The_Open_Door_deel1

] -63-
J Notes:
? : :i (1) Firestone Plantations Company (FPCo.) only;
M (2) Amounts prior to 1951 refer to payments other than income
sis; taxes;
l| (3) In bonds; Including 1400,000 rental in advance (1935-2025);
11 (4) From 1939 till 1951 only;
II (5) Total for 1946-1950 (both inclusive).
|lj S ources:
• $ - National Archives, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Monrovia.
; ' - Firestone Files, Concession Secretariat, Ministry of Finance,
:' Monrovia.
j - Annual Report, Department of Planning and Economic Affairs:
i 1965/1966; pp. 89-91.
'• - Economic Surveys of Liberia, 1969 through 1977.
i - Tarr: 1973-1974; pp. 43-56.
was $ 10,182 (52). Altogether, the company during the first ten
years of its operations in the country may have paid to the
Liberian Government an amount of $ 100,000 - $ 150,000.
Because of the 1935 payments by Firestone ($ 650,000 in bonds)
the payments in the 1935 - 1951 period were limited to the 1 per
cent export tax on rubber, documentary stamp fees, the tax on a
number of vehicles (if applicable), and the - disputed - consular
fees. On the basis of Liberia's rubber exports in this period it
is estimated that in this period the export tax raised in the
Treasury approximately $ 1 million whereas an amount of
$ 200,000 for the other items seems to be a maximum.
After the introduction of an Income Tax System in 1951 receipts
of the Government from the Firestone Plantations soared,
favourably affected by a high rubber price (See Table 1). The
total of direct taxes paid by Firestone in the 1951 - 1977 period
ranged between $ 105 million and $ 111 million, i.e. an average of
some $ 4 million a year.
The most difficult years for the Firestone Plantations Company
were before .the Second World War but 1939 marked a turning point
for the company's shareholders. The high demand for rubber,
combined with the cutting off of other sources of supply, in the
Far East, induced increased tapping in Liberia, and resulted in
rubber exports of some $ 42 million in the years from 1939 - 1945.
Assuming that the company's payroll totalled $ 7 million during
this war period (53), and estimating other expenses (depreciation
etc.) at another $ 7 million in this period - total investments
being less than $ 20 million - profits will have amounted to some
$ 28,000,000, or a yearly average of $ 4,000,000, which were free
of all taxes except the 1 per cent export tax, averaging $ 60,000
a year. The Government's total annual revenue (from all sources)
in this period amounted to one fourth or one fifth of Firestone's
yearly profits (54).