The_Open_Door_deel1

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Initially some of the settlers worked as commission agents for
foreign traders but as early as the 1830's it was reported that
foreign traders were only allowed by the Colonial Council to
operate in the colony when they had employed colonists as their
local agent (37). It was even reported that in the 1830's trade
in the colonies was exclusively reserved for the colonists (38).
After independence the first Port of Entry Law was enacted in
1849. The operations of foreign traders were limited to four
Ports of Entry: Monrovia, Marshall, Buchanan, and Greenville.
However, on certain conditions foreigners were allowed to trade
at other places along the coast. Following British and French
protests the law was for its greater part repealed during the
following two years (39).
The 1864 Ports of Entry Law was of course resented by European
traders and by the tribal people, trading with each other since
the Americo-Liberian traders had established a monopoly with this
Act. Legally, they controlled the trade between the Ports of
Entry and the rest of the coastline. The resulting abuses - their
buying prices - upset the tribal people who again revolted. In
July 1868, March 1869, and in March 1871 the Vai clashed with the
armed forces of the Republic which had come to punish Vai traders
who had not respected the Ports of Entry Law (40) . In April 1879
the Grebo people living between the Cavalla and San Pedro Rivers
took up arms, rejected the Liberian authority over this portion
of the Liberian territory (later annexed by France) and placed
themselves under the protection of Great-Britain. In 1886 a more
westward living section of the Grebo tribe revolted too. In both
cases the resentment of the Port of Entry Law lay at the root of
these events (41), Ironically, the need for more revenues set in
motion a vicious circle which resulted in increasing
expenditures for the Liberian Treasury to quell a rising number
of tribal revolts (42) whereas the Law which had incited these
tribal people to rebel had a negative impact on the development
of the Liberian trade - which (through the levying of customs
duties) constituted the main source of Government revenue. The
financial impotence of the Liberian Government was thus
perpetuated.
The economic recession in tribal villages along the coast, and
the repression of tribal resentment of the Ports of Entry Law by
the authorities in Monrovia (on various occasions coastal
villages were burned or bombarded by the settler Government)
(43) may have contributed to the various changes as to the number
of Ports of Entry. The Liberian Government however also used
these changes as to Ports of Entry as a political weapon,
punishing or pleasing tribal people. It is characteristic of the
popularity of the Liberian Government with the tribal people
that the latter preferred to contact the British Government when
they desired to have some of their villages added to the
Liberian Ports of Entry. Notably the Kru did so (44). B y the turn
of the century, however, the number of Ports of Entry had risen
to only ten (45).