The_Open_Door_deel1

Ill
independent republic on the African continent. In order to be
able to emerge from its almost continuous state of depression,
the economy needed infrastructure, modern managerial and technological
know-how, trained manpower and, above all, capital
to finance the acquisition and upkeep of these assets. Virtually
all of these were lacking at that time, and it was Tubman 1 s
firm belief that, unaided, Liberia would not succeed in overcoming
its difficulties.
In the early 1940's an effort to use domestic savings as a source
of capital would have been futile. The mobilisation of private
domestic savings had never been promoted by encouraging the development
of appropriate financial institutions, and in 1943
there was only one bank in the entire country: The Bank of
Monrovia, a foreign owned establishment (a Firestone subsidiary)
. As Government expenditures had in the past nearly always
exceeded Government revenues, public domestic savings had usually
been negative, making borrowing from abroad imperative.
These foreign loans, however, had endangered the country's souvereignty
more than once. Moreover, under the terms of the 1926
Loan from Firestone which had accompanied the concession agreement,
the Liberian Government was not free to borrow without
the written consent of the U.S. investor.
Thus, domestic financing of the economic development of the
country being ruled out by the failure of his predecessors,
William Tubman could not use foreign loans either. Since, at
that time, Liberia was the only independent country in West
Africa, regional economic cooperation was also out of the question.
Liberia was, however, free to invite private foreign investment
capital into the country. Tubman, therefore, decided to resort
to foreign investors as his last chance for getting help. At
that time he could not foresee that there was to be a tremendous
increase in bilateral and multilateral technical and financial
assistance to underdeveloped nations after the Second
World War and especially after the 196Cs. In his Inaugural Address
on January 3, 1944 he officially announced that:
"Ue shall encounage the inve.stme.nt of fon.e.ign capital in
the development of the nesounces of the countn-y, pn.efe.ialLly
on a pa/itnen.ship (Lasis, and we shall accond to invesions
the necessany pnotection and fairness of tneatment,"
(5)
Through the presence of foreign investors Tubman hoped to obtain
the financial as well as the political blessings of the
Governments of their countries, and for a number of reasons he
particularly thought of American businessmen and the U.S. Government.
First, as a young Senator in the Liberian Legislature, William
Tubman had already become aware of the advantages of investments
by a company from a powerful nation. He had been instrumental in
having the law passed in 1926 which allowed the Firestone Tire
and Rubber Company to establish the largest rubber plantation on