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of the U.S. rubber company the Liberian Government was not
allowed to attract (new) loans. So, even the liquidation and
substitution of the 1926 Loan by another debt would require
Firestone's approval. The 1926 Loan Agreement further required
the Liberian Government to deposit all taxes with a financial
institution owned by Firestone. From 1930 till 1935 this was the
United States Trading Company's Banking Department (USTC, being a
wholly owned Firestone subsidiary). In 1935 the Bank of Monrovia
officially started its operations in Liberia and took over this
function of the USTC Banking Department. Also the Bank- of
Monrovia - after 1935 the only bank in the country - was a fully
owned Firestone subsidiary.
The American Fiscal Adviser had to approve the budget of this
West African country every year and he and his associates
virtually controlled the Treasury's intake of revenues (though
with moderate success as their activities did not extend beyond
the capital). During the first five years of the 1940's the
company's yearly profits were four to five times greater than the
republic's yearly total domestic revenues. Yet the company
enjoyed exemption from import duties and paid no taxes on its
income and/or profits. Significant to the position which the
Firestone Plantations Company occupied in this West African
republic is that the yearly budget of the Phytopathological
Service of the company far exceeded the amount which the
Government spent on health services for a population of about
one million people. The company's pay-roll for its 20,000
employees exceeded total domestic revenues of the Liberian
Treasury Department.
This was the situation which William Tubman inherited from
President Edwin Barclay in 1944 though the new President was
partly responsible for it as he had played an active role in the
legislative approval of the 1926 Planning and Loan Agreements.
With the constraints which this dependency on Firestone imposed
upon Liberia, President Tubman had to govern with the same
poorly trained and corrupt civil service as his predecessor
Barclay had done over a population which in general was excluded
from any participation in the nation's affairs other than a
contribution to the national Treasury. Tubman, however, took
advantage of the renewed interest which the U.S. Government
showed in their African step-child. This renewed interest had
started during the Second World War when the rubber produced by
Firestone in Liberia and the strategic position of this West
African country had led to U.S. assistance in the construction of
infrastructural facilities in the country. The American post-war
interest in Liberia was based on the country's economic and
mineral potential as well as the military-strategic facilities
which its Government offered on the western coast of a continent
where independence movements were going to change the then existing
geo-political situation in this part of the world. Among
other opportunities of which Tubman immediately took advantage
was the offer of scholarships for Liberian students by the U.S.
Government. This had the long-term goal of improving the efficiency
of the Liberian administrative apparatus. Among the