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origin of the rubber company the choice of the U.S. dollar was
only logical. In 1931 President Barclay made the U.S.. dollar legal
tender in Liberia. Thus, the Liberian monetary system began
to look like a mosaic with English pound sterling, American dollar
and Liberian coins circulating freely and legally. At the end
of his Administration Edwin Barclay ended this confusing situation
(see chapter 10).
Banking facilities hardly existed during these days. After the
Liberian declaration of war on Germany in 1917, a German bank
which had been operating in the country had withdrawn from Liberia.
The only bank which was open to the general public then
left was the British owned Bank of British West Africa. The
U.S.T.C. Banking Department, a Firestone subsidiary, was not
available to the general public. In 1930, however, the Bank of
British West Africa withdrew from Liberia. As official reason the
bank's managers stated that the health situation in the country
did not guarantee the safety of its employees. Shortly before two
expatriate employees of the bank had died of yellow fever. However,
the real motivation of the bank's owners to stop operations
in Liberia was a dispute over the compensation to be paid to the
British owned Liberian Rubber Company. This company had abandoned
the Mount Barclay rubber plantation in Liberia which was subsequently
taken over by Firestone (7).
In July 1935 the Bank of Monrovia Inc. officially started its operations
in Liberia. The Bank of Monrovia Inc. was a fully-owned
Firestone subsidiary. For nearly 20 years it was to provide the
only banking services for the general public in the country. In
1938 there also existed "The Bank of Liberia Ltd." of which the
Honourable Arthur Barclay was the Chairman of the Board. This
bank is reported to have been connected with the exploration activities
of the Holland Syndicate in the Western Province (see
chapter 6). Unfortunately, the relevant files in the National
Archives were found in a state of decay which made reading of the
few documents impossible (8).
During the Second World War Liberia's exports, mostly rubber from
the Firestone plantations, increased from $ 1.9 million (1939) to
$ 9.0 million (1945). To satisfy the needs of U.S. industries,
the rubber trees on Firestone's plantations in Liberia were even
doubly tapped. As a result the volume of rubber exports rose from
4,800 tons in 1939 to nearly 20,000 tons in 1945 (9). In this period
virtually all of Liberia's external trade took place with the
U.S.A.
The early 1950's saw the start of iron ore exports, produced by
L.M.C. in Bomi Hills. Rubber, however, remained Liberia's export
product number one. In 1953 rubber still represented over 50 percent
of the country's exports - Firestone being the only exporter
of rubber. Only eight years later, for the first time since 1935,
rubber ceased to be Liberia's most important export product. In
1961 iron ore represented 47.1 percent of all exports, with rubber
a close second with 41.5 percent of all exports. Thus, only
two products accounted for nearly 90 percent of Liberia's exports.