Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1921.djvu/1120

 1068

LIBERIA

Production, Commerce.— The agricultural, mining, and industrial development of Liberia has scarcely begun. There are forests unworked ; the soil is productive, but cultivation is neglected ; cocoa and cotton are produced in small quantities only, and indigenous coffee is the staple product. Piassava fibre, prepared from the raphia palm, palm oil and palm kernels, kola nuts, chillies, beni seed, coffee, anatto seed and rice are also produced. Beeswax is collected, and gum copal is found but is not collected. Tortoiseshell, improperly prepared, is sold in small quantities. In the forests there are rubber vines and trees of 22 species. Rubber exports (in pounds) : 1910, 115,785 ; 1911, 103,032 ; 1912, 93,822 ; 1913, 116,712 ; 1914, 8,003 ; 1915, 10,081 ; 1917, 69,835. Iron is worked by the natives. Gold in small quantities, tin, copper, zinc, monazite, corundum, lead, bitumen or lignite, and diamonds have been at different times found in the interior, but not as yet in payable form or abundance.

The trade for 4 years is shown as follows : —

1911 1912

Imports

Dollars

1,154,9-24 1,194,128

Exports

Dollars

1,013,849 1,150,491

Year

1913

1917

Imports '

Dollars 902,063

Exports

Dollars

1.2S8.915

618,536

The chief imports are rice, Manchester goods, gin, tobacco, building timber, galvanised roofing iron, ready-made clothing, and dried and preserved fish. The chief exports are rubber, palm oil (336,407 gallons in 1917), palm kernels, piassava fibre, (5,911,903 lbs. in 1917), cocoa (65,016 lbs. in 1917), coffee (761,300 lbs. in 1917), ivory, ginger, and camwood. The trade is chiefly with Great Britain, Holland, Spain, and the United States.

According to the 'Annual Statement of Trade' issued by the Board of Trade, the value of the trade between the United Kingdom and Liberia was as follows in five years : —

-

1910

1917

1918 £ 161,423 178,161

1919 £

52S.219 163,715

192U

Imports into Liberia

U.K.

from ice to

£ 194,116 101, 74S '

£ 211,270 117,099

£ 513,425

Exports of U.K. Liberia

prod

271,527

In 1919, 244 vessels visited Monrovia with a tonnage of 622,844 tons. Of these, 116 vessels of 483,789 tons were British.

There are no railways or vehicular means of transport in the country, except ox-carts and a motor road of about 20 miles recently constructed. The river St. Paul is navigable for 25 miles from the sea northwards (including creeks, for 38 miles), and various Liberians maintain steam launches thereon. The Liberian Government has a river launch. There is direct cable com- munication with Europe and New York. There are two wireless stations at Monrovia.

Money, Weights, and Measures.— The money chiefly used is British gold and silver, but there is a Liberian coinage in silver and copper. Accounts are kept generally in American dollars and cents. The Liberian coins are ns follows : — Silver, 50-, 25-, and 10-cent pieces; copper, 2- and 1-cent pieces.

Weights and meawres are the same as Great Britain and the United States.