CHAPTER XVIII 



COMMERCE OF LIBERIA 

 (BY THE AUTHOR AND MR. I. F. BRAHAM) 



THE imports into Liberia comprise practically every sort 

 and description of cotton goods, hardware, tobacco, silks, 

 crockery, guns, gunpowder, rice, stock-fish, herrings, 

 and salt. The natives are most conservative in their tastes, and 

 there is great difficulty in finding a market for new goods. 

 Certain articles such as brass kettles, cutlasses (matchets), and 

 tobacco are now of the same pattern and description as they 

 were when introduced by the Spaniards and the Portuguese 

 in the fifteenth (.^) century, and no inducement will tempt the 

 natives to purchase any modern variation of these old patterns. 

 As a matter of fact, this description of articles has become the 

 currency of the interior tribes (who up to the present do not 

 understand the value of a coinage), and from time immemorial 

 have been employed in the purchase of their wives and cattle, 

 and this may be taken to be the principal reason why a change 

 is unappreciated. The value of wives varies in different 

 districts, but an average may be struck — viz. 6 brass kettles, 

 15 kegs of powder, and 5 pieces of cloth. The value of a 

 slave boy is 15 kegs of powder, and of a slave girl 10 kegs 

 of powder, or 100 sticks of salt. 



Salt and rice are very largely imported. Although the 

 natives throughout the hinterland grow rice in large quantities, 



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