除此以外，邻国、土著部落、疾病和贫穷也给生活带来了困难和危险。政府采取紧急措施，通过贷款和鼓励零星贸易来摆脱困境。1910年，美国对利比利亚的生存承担责任，从而使财政问题引起的忧虑稍稍缓解。然而，也只是在美国的橡胶大王哈维·费尔斯通作出“美国必须生产自己的橡胶，并以利比利亚作为橡胶种植园”的决定之后，利比利亚才有了偿还债务和实现预算平衡的充分希望。
20世纪20年代发展起来的橡胶工业，以及随之而来的业务活动给利比利亚既带来了进步，又带来了利润。在此之前，利比利亚既没有公路，也没有机械化的交通工具，更没有优良港口。它的人民没有受过多少教育，拥有的工具也很少。现在，利比利亚人感到整个国家都被橡胶支配着。正因为如此，新近铁矿石的发现才具有重要意义。利比利亚领导人现在正设法调整橡胶工业的地位，并努力实现国家政治和经济的独立。
The Primitive Currencyin the Santa Cruz Islands
One of the most exotic kinds of money in the world today is a belt two inches wide and thirty feet long fashioned of glue，fibers，and the red feathers of a tropical forest bird．This primitive currency is the basis of a complex monetary and trading system in the Santa Cruz Islands of the southwest Pacific．
Improbable as it is，the redfeather currency fits the most rigorous definition of the term money：It serves as a means of accumulating wealth and as a universal medium of exchange in the highly diversified commerce of the islands．It is fully interchangeable，each belt having a precisely negotiable value in terms of other belts．Moreover，it has maintained its economic integrity against the recent invasion of the Australian poundit is still the only acceptable specie for the purchase of brides，fine pigs，and certain forms of labor．
The use of money is not limited to high civilizations；actually many primitive peoples have devised moneys of their own．Primitive monetary systems require the same balance of supply and demand that confronts the U．S．Treasury and the Federal Reserve System；the value of the money must be carefully regulated．Lacking devices to regulate currency demand artificially，primitive societies must rely on natural or social circumstances．In the redfeather currency system，the supply of new money is regulated by the availability of red feathers and by the output of the people who traditionally make the money．Old currency goes out of circulation，because it loses value as its color fades.
圣克鲁斯群岛的原始货币
今天，世界上最异乎寻常的货币之一，是一种宽2英寸、长30英尺的带子，用胶水、纤维材料和一种热带森林鸟的柔软的红色羽毛做成。这种原始货币是太平洋西南部圣克鲁斯群岛一种复杂金融与贸易制度的基础。
虽然说来未必令人相信，然而这种红羽毛货币却符合货币这一名称的最严格的定义。在这个群岛极为多样化的商业活动中，它是一种积累财富的手段，也是一种普遍的交换手段。它是完全互换性的，在与其他带子兑换时，每根带子都具有严格确定的转让价值。在澳大利亚货币的新近侵入中，它维护了自己完整的经济地位——在购买新娘、良种猪和某些类型的劳动力方面，它依然是惟一能被接受的货币。
货币的使用并不限于高度文明的国家。实际上，许多原始民族都创制了他们自己的货币。原始的货币制度，像美国财政部和联邦储备系统所面临的问题一样，也需要供求平衡，对货币的价值必须进行认真调节。由于缺少人为的调节货币的手段，一些原始社会不得不依赖天然的或社会的因素。在红羽毛货币系统中，新货币的供应取决于红色羽毛的收购情况，以及工人按传统方式制作货币的产量。陈旧的货币退出流通领域，因为随着它的褪色，它也就失去了价值。
The Zinjanthropus That Roamedthe Earth over a Million Years
A million years have been added to man’s evolutionary history．While anthropologists once estimated the age of Zin janthropus，the earliest toolmaking creature，as more than 600，000years，a recent radioactive dating measurement，based on volcanic rock samples from East Africa，where Zinjanthropus was discovered in 1959，now indicates that this primitive man may have roamed the earth．1，750，000years ago．The new date pushed evidence for the emergence of tool making—one of the two essential attributes of humanity—back into the Pliocene Age，and it seems to fit more easily into the picture of human evolution than the 600，000year figure．
The Zinjanthropus was capable of walking erect，so that its hands were freed，and it had a brain large enough to enable it to perform such simple tasks as making primitive cutting tools from quartzrock．The Zinjanthropus was not a man of the modern species，Homo sapiens，but many anthropologists see in the creature a type that could be very close to，if not actually in，the line of human evolution．The Zinjanthropus must be classified as a man，albeit of a primitive type，because no animal species other than man both makes and uses tools．
Anthropologists consider it probable that the larger brain and higher intelligence of modern man evolved as primitive manlike creatures learned to use tools and to communicate by speech—the other essential of humanity．Such a course of evolution seems more reasonable starting nearly two million years ago than it would at the faster evolutionary pace required if the process started only a half million years ago．
100万年前在地球上游荡的东非人
人类的进化史又添加了100万年。人类学家们曾经估计，最早的制造工具的动物——东非人的时代为60万年以上。新近的一次放射法的年代测定，是以东非的火山岩石标本为据的，而东非是1959年发现东非人的地方。其结果表明，这一原始人类在170万年以前便在地球上转悠了。这一新日期证明，作为人类两个根本标志之一的工具制造的出现，可往前算到上新世纪时期，而这似乎比60万年这一数字更易嵌入人类进化的画幅之中。
东非人能直立行走，因而他的手被解放了出来。他的头脑之大，也足以使他能胜任用石英岩制作原始切削工具这样简单的任务。东非人不是现代种人类，但是，许多人类学家在这种动物身上看到一种可能非常接近人类演化方式的特征，虽然不是完全符合。尽管是一种原始型的人类，但必须把东非人列为人类，因为除了人类外，没有任何种类的动物既能制造又能使用工具。
人类学家们认为这一点是可能的：由于酷似人类的原始动物学会了使用工具和通过言语进行交流——后者是人类的另一根本标志——现代人的较大头脑和较高智力又进化了。这样一个进化过程，如果仅开始于50万年以前，则需要以更快的速度去完成，它开始于近200万年以前似乎更合理些。