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Australia 1970, Last call for seeing oil and gas exploration as economic development

One thing I like to point out when stamp collecting is when a new style of recognition in stamps emerges. As a traditionalist, sorry, I also like to point out when a style fades, perhaps a little wistfully. So with this in mind, we will tell the story of oil and gas exploration in Australia. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

1970 was late enough that the people putting together stamp issues were getting a little squeamish when told to cover the indeed growing energy industry. Here designer Brian Sadgrove puts a purple tint partially blocking the sun over the offshore oil rig and natural gas pipeline. No such tint shows up on more politically correct hydroelectric power or aluminum window frames that were other parts of this economic development issue. Lucky Mr. Sadgrove wasn’t asked to do a coal mine. I suspect the tint, or is it taint, would resemble the fires of hell.

Todays stamp is issue A194, a 10 cent stamp issued by Australia on August 31st, 1970. It was a four stamp issue in various denominations closely modeled on a new train line stamp done earlier in 1970 also by Brian Sadgrove. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 40 cents used.

Surveying for potential oil and gas reserves started early in the 20th century but got a lot more serious after World War II. The Australian Motorist Petrol Company, a chain of gas stations, set up an exploration operation in 1946, petitioning the government for surveying rights and subsidies to bring into production oil fields. To assist with this, a partnership was struck with Standard Oil of California. The first oil well started producing at Rough Range in 1953. More extensive oil reserves were found on then unoccupied Barrow Island the next year.

Old AMPOL, showcasing a truck donated by them to an Aboriginal artist and easy chair owner in front of one of their gas pumps

In 1966, the joint venture, now boringly acronymed WAPET found commercial quantities of liquidified natural gas at Dongara, and got a pipeline going to Perth for export by 1971.

Oil production peaked in 2000 and is not so important any more. Natural gas is much more promising with proven reserves stretching out 100 years. The fact that it was all for export has become problematic. It is thought that using dirty coal for electricity makes no sense with relatively clean burning natural gas being available locally. It was decided by the government that in future, natural gas developed must have at least 15 percent set aside for local use.

Being in on the ground flour of big subsidized economic development must have seen great wealth accrue to the Australian Motorist Petrol Company. Production now totals 16.7 billion dollars a year. However, as so often happens there have been a series of mergers that saw AMPOL being a minor subsidiary of American Texaco. Yes oil history nerds, the old Standard Oil of Texas, Rockefeller wherever you look, even down under. Texaco then in 2015 sold the subsidiary generously allowing them the use of their Caltex name. Five years later, Texaco wanted back into Australia, and as a first step took the Caltex name back. The old subsidiary, noticing they still owned the AMPOL name, is now rebranding again to the long ago name. While exhausting, imagine the efficiency wrought by all these machinations. No, I can’t either.

New Ampol. The architecture is comically hideous, but that little thing is a center of a large industry. Somewhere along the line, people got screwed.

Well my drink is empty and I am left wondering where all the wealth created by the economic development went. Yes, many people are employed, but where has the money gone. Even the Rockefellers don’t seem to have it. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

 

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North Borneo 1909, The Sultan of Sulu sold, so the Baron von Overbeck is the new Maharajah

The story of these wild multinational adventurers had such an outsized effect on the far east, they are worth remembering. Though now part of Malaysia, North Borneo was liberated or enslaved from the Sulu Empire. Or was it swindled by the Sulu Empire from Spain and the Philippines? Everyone has a contract and an opinion. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage. and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

The stamps of North Borneo came later than the money flashing of German/Austrian/American/Hong Kong Baron/ Maharajah Gustav Overbeck. The stamp still leans exotic and shows off the Malayan Tapir and is so old a stamp that then they were still then found in Borneo. No longer, Malayan Tapirs are now much fewer in number and just on the mainland of Malaysia and the island of Sumatra. The endangering happened despite not being hunted for food by the native Muslim Malayans as they believe that the tapir is closely related to the pig.

The tapir’s ever shrinking habitat

Todays stamp is issue A51,  a 1 cent stamp issued by the state of North Borneo in 1909. It was a 14 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 30 cents used.

Gustav Overbeck was born in Germany to a non noble family. As a young adult he emigrated to the United States ending up in a trading business in San Francisco. He began lucrative trading trips to Hawaii the South Seas and even the Bering strait. His dealings in Hong Kong lead to a job with Dent and Co, a British/Chinese Hong trading firm. Now based in Hong Kong, he took up with a Chinese woman who bore him 4 daughters. First Austria, then Prussia hired him to be their Council in the area. He resigned his Prussian position during their war with Austria. Austria responded by first making him an aristocrat attaching von to his name and then making von Overbeck a full Baron. He still also maintained ties to America, marrying an American socialite who liked his title and bore him several children but mostly lived a separate life in Washington DC.

The Baron became interested in the area of North Borneo with an idea toward timber plantations. The area was very sparsely populated but he planned importing Chinese laborers and and more senior Japanese traders. He first bought out the existing concession of an American timber operation and then greatly expanded it by buying territory from the Sultans of Brunei and Sulu. Buying land from them comes with the local title of Maharajah. Or did it? Spain claimed that much of Borneo was actually part of their colony of the Philippines. Spain brought the Sulu Empire under its control and claimed also the land  sold to Overbeck, claiming his contract was only a lease to rent the land.

The Baron’s concessions from the Sultans of Brunei(left) and Sulu(right).
Signed, Sealed, and Delivered!

Overbeck traveled then back to Europe to try to have his concession be made a protectorate. He could not interest Germany, Austria, nor Italy in North Borneo. Baron von Overbeck was then contacted by his old British partners in Hong Kong the Dent Brothers who indicated they would be willing to buy out Overbeck and then petition to Queen Victoria for North Borneo to become a British Protectorate. This happened and Spain quickly withdrew it’s claim to North Borneo. The Baron lived out his days in London attended neither by his adulterous American wife, nor his ersatz Chinese wife. Well at least he had all these titles from places he no longer went.

The timber business was never that great in North Borneo has they were chronically short of labor. The Dent Trading house failed when it’s London based Bank failed with no deposit insurance. One of Dent’s competitors with the same problem survived because they were first to read of the bank failure in the Calcutta Times and get their money out of the local branch before by half an hour the branch had been informed that they failed.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Baron and Maharaja Gustav von Overbeck. He got around and made an impression at a time when most didn’t. Come again  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

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Burundi 1969, Recognizing 5 years of the African Development Bank

Five years doesn’t seem much when the ADB has been going on for now 58 years. 1969 was still a different time when there was still hope that African lead pan African institutions would get beyond colonial shackles to a bright future. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from the Philatelist.

The new hope I mentioned above is all over this stamp issue from 1969. The stamp issue broke down the progress into four areas, industry, agriculture, education, and communications. I am featuring the communications stamp. Notice the radio announcer, at a station no doubt funded by the ADB, sits in a modern control booth and exabits the new pan African style pioneered by Ghanaian President Nkumo and later copied shamelessly by Barack Obama. What the African listener heard was going to be different than the BBC World Service. Progress. If you look at modern materials from the ADB, you see their high rise and claims what a safe, respected institution they are. Understandable, but less exciting and vaguely off track on a continent where there is still much to do.

The now again headquarters building of the African Development Bank in Abidjan, Ivory Coast

Todays stamp is issue A36, a 30 Franc stamp issued by Burundi on July 29th, 1969. It was a four stamp issue plus a souvenir sheet in different denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 40 cents cancelled to order.

The African Development Bank was formed at the suggestion of the Organization of African Unity. That was a group of newly independent African leaders and those still struggling for independence. The idea was that once Africa had expunged colonialism a pan African economic and political block would take it’s rightful place as an important world power. This goal was not to be as it was let down by African leaders who became dictators for life and broke down further into colonial language and European economic theory blocs. There was no need for a dictator debating society and the Organization of African Unity closed in 2002.

The African Development Bank goes on. It is hard to point to large projects that once done, transformed the continent. On the other hand, over the years literally thousands of projects have been funded, yet the bank is still solvent which implies the projects were successful and thus were able to pay back the money fronted. Here I want to point out that the single biggest source of capital is not charity from a donor country but capital invested by Nigeria, mainly during it’s oil rich salad days in the 1970s. It is still run by Former Nigerian Minister Akinwumi Adesina. There is still a little of the pan African flair. The headquarters of the Nigerian dominated bank is in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Notice the former colony of a different country, speaking a different language, pan African ideal in action.

Bank President Akinwumi Adesina. It’s nice that lapel pin factories remember Nigeria and then Dr. Adesina was able to find a matching bowtie.

The realities of Africa make progress slow. or even regression. We are talking about a real Burundi stamp from 1969, There last real issue was from 9 years ago as they no longer can prove a postal system. Indeed the African Development Bank had to abandon their headquarters building and set up temporary shop in Tunis between 2003 and 2017 due to civil war in the Ivory Coast. They are back in their old building which still stood. Take progress where you can and build on what you have.

Well my drink is empty. Usually I make fun, perhaps too much, of an “institution” like ADB. Here I am kind of impressed it is still around and trying to do what it was created for. Ah bartender, another please. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Great Britain 1977, A Silver Jubilee and a Phantom VI

Rerun in honor of the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

Twenty five years on the Throne is quite a milestone, one that many Monarchs don’t make. George V’s Silver Jubilee spawned a blizzard of interesting stamps. With no Empire, Queen Elizabeth II couldn’t match that. but that doesn’t mean  that the motoring industry couldn’t come up with a special gift to the Queen. One that breathed new life into a storied old model, the hand assembled Phantom VI, and allowed it to be continued to be made for another 14 years. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

The 1977 stamp showed a timeless Queen in profile, similar to but not the same as the Manchin image so familiar in British stamps. For the Golden Jubilee in 2002 the stamp set showed Elizabeth’s full face at different stages of life. Royals should have some mystery, so I vote for the Silver Jubilee style. In case you are wondering, a 75 year Jubilee would be called platinum, even though that is usually 70 year anniversary. A cartoon king made it 75 years and they called it the Palladium Jubilee.

Todays stamp is issue A276, a 10p stamp issued by Great Britain on May 11th, 1977. It was a five stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether mint or used.

The Rolls Royce Phantom was a line of very large and heavy limousines that were made by hand at a separate facility under the companies Mulliner Park Ward division. Regular Rolls Royces of the day, the Silver Shadows, had their bodies built on an assembly line by British Leyland subsidiary Pressed Steel at a separate site, only shipping them to the Crewe factory for painting and fitting engines and interiors. This was less special and closely resembled how MGBs were built. The one issue was the limousines were based on much older separate frame models and so the cars were more 1950s cars than 1970s cars. The annual sales of Phantoms had fallen to only a few dozen a year and the price had to rise very fast to keep the operation profitable, but with the similarly made Corniche coupe production winding down, the model, and with it the whole idea of coach built cars did not have a bright future.

The British Motoring Industry decided to make a gift to the Queen a Phantom VI that would go far to bringing the Phantom up to date. The car would finally get the larger 6.75 liter V8 and the more modern model GM made THM400 automatic transmission. The brakes were finally given modern hydolic power assist, though they still drums on all four wheels. Inside the car now had two air conditioners for both front and rear compartments and there was central power locking.

The Queen got a few specials just for hers. The seats were done in cloth instead of the usual leather and the padding of the seats differed from side to side to reflect the different weights of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip. There was a dictation machine built into the rear center armrest. The car received a special two tone paint treatment in Black and Royal Red Claret. The roofline was higher using again the Canberra Roof with larger plexiglass windows for use in processions. The special roof was only ever used on three cars the first used on a Royal visit to Australia, hence the Canberra name. The Queen’s model weighed 6800 pounds.

The Roll Royce Phantom VI updated and given as a gift to Queen Elizabeth II on the occasion of her Silver Jubilee

The rampant strikes of the era meant the car was not actually delivered until 1978 and is still in use. The improvements in the Phantom VI allowed it to stay in production until 1992. The price in America was had gone from $17,600 in 1959 to $1,000,000 for the last one in 1992. The new 90s style Bentley coupes and convertibles had Pressed Steel bodies, so coach making by hand was no longer on the agenda. As the 1990s went along, what had been British Leyland was owned by Honda of Japan and they closed the Pressed Steel division. Rolls Royce had to suddenly spend heavily  on an assembly line to build their own car bodies. The expense contributed  to the 1998 sale of Bentley to Volkswagen and Rolls Royce to BMW. Now the cars are built off platforms of their parent company, The BMW 7 series for Rolls and the VW Phaeton for Bentley.

Well my drink is empty. Come again soon for another story to be learned from stamp collecting.

 

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Austria 1970, Remembering Leopold Figl’s maneuvers between left and right to find a middle road for Austria

People may forget that Austria had a hard right wing government in the early 1930s that took on constitutionally questionable authoritarian powers. How does a veteran of that go on to big political power after Nazi defeat and under Soviet occupation. Turns out that the German Nazis twice sending you to a concentration camp gives a lot of credibility. The still conservative outside Vienna Austrians needing a voice also helped. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

It is interesting to me that Austria chose to put former Chancellor Leopold Figl on one of the two stamps honoring 25 years after the second republic. The other showed Belvedere Palace, the Chancellor’s official residence. The early post war years were not just difficult materially, but one of diplomatic maneuvering trying to end the multinational occupation. So perhaps the doer stamp images are reflective.

Todays stamp is issue A319, a two shilling stamp issued by Austria on April 27, 1970. It was a two stamp issue. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

During the interwar first republic, Austria’s many parties figured out how to share power. The biggest vote total party would chose the Chancellor and many deputies would be from other parties. Chancellor Engebert Dolfuss was far right wing and found a way to consolidate power. A close vote in parliament caused several of the deputies to resign so they could cast a vote. Three days after the vote they were informed by the state police that their resignations were permanent and the government had decided not to replace them. Dolfuss then set out rounding up communists and Austrian Nazis that favored union with Germany. During this period Figl was assisting and being mentored by Dolfuss. Rounding up Nazis proved problematic as their henchmen soon assassinated Dolfuss, despite him being quite right wing. Lesson learned by Figl, keep your opponents in the room.

Chancellor Dolfuss, He is carrying a big stick, but forgot to watch his back

After the union with Nazi Germany, Figl was twice sent to concentration camps. In early1945, he was sent to Vienna to face trial for treason. Before that could happen, the Soviets occupied Vienna and freed Figl. The local Soviet military commander then appointed Figl in charge of civilian food distribution, finding him easy to work with. In December 1945, there was an election, the first since 1930, and the more conservative party got the most votes. A majority in Parliment meant Figl could have formed a united government. Instead he chose to bring in the Socialists and even the Communists into the government. The Nazis themselves were of course banned. The united front was in a good position to work to end the military occupation though Stalin was slow walking it.

The military withdrawal  finally happened in 1955 and Parliament then declared  Austria neutral. Figl was now free to return to very right wing Lower Austria as governor. He died in 1965.

Well my drink is empty and I am tempted to toast Mr. Figl. I think I will pass on it, despite my thirst, because I wonder if he could have thought bigger and got the whole of old Austria Hungary united, neutral, unoccupied and prosperous 35 years earlier. That would have been worth a toast.  Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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United Nations 1969, Maybe if we stomped out unequal exchange, we could get past colonialism in Latin America

Here we have a large fancy modern building in far off Santiago, Chile. It was built to house an operation called the UN Economic Commission for Latin America that had been in operation for 21 years at the time of the stamp. It has now been in operation for over 70 years and has added the Caribbean to it’s area and ecology to it’s goals, still out of this building. So, beyond the nice building, what are the achievements of the organization? Good Question? So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays new offering from The Philatelist.

I must say I like the aesthetics of this stamp. This organization’s stated goal is to replace colonialism with a more equitable economic model. A big change. The building with it’s large size and ultra modern design goes a long way to project a positive future through the changes.

Todays stamp is issue A103, a 6 cent stamp issued by the United Nations out of it’s New York office on March 14th, 1969. It was a two stamp issue in different denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether mint or cancelled to order.

Well before the founding of the Latin American Economic Commission by the UN in 1947, the organization’s predecessor the League of Nations had grappled with what they felt were unfair trading between the “rich” north and “poor” south of the globe. The idea was proposed Russian born, German and American trained, American Marxist Economist Paul Baron that by northern hemisphere companies setting prices, they maximized their profits at the expense of the poorer areas low salaries and costs and thus acted to maintain the status quo and now allow the poor south’s resources propel development. His ideas were further developed into a dependency theory that the rich north was dependent of the propping up from the south so owed them a debt.

Marxist Economist Paul Baran

The result was that the work done by the Latin America Economic Commission was mainly aid to lower the price paid on imports from the rich north to Latin America. This is quite less revolutionary than the ideas of Mr. Baron, but it must be remembered that the Associate Members of the Commission, the rich north west and Japan, notably not the Marxist North East, were who was providing the aid. With the UN there was also much administration expense.

In addition to adding the Caribbean nations in 1984, the commission gradually took more of an interest in the ecology of sustainable development. Ecological economics are an offshoot of Marxist economics so the cross purposes implied are not so straight forward. The Secretary General seat of the now UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean has been vacant of 6 months. The last holder of the seat was Mexican born, Harvard trained Biologist and Public Administrator Alicia Barcena Ibarra. Before her work for the UN, she was the Under Secretary for the Environment in the Mexican Federal cabinet. Knowing what a heck of a job Mexico does on environment, the UN was no doubt lucky to attract her services and now all of Latin America and apparently the UN is dumfounded on who could possibly replace her.

Former General Secretary Alicia Barcena Ibarra in action, at a conference.

One achievement of the commission that is hard to argue with is the building itself in Santiago. It opened in 1966 and was the work of Chilean architect Emilio Duhart who had been influenced by the earlier work of the French Architect Le Corbusiar. I t is considered one of the best examples of Latin American modern architecture.

The building in more modern times looking a little weather beaten as older concrete structures often do.

Well my drink is empty. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Southern Rhodesia 1943, remembering the Pioneers that conquered Matabeleland

As we have covered in many colonial stamps there was a rush inland from trading post to find and then get rich off of the minerals found. Sometimes the land rushes got ahead of the wishes of the home country. In this case a private company controlled by Cecil Rhodes hired an army dubbed the pioneer column to claim Matabeleland. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

By the time of this stamp in 1943, the exploits of the Pioneer Column had been fully embraced by the British Empire. A force outnumbered 10 to one had massacred the Matabele warriors. Matabele King Lobengula was on the run afterwards but a small force of 34 Pioneers looking for him then found instead several thousand more Matabele warriors and fought to the last man. Brave, exciting stuff and with white settlers following into the area of then Rhodesia honoured the memory. Zimbabwe as it is now known not so much, they even took away the holiday for the Pioneers, but we still have the stamp.

Todays stamp is issue A17, a 2 Pence stamp issued by the British Crown Colony of Southern Rhodesia on November 1st, 1943. It was a single stamp issue honouring the 50th anniversary of the British South Africa Company’s Pioneer column defeat of the Matabele Kingdom at the Battle of the Shangani. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 35 cents. There is supposedly a renewed interest in Rhodesian memorabilia after the failure of Zimbabwe’s long term ruler Mugabe. If so, perhaps the stamp is undervalued.

The Matabele Kingdom under King Lobengula had made peace with the Boers and had further signed a mineral concession with Cecil Rhodes’s British South Africa Company. The company had a Royal Charter, but had no authorization from Britain to claim new lands. Rhodes however realized that there would be an inevitable war with the Matabele when they discovered that mines also meant white settlers. He recruited a private one thousand man army mostly from the white English of South Africa. He recruited sons of prominent families hoping that if they got into trouble, the British Army would rescue them.

The Pioneer column marched into Matabeleland and established themselves in a moveable fort called a laager that the Boers had also used. The Matabele force of 5000 had a few rifles but mainly spears. The Pioneers had searchlights and a machine gun and the night attack on the laager went very badly. Several thousand were killed at a loss of four men. Matabele King Lobengula abandoned his capital and was on the run. A 34 man patrol of Pioneers was looking for the King when they were found by the remainder of the Matabele warriors. This time they were outnumbered 100 to one and were without a machine gun. 3 Men broke off from the patrol to get help, but the rest fought to the last man and killed more than 10 for each of their losses. Rhodesia had its Alamo. King Lobengula soon died and the remaining Matabele accepted Cecil Rhodes’ offered peace terms.

King Lobengula

The mineral empire of Cecil Rhodes went into some flux after his death in 1902 without heirs. He was a homosexual. The British South Africa company never made money as the administration and security cost of protecting the many white settlers exceeded by far mineral royalties and income taxes they imposed on white and black. In 1923 the settlers petitioned to become a Crown Colony. There was no effort by post independence Zimbabwe to grant Matabeleland independence and Mugabe viewed the Matabele suspiciously.

Well my drink is empty and while I have some sympathy for the plight of the Matabele, first at the hands of the Rhodesians and later from Zimbabwe, I am impressed with the bravery and sense of adventure of the Pioneers as seen on todays stamp. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

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Liberia 1969, Tubman promotes a back to Africa movement with an open door

Liberia’s President for life William Tubman was the son of freed American slaves whose journey to Liberia had been paid by Augusta, Georgia philanthropist. Emily Tubman. The new arrivals took her surname in Liberia and settled together. When son William was elected President, it seemed natural to him to open the door to American blacks to provide the investment that post colonial Africa needed. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Todays stamp from back in 1969, is an early version of the world stamp market farm out stamp. The subject, “The Heads of Negroes” drawing usually attributed to Dutchman Peter Paul Rubens is a good subject. It is today one of his most popular works as it captures the exotic nature of the subject, while not treating him in a disrespectful manner that one might expect from 17th century Antwerp.

Todays stamp is issue A197, a 10 cent stamp issued by Liberia on November 18th, 1969. It was a 16 stamp issue of paintings by the masters. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether it is mint, or as here cancelled to order.

Liberia was never a colony of Europe, but rather was established by freed American slaves who then politically dominated the areas native tribes. See https://the-philatelist.com/2018/02/06/free-african-americans-colonize-africa/ . The freed slaves were never more than 10 percent of the population and a very low percentage of freed slaves in America opted to return to Africa. The Tubman group that was President Tubman’s heritage arrived in 1844. Emily Tubman felt the presence of freed slaves among those still enslaved was disruptive and put downward pressure on the wages of poor whites and paid for the journey of freed blacks who volunteered. William Tubman was a man of many occupations including a Methodist lay minister, a soldier, and a lawyer despite having little formal education. He served in the Liberian Senate and Supreme Court before being elected President in 1944. In the modern African style, he served the rest of his life.

President Tubman

Tubman, as President, believed that Liberia missed out on the benefits of colonization in that it did not receive the infrastructure improvements that African colonies received. For example, the capital Monrovia did not have paved streets, a sewer system, or proper port facilities when Tubman took office. He opened Liberia to America, especially targeting investment and he hoped a resident inflow from American blacks. In this he was assisted by the former wife of Jamaican/ American repatriation leader Marcus Garvey, Amy Ashwood Garvey. With her, President Tubman had an extramarital affair. Tubman achieved some investment in rubber plantations and iron mines but most of the benefit stayed with the few that were of American slave heritage. Meanwhile the population was exploding thanks to USA food aid. Not many black Americans moved to Liberia and it wouldn’t be long before the native Africans would not allow themselves to be dominated peacefully.

This Rubens drawing is not the style of work for which he is best known. At age 53, four years after the death of his first wife, Rubens married her 16 year old niece. She was the voluptuous model for the series of nudes that followed and for which Rubens is best remembered. “The Heads of Negroes” drawing resides in his museam in Antwerp, the city he did most of his work.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the late President Tubman. He brought some unique ideas to the table regarding post colonial Africa. Haile Selassie of Ethiopia is better remembered, but perhaps both men should have been more listened to in their time. Come again  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

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Saint Helena, trying to keep interest up so Britain continues the subsity

An obscure out of the way island brings in 8 million dollars of goods a year and only exports 1 million. Sounds like a place that is not working. This is literally the case, but that does not mean there have not been 100s of years of schemers with an investment opportunity to turn that around. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

This stamp is a little bit of alternate reality. The stamps show road building, apartment building, a new hospital ward, and new schools. All things Britain is doing for Saint Helena. At the time, the fear on the island was that much of the help from Britain would just dry up. This stamp issue makes Saint Helena seen awfully expensive. Perhaps the real goal was to make the island seem like a happening place and a nice place to settle.

Todays stamp is issue A36, a half penny stamp issued by Saint Helena on November 4th, 1968. It was part of a fifteen stamp issue in various denominations that show progress on the island. According to Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether it is mint or used.

Saint Helena was discovered uninhabited by the Portuguese in 1502. The Portuguese settlement did not last. The next interest was from The British East India company as it was a useful stopping point on the around Africa wind powered sailing route. Thus the island came into their hands and they tried to set up coffee plantations manned by Africans, Chinese, and even a few Indians. The remote location made it usefull place to house exiles, most famously Napoleon, but also a exiled Sultan of Zanzibar and later Boer prisoners of war. The India trade dried up with steam power and the Suez canal and the islands administration passed to Britain. For a while, the Royal Navy’s anti slavery patrols off Africa were based out of Saint Helena

I mentioned the coffee plantation and Napoleon’s exile. Napoleon had mentioned in letters that Saint Helena coffee was quite good. The local coffee planter named Saul Solomon used the Napoleon connection to market  coffee in Paris and London. The coffee was the most expensive in the world and the high price realized allowed the plantation to survive the end of slavery and the departure of former slaves and coolies from the island. Eventually the company was sold to a South African concern and then took over by the Saint Helena government to keep coffee production going as the influence of Napoleon’s opinion on todays coffee drinker has faded.

The next scheme was postage stamps. They started early in 1856 and still today comprise 10 percent of exports. It is more a commission than an export as the stamps were printed first in Britain and more recently in China.

The latest scheme is the airport. After much discussion and a vote on Saint Helena, it was decided for Britain to construct an airport at the edge of a cliff. This was the only possible place and it may or may not yield landing and takeoff problems due to wind shear at the cliff. After many delays Britain opened the airport in 2016 and in 2017 attracted a South African airline to offer weekly service with a small regional jet.

Saint Helena’s new expensive, windy, cliffside airport. Tourist welcome!

Britain did something else nice for Saint Helena recently. They changed their citizenship standing giving British passports and thus the ability to move to the Britain. So far 20% of the formally 5000 residents have taken advantage.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another for the British Commonwealth Stamp collector. We all love the stamps of these far off posts of Empire despite the cost. I wonder if farming the issues to China will be the death of that? Come again  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

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Danish West Indies 1900, Triangular Trade becomes Triangular bidding

If everything is working, and everyone involved has the ability to hold their nose, triangular trade can be very profitable. The seedy side of capitalism here is not just the slavery but also the fact that the profits stayed private, but when the losses came it was to Denmark while the profiteer absconded. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Early stamps from isolated colonies often have wild variations as the local postmaster had to improvise while his stamp printer was thousands of miles away. The variations were real and not concocted for collectors. This stamp was supposed to be the end of that as it was printed in greater numbers and conformed to the then new universal postal union. Distance was still great and again there were local surcharges of this issue. In 1905, there was a new currency, so the whole process started again with a new stamp issue.

Todays stamp is issue A5, a one cent stamp issued by the Crown Colony of the Danish West Indies in 1900. It was a 2 stamp issue with further denominations coming in 1902. My stamp is the early version in the lowest value with no surcharges. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $3 whether mint or used. A stamp with the later overprint and the frame of the stamp inverted is worth $900 used.

Saint Thomas was first settled by the Danes in 1668 with only about half of those setting out making it there. Most of them were convicts and ex prostitutes. It was an undertaking of a private company The Danish West India-Guinea company. The idea was to trade molasses and rum from Denmark with Africans at Christianborg Castle in present day Ghana, see https://the-philatelist.com/2018/08/22/gold-coast-1948-christianborg-castle-is-readied-for-its-last-turnover/ , in return for African slaves. They were imported to the Danish West Indies and employed on sugar cane plantations run by mainly Jewish planters affiliated with the company. The sugar cane was then taken to Denmark and sold on and taxed from a company warehouse in Copenhagen, completing the triangle. With slave labor the profits were high but there were frequent large losses when a ship was lost to hurricanes or piracy.

After a run of bad luck the company was seized for nonpayment of taxes and the Danish West Indies became a Danish Crown Colony. The leader of the company, Frederik Bargum, had absconded Denmark the year before. As we have seen on so many colonial stamps the end of slavery saw the whole economic system collapse. Denmark banned the importation of new slaves in 1804 and all the slaves were freed in 1848 with the planters receiving compensation for the value of “their” slaves. Many now former slaves remained in place and took annual contracts to continue working the plantations. The plantation however was no longer seeing to food and housing and the freed slaves situation deteriorated and the productivity declined.

Frederik Bargum

In the late 19th century Denmark was looking for a way out of the colony and approached the USA about buying it. When the USA seemed less than enthusiastic, Denmark created a triangle that worked and offered to sell the colony to Germany. Not wanting Germany to have it, The USA paid Denmark $25 million for what became the American Virgin Islands. They do not have their own stamps.

When all the ships arrived the triangle trade was very profitable. I mentioned above Frederik Bargum, the merchant who absconded Denmark leaving many bills. He also left behind the Yellow Palace, the first example of neoclassic architecture in Copenhagen. The house later served as a royal residence, most recently for Prince Valdemar until 1939.

The Yellow Palace, Copenhagen

Well this is a tough story to earn another drink out of. The triangle trade stunk to hell and the USA was obviously on the short end of the second triangle. Grasping at straws and still thirsty, I will toast neoclassic architecture as demonstrated by the Yellow Palace. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.