The Anatomy of an Investment: Firestone's 1927 Loan to Liberia

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Periodical article

Title:	The Anatomy of an Investment: Firestone's 1927 Loan to Liberia
Author:	Chalk, Frank
Year:	1967
Periodical:	Canadian Journal of African Studies
Volume:	1
Issue:	1
Pages:	12-32
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Liberia
Subjects:	rubber commercial credit Economics and Trade Politics and Government History and Exploration
External link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/483972
Abstract:	It was over one hundred years after the founding of the Liberian nation that the United States acquired a tangible economic stake in the West African republic. In 1926 the Liberian Government granted a major rubber concession to the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company and accepted a large loan from one of Firestone's subsidiaries. The Liberian Government's turn towards Firestone in 1926 was more than another desperate effort to save the nation from bankruptcy. The Government's chief aim was to secure the nation's borders from French and British encroachments. In December, 1926, a bill - the sine qua non of Firestone's Liberian project - passed by the Liberian Legislature bound the Government to borrow $ 5 million from the Finance Corporation of America. The 1927 loan opened a new phase in Liberian history. This essay focusses attention on the early stages of Firestone's investment negotiations and has as its core a consideration of Liberia's sovereignty as it was regarded by the men and organizations who were principally responsible for the terms of Firestone's investment. Notes.