ABSTRACT
Long-standing personality frictions and intense individualism seem to characterize the exporter g r o u p - p e r h a p s reinforced by differing national backgrounds. Some are located in Provincial towns and have a natural antipathy for the large Port-au-Prince exporters.2 '
Finally, the Rembold company, which was the largest exporter during the inter-war period but was only m fifth place at the beginning of the 1950s, fought aggressively to make it back to the top of the list. The assets of this German firm had been sequestrated in 1944, when Haiti declared war on the Axis, and exports were not resumed until 1948.3»
Gates concludes that no fortunes were made in Haitian coffee marketing during the 1950s: 'in fact in several years I am reliably informed that there have been substantial losses. A few exporters may have made some real money on occasion, th ru lucky s p e c u l a t i o n - b u t this too works bo th ways.'31 In addition, inventory policy may have been successful, but 'the general impression' was that the amount of speculation had declined in comparison with the inter-war period. In the 1950s, exporters only devoted a more or less fixed share of their capital to speculative ventures.
