported from foreign countries. There are many articles which might as well or better be produced in Liberia, furnishing employment and a source of wealth for many of the population, which to-day are imported in poorer quality and higher prices from outside.
5. There is a widespread feeling that Liberia has great mineral wealth. No doubt a part of this is justified; much of it, however, is merely due to the fact of ignorance regarding the interior of the country. There are surely gold and copper; there is iron, no doubt, in abundance; we have already mentioned the possibility of diamonds. Under such conditions it is natural that men throughout the whole Republic are ever dreaming of making lucky finds. Anything found anywhere, which chances to have lustre, is considered precious and leads to hopes of sudden and enormous wealth. This widespread expectation of always finding a bonanza is certainly unfortunate for any population; it is unfortunate for Liberia, but just enough of actual mineral wealth will always be discovered to keep it vigorous. It would be well indeed for the black Republic if it were lacking completely in mineral wealth. It is likely that the discovery of valuable deposits will harm the country far more than help it. Such discoveries are certain to enlist rapacious foreign capital and to lead to constant interference and ultimate intervention. If white men in Dutch South Africa were unable to resist the aggressions of avaricious English miners, what chance can the small black Republic stand? The very day I wrote this passage, I received a letter from a well-informed Americo-Liberian. He closes with these words: “I am told that the English have opened up a gold mine in the rear of Careysburg on the St. Paul’s River. This is the last settlement on the river, thirty miles inland. Of course, it is by grant of the legislature, but all based on fraud, as I am told. The yield, I learn, is very great, of which Liberia sees and knows nothing. The whole thing is guarded by an English force.” I have no means of knowing how much truth there may be in this statement of my correspondent. Just such things, however, do occur, will occur, and such things are fraught with danger.
6. It is common to speak in terms of pessimism regarding the economic conditions of Liberia. This has been true for years. In 1881, Stetson spoke as follows in his Liberian Republic as It Is: “This condition of hopeless bankruptcy is fraught with danger to the existence of the Republic. The cords which bind her to England are being drawn closer and closer, her exports go largely to England, her imports are from England, her loans are from England, and what few favors she has to grant, or are received of her, are to English capitalists; notably a charter recently given to an English company for a railroad extending two hundred miles back from Monrovia, the capital, and designed ultimately to connect that port with the head-waters of the Niger. English influence and gunboats may at any moment settle the question of the future of Liberia.” It will be seen that this was written after the time when Liberia solicited her first loan from England—the notorious loan of 1870.
7. Thirty years have passed since then. England has encroached, but she has not yet absorbed the Liberian Republic. Meantime, while conditions are far from satisfactory, they have improved; England still has large relations with Liberia, but there has been a wise development of common interests with Germany since 1870. To-day Germany has greater shipping interests, greater trade interests, greater prospects than has Britain. Germany may some time become a menace, but certainly for the present she is a safer friend for Liberia than England. So far as the present financial circumstances in Liberia are concerned, a few figures may be quoted. For the ten years, from 1893 to 1903, the receipts of the nation amounted to $2,243,148, and the expenses to $2,171,556; an average annually of something like $225,000 of income, $217,000 of outgo. In 1905 receipts were $357,000 and expenditures $340,000. In 1911 the income rose to $443,255 and the estimated outgo was probably $481,954. These figures are very far from discouraging, and there is no reason why they should not be notably increased by judicious management.
8. We reproduce a [little table] of the receipts from customs. It will well repay careful examination.
It will be seen that during the short space of time represented by this table the receipts in customs have more than doubled. By fair dealings with the natives of the interior and by the improvement of roads, this income can be greatly multiplied.
9. It is hardly to be expected, in a population such as that with which we are here dealing, that there should be a large development in postal service. The statistics of the four years, from 1907 to 1910 show us the general movement of postal matter. The total amount is by no means insignificant and a fair growth is evident.
POSTAL STATISTICS
| Articles | 1907 | 1908 | 1909 | 1910 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Letters: ordinary | 100,979 | 95,186 | 94,481 | 104,313 |
| Letters: registered | 9,052 | 9,768 | 9,421 | 10,458 |
| Postal cards | 15,142 | 10,877 | 15,821 | 18,386 |
| Parcel post | 2,888 | 3,539 | 2,332 | 2,895 |
| Samples | 254 | 299 | 269 | 385 |
| General movement | 128,315 | 119,669 | 122,324 | 136,437 |
10. The Republic is now in telegraphic connection with the outside world. Gerard tells us that “the German-South-American Telegraph Society, with a capital stock of 30,000,000 marks, has recently laid a cable at Monrovia which will place the negro capital hereafter in rapid communication with the civilized world. Up to this time telegraphic messages addressed to Liberia were delivered at Freetown, and there were entrusted to the ordinary postal service, upon the semi-monthly mail-boats conducting business between Sierra Leone and the Grain Coast. Constructed by the North German Marine Cable Factory of Nordenham-am-Weser, the cable, destined to draw the little Guinean Republic from its isolation, starts from Emden, passes under sea to the island Borkum, connects at Teneriffe, in order then to reach Monrovia, from whence it is finally directed to Pernambuco, the terminal point of the line. On the other hand, the South American Cable Co. of London, a French society with a French director and supported by French capital, has obtained a concession with a view to the establishment of a submarine cable connecting Conakry (Guinea) with Grand Bassam (Ivory Coast), touching at Monrovia, and it is interesting to notice in passing that there has been arranged, in connection with this matter, between Germany and France a friendly relationship permitting the German cable to touch at Brest, allowing the French installation to be accomplished through the German cable, and obliging the two rival companies to have similar tariffs and giving each of them the right of using the apparatus of the other in case of the breaking of its own connection. It is also to the French government that the exclusive right has been given of establishing a wireless telegraph station which will connect Monrovia with the Eiffel Tower via Dakar and Casablanca, while posts, constructed at Conakry, Tabou, and Cotonou will give origin to radio-telegraphic connections between Liberia, French Guinea, the Ivory Coast, and Dahomey; the importance of this project, to-day in course of execution, will escape no one, since one will understand that there is question here of installing the Marconi system in Madagascar and at Timbuctu, and of thus enclosing the whole black continent in a network of rapid communication of which France alone will have control.”
All three of these enterprises have been successfully carried through, and to-day Liberia is in easy connection with every part of the civilized world. It is a notable step forward.
11. Five lines of steamers make regular stops upon the coast of Liberia. Chief of these is the great Woermann Line, of Hamburg. Two regular sailings weekly in both directions touch at Monrovia. Next in importance are the British steamships controlled by Elder Dempster and Co. They have a combination consisting of the African Steamship Co. and the British African Steam-Navigation Co. These boats make two weekly sailings from Liverpool and one monthly sailing from Hamburg. Nor are these the only landings made by these lines at Liberian ports. It is probable that the Woermann Line makes three hundred calls annually, and the Elder Dempster Lines two hundred and fifty, at Liberian ports. A recent arrangement which, if given fair attention, promises a notable development, has been entered into between these two companies, whereby every two months a boat sails from New York to Monrovia and return; The English and German lines alternate in supplying this steamer. Besides these two lines of chief importance, three other lines make stops at Monrovia—the Spanish Trans-Atlantic Co., of Barcelona, Fraissinet and Co., of Marseilles, France, and the Belgian Maritime Co. of Congo, from Antwerp.
12. Considering the dangers of its coast, the light-house service of the Republic is far from satisfactory. The old light-house at Monrovia, for years a disgrace, has been replaced by a more modern apparatus; at Grand Bassa a light-house was erected at the private expense of Mr. S. G. Harmon, a successful Liberian merchant, now the Vice-President of the Republic; at Cape Palmas a good light-house has been erected, visible at all times to a distance of six miles—this cost about $9000 and was a gift from the French authorities. It is somewhat doubtful whether it was good policy to accept a gift from a neighbor, who has made definite efforts to crowd Liberians out of the Cavalla River, which forms the natural boundary between the Grain Coast (Liberia) and the Ivory Coast (French).
13. The whole west coast of Africa has for centuries depended only on foreign trade. Portuguese, Dutch, French, English, Germans, have all played their part. Most of these nations still have interests in that portion of the world. So far as the Liberian Republic is concerned, representatives of foreign houses have numerous trading-posts upon its coast. The house of A. Woermann has factories at Monrovia, Cape Mount, Bassa, Sinoe, and Cape Palmas. J. W. West (Hamburg) is established at Monrovia, Cape Mount, Grand Bassa, and Sinoe. Wiechers and Helm are at Monrovia and Cape Palmas. Wooden and Co. (Liverpool), Patterson and Zachonis (Liverpool), Vietor and Huber, C. F. Wilhelm Jantzen (Hamburg), and the American Trading Co. (established only in 1911), are among those who trade in Liberia.
14. A number of development companies have at different times been formed with the intention of exploiting the black Republic. Many of these have been fraudulent enterprises and have come to nothing; some, started in good faith, have failed; a few—a very few out of many—have developed promisingly. The English Liberian Rubber Corporation has a farm of 1000 acres with 150,000 rubber-trees already planted; this was begun in 1904 and has now reached the period of yielding; in 1912 it was expected that it would prove a paying proposition. The Liberian Trading Co. (English) are exporting mahogany and other valuable woods. They are opening commercial houses in different parts of the country and seeking concessions from the government to open roads. The Liberian Development Co. (English) discovered gold and diamonds in 1908 and are now importing heavy machinery to work their mines, together with materials for a railway to them, and have already laid part of the railway; this is probably the company to which my correspondent, [already quoted], refers. One of the latest of the development companies is the Liberian-American Produce Co., which was chartered in 1910 by the national legislature with the approval of the president of the Republic for a period of sixty years. It was given large and varied powers, among them being the right to build for itself or for the government, roads, bridges, harbor-improvements, railways, etc.; and the company was granted a concession of a hundred square miles with the privilege of taking up this land in any sized blocks, anywhere in the country by simply filing in the State Department a description of the lands thus taken up. The company has already selected four square miles of land containing mineral deposits, and plans to start active operations in trade, agriculture, and mining.
15. As the subject of the financial outlook of the Republic will come up again for consideration, we are here only completing our descriptive picture of the Republic. She has long been in debt; her resources have been mortgaged; her customs-houses have been in the hands of receivers. She has recently consolidated all her debts, foreign and domestic, and has secured a loan through the kind offices of the United States of $1,700,000. This loan has been guaranteed by the customs-house receipts, and the customs-service is now under the direction of an international receivership.