I want a head count on Lebanese merchants in the city.

Carlos Slim, 56, is the son of a Lebanese merchant who came here in 1902 and became fairly wealthy.

Also competing with the Creoles were Lebanese merchants, who began streaming in toward the end of the nineteenth century.

However, in the mid-1980s, Houphouët-Boigny began issuing warnings to Lebanese merchants alleged to be guilty of customs fraud and monopolistic practices.

There is little middle class to speak of, except perhaps the Lebanese merchants who still dominate what remains of the city's commercial life, though most of them have fled.

The presence of Lebanese and Chinese merchants (who bought abandoned French businesses) contributed to an at times cohesive, at times stratified society.

"The trouble started early one Monday morning, when they told me there were soldiers shooting all around town and that I shouldn't go out," said the 70-year-old Lebanese merchant.

Among other historically persecuted "middlemen minorities" were Lebanese and Chinese immigrant merchants.

He married the daughter of a Lebanese merchant and qualified as a lawyer before returning to Beirut in 1933.

"Black people take merchandise and go sell it in their neighborhoods to earn a living," Mr. Yasim, the Lebanese merchant, said.