The_Open_Door_deel1

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although in the event the company would for these purposes make
use of public lands outside its concession area a rent would be
paid of 6 cents per acre per annum. Firestone remained liable to
pay the 1 per cent export tax which was now defined as calculated
upon the closing prices of such products, or products of similar
grade, prevailing on the New York market on the date of departure
of the carrying vessel from a Liberian port, without being allowed
to deduct from such price any costs or expenses.
The Firestone company obtained all these additional rights and
privileges by the prepayment of $ 400,000 in bonds (at par), and
issued by the Liberian Government under the 1926 Loan Agreement,
being its payment of rental upon the approximately 110,000 acres
then held under the Planting Agreement for the rest of the term of
this agreement, and by another payment of $ 250,000, also In
bonds. Total payment by Firestone, $ 650,000, exceeded the total
Liberian revenue for that year. However, as the Agreement provided
that all bonds deliverable to the Liberian Government under the
Loan Agreement were to be surrendered to the Finance Corporation
of America's Fiscal Agent, the National City Bank of New York,
and thereupon were to be cancelled by the Fiscal Agent and retired
(36). Thus, the Liberian Government did not receive any cash
payment under this 1935 arrangement while Firestone had managed to
compensate legally but retro-actively for the suspension of
payments which President Barclay had introduced in 1932. Though
Firestone would never make use of its mining rights, their
exclusive rights served the purpose of preventing others from
starting mining operations and thus damaging the rubber trees.
Also in this respect the company was favourably treated as
according to an Act of 1924 the Government could demand a royalty
of 15 per cent on the value of the products taken from the
subsoil (37).
Changes During the Tubman Administration
Some minor amendments of the Planting Agreement were approved in
1936, 1937, and 1939 and disregarding here the war period when the
company's need for rubber and the American military interests
dictated Liberia's foreign policy, the unequal distribution of
power between the tiny West African republic and the North
American rubber giant became evident once more in 1949, five years
after William Tubman took over from Edwin Barclay.
Late in that year the Firestone Plantations Company, a Delaware
Corporation and a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Firestone Tire &
Rubber Company, was liquidated and the parent company, with the
written consent of the Liberian Government, succeeded to all of
the assets and rights of its wholly-owned subsidiary, assumed all
liabilities and obligations of this comprny, and became thus the
effective Lessee of the extensive rubber plantations in the
Republic of Liberia and the owner of all the appurtenance
thereunto belonging. It subsequently entered into a subletagreement
with a newly created company, The Firestone Plantations
Company, incorporated under the laws of the Republic of Liberia,
and wholly owned by the Firestone Tire & Rubber Company. The