Theodor
Weber, as Stevenson says, "harried the Samoans" to get copra much as
King Leopold of Belgium harried the Congoese to get caoutchouc. It was
Weber who first fully realized that the South Sea islands, formerly
given over to cannibals, pirates and missionaries, might be made
immensely valuable through the cultivation of the coconut palms. When
the ripe coconut is split open and exposed to the sun the meat dries up
and shrivels and in this form, called "copra," it can be cut out and
shipped to the factory where the oil is extracted and refined. Weber
while German Consul in Samoa was also manager of what was locally known
as "the long-handled concern" (_Deutsche Handels und Plantagen
Gesellschaft der Suedsee Inseln zu Hamburg_), a pioneer commercial and
semi-official corporation that played a part in the Pacific somewhat
like the British Hudson Bay Company in Canada or East India Company in
Hindustan. Through the agency of this corporation on the start Germany
acquired a virtual monopoly of the transportation and refining of
coconut oil and would have become the dominant power in the Pacific if
she had not been checked by force of arms.
Pages:
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326