Chapter 54
United Kingdom 1921 0.72 0.61[t]
France 1921 7.74 6.41 Spain 1920 2.33 1.64 Portugal 1919 0.86 1.16 Belgium 1921 11.06 12.27 Holland 1921 10.22 18.80 Denmark 1921 13.19 12.85 Norway 1921 10.95 12.29 Sweden 1921 15.25 13.41 Finland 1921 8.25 8.85 Russia 1916 0.05 0.16 Austria-Hungary 1917 0.34 2.54 Germany 1921 4.10 5.43 Roumania 1919 0.29 1.04 Greece 1920 2.97 1.19 Switzerland 1921 8.17 6.48 Italy 1920 1.84 1.79 Egypt 1921 1.53 1.15 Union of So. Africa 1920 3.80[v] 4.19[v]
Ceylon 1920 0.43 0.36 China 1920 0.001 0.01 j.a.pan 1920 0.01 0.004 Cuba 1920[s] 13.79 10.00 Argentina 1919 4.40 3.74 Chile 1920 3.06 3.04 Uruguay 1921 3.61 [w]
Paraguay 1920 0.26 [w]
Australia 1920[s] 0.42 0.64 New Zealand 1920 0.24 0.29
[s] Fiscal year.
[t] Fiscal year 1913.
[u] Fiscal year ending March 31, 1914.
[v] Including both white and colored population.
[w] Not available.
_Tea and Coffee in England and the U. S_.
The rise of the United States as a coffee consumer in the last century and a quarter has been marked, not only by steadily increased imports as the population of the country increased, but also by a steady growth in per capita consumption, showing that the beverage has been continually advancing in favor with the American people. Today it stands at practically its highest point, each individual man, woman, and child having more than 12 pounds a year, enough for almost 500 cups, allotted to him as his portion. This is four times as much as it was a hundred years ago; and more than twice as much as it was in the years immediately following the Civil War. In general it is fifty percent more than the average in the twenty years preceding 1897, in which year a new high level of coffee consumption was apparently established, the per capita figure for that year being 10.12 pounds, which has been approximately the average since then.
[Ill.u.s.tration: No. 6--WORLD'S CONSUMPTION OF TEA AND COFFEE
Diagram showing their relations.h.i.+p, 1860-1920]
Since the advent of country-wide prohibition in the United States on July 1, 1919, about two pounds more coffee per person, or 80 to 100 cups, have been consumed than before. Part of this increase is doubtless to be charged to prohibition; but it is yet too early to judge fairly as to the exact effect of "bone-dry" legislation on coffee drinking. The continued growth in the use of coffee in the United States has been in decided contrast to the per capita consumption of tea, which is less now than half a century ago.
In the United Kingdom, the reverse condition prevails. Tea drinking there steadily maintains a popularity which it has enjoyed for centuries; while coffee apparently makes no advance in favor. In this respect, the country is sharply distinguished from its neighbors of western Europe, in many of which coffee drinking has been much heavier, considering the population, even than in the United States. The contrast between the tastes of the two countries in beverages is shown clearly by the per capita figures of tea and coffee consumption for half a century, as they appear in the table, next column.
TEA AND COFFEE CONSUMPTION PER CAPITA
_Year United States United Kingdom_ Coffee Tea Coffee Tea pounds pounds pounds pounds 1866 4.96 1.17 1.02 3.42 1867 5.01 1.09 1.04 3.68 1868 6.52.96 1.00 3.52 1869 6.45 1.08.94 3.63 1870 6.00 1.10.98 3.81 1871 7.91 1.14.97 3.92 1872 7.28 1.46.98 4.01 1873 6.87 1.53.99 4.11 1874 6.59 1.27.96 4.23 1875 7.08 1.44.98 4.44 1876 7.33 1.35.99 4.50 1877 6.94 1.23.96 4.52 1878 6.24 1.33.97 4.66 1879 7.42 1.21.99 4.68 1880 8.78 1.39.92 4.57 1881 8.25 1.54.89 4.58 1882 8.30 1.47.89 4.69 1883 8.91 1.30.89 4.82 1884 9.26 1.09.90 4.90 1885 9.60 1.18.91 5.06 1886 9.36 1.37.87 4.92 1887 8.53 1.49.80 5.02 1888 6.81 1.49.83 5.03 1889 9.16 1.25.76 4.99 1890 7.77 1.32.75 5.17 1891 7.94 1.28.76 5.36 1892 9.59 1.36.74 5.43 1893 8.23 1.32.69 5.40 1894 8.01 1.34.68 5.51 1895 9.24 1.39.70 5.65 1896 8.08 1.32.69 5.75 1897 10.04 1.56.68 5.79 1898 11.59.93.68 5.83 1899 10.72.97.71 5.95 1900 9.84 1.09.71 6.07 1901 10.43 1.12.76 6.16 1902 13.32.92.68 6.07 1903 10.80 1.27.71 6.04 1904 11.67 1.31.68 6.02 1905 11.98 1.19.67 6.02 1906 9.72 1.06.66 6.22 1907 11.15.96.67 6.26 1908 9.82 1.03.66 6.24 1909 11.43 1.24.67 6.37 1910 9.33.89.65 6.39 1911 9.29 1.05.62 6.47 1912 9.26 1.04.61 6.49 1913 8.90.96.61 6.68 1914 10.14.91.63 6.89 1915 10.62.91.71 6.87 1916 11.20 1.07.66 6.56 1917 12.38.99 1.02 6.03 1918 10.43 1.40 1.19 6.75 1919 9.13.87.76 8.43 1920 12.78.84.74 8.51
Figures for all except most recent years are taken from the _Statistical Abstract_ publications of the two countries. For the United States the figures
_Coffee Consumption in Europe_
On the continent of Europe, however, coffee enjoys much the same sort of popularity that it does in the United States. The leading continental coffee ports are Hamburg, Bremen, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Antwerp, Havre, Bordeaux, Ma.r.s.eilles, and Trieste; and the nationalities of these ports indicate pretty well the countries that consume the most coffee. The northern ports are trans.h.i.+pping points for large quant.i.ties of coffee going to the Scandinavian countries, as well as importing ports for their own countries; and these countries have been among the leading coffee drinkers, per head of population, for many decades.
Norway, for instance, in 1876 was consuming about 8.8 pounds of coffee per person; Sweden, 5 pounds; and Denmark, 5.2 pounds. The per capita consumption of various other countries at about the same period, 1875 to 1880, has been estimated as follows: Holland, 17.6 pounds; Belgium, 9.1 pounds; Germany, 5.1 pounds; Austria-Hungary, 2.2 pounds; Switzerland, 6.6 pounds; Prance, 3 pounds; Spain, 0.2 pounds; Portugal, 0.7 pounds; and Greece, 1.6 pounds.
Today, the leading country of the world in point of per capita consumption is Sweden (15.25 pounds); but Holland held that position for a long while. During the World War the disturbance of trade currents, and the high price of coffee, greatly reduced the amount of coffee drinking; and the Dutch took to drinking tea in considerable quant.i.ties.
FRANCE. Second only to the United States, in the total amount of coffee consumed, is France; although that country before the war occupied third place, being pa.s.sed by Germany. Havre is one of the great coffee ports of Europe; and has a coffee exchange organized in 1882, only a short time after the Exchange in New York began operations. France draws on all the large producing regions for her coffee; but is especially prominent in the trade in the West Indies and the countries around the Caribbean Sea. Imports in 1921 (preliminary) amounted to 322,419,884 pounds; exports to 1,154,769 pounds; and net consumption, to 321,265,115 pounds.
GERMANY. Hamburg is one of the world's important coffee ports; and in normal times coffee is brought there in vast amounts, not only for s.h.i.+pment into the interior of Germany, but also for trans.h.i.+pment to Scandinavia, Finland and Russia. Up to the outbreak of the war, Germany was the chief coffee-drinking country of Europe. During the blockade, the Germans resorted to subst.i.tutes; and after the war because of high prices, there was still some consumption of them. German coffee imports since the war have not quite climbed back to their former high mark; and the per capita consumption, judged by these figures is still somewhat low. Importations amounted to 90,602,000 pounds in 1920. The amount of total imports was 371,130,520 pounds in 1913; total exports, 1,783,521 pounds; and net imports, 369,346,999 pounds.
NETHERLANDS. Netherlands is one of the oldest coffee countries of Europe, and for centuries has been a great trans.h.i.+pping agent, distributing coffee from her East Indian possessions and from America among her northern neighbors. Before sending these coffee s.h.i.+pments along, however, she kept back enough plentifully to supply her own people, so that for many years before the war she led the world in per capita consumption. As far back as 1867-76, coffee consumption was averaging more than 13 pounds per capita. In the year before the war, the average was 18.8 pounds. The blockade, and other abnormal conditions during the war, threw the trade off; and it is still sub-normal. In 1920 the net imports were about 96,000,000 pounds, which would give a per capita consumption of about 14 pounds if it all went into consumption.
But part of it was probably stored for later exportation, as indicated by the figures for 1921, which show heavy exports and a consequent lower figure for consumption. Eighty percent of the Netherlands coffee trade is handled through Amsterdam.
Consumption of coffee is now slowly going back to normal, but the change in source of imports--which before the war came largely from Brazil but which war conditions turned heavily toward the East Indies--is still in evidence. Per capita consumption of coffee in Holland up to the outbreak of the war was as follows:
COFFEE CONSUMPTION PER CAPITA IN HOLLAND
_Year Pounds Year Pounds_ 1847-56 9.6 1907 14.9 1857-66 7.1 1908 14.3 1867-76 13.3 1909 16.7 1877-86 16.7 1910 15.7 1887-96 12.8 1911 15.8 1897-1906 16.7 1912 12.3 1906 17.2 1913 18.8
OTHER COUNTRIES OF EUROPE. Denmark, Norway, and Sweden are all heavy coffee drinkers. In 1921 Sweden had the highest per capita consumption in the world, 15.25 pounds. Before the war, these three countries each consumed about as much per capita as the United States does today, 12 to 13 pounds. The 1921 imports for consumption[317] were as follows: Denmark, 43,122,417 pounds; Norway, 29,665,623 pounds; Sweden, 89,660,766 pounds. Austria-Hungary was formerly an important buyer of coffee, large quant.i.ties coming into the country yearly through Trieste.
Imports in 1913 totaled 130,951,000 pounds; and in 1912, 124,527,000 pounds. In 1917 the war cut down the total to 17,910,000 pounds net consumption. Finland shares with her neighbors of the Baltic a strong taste for coffee, importing, in 1921, 27,968,000 pounds, about 8.25 pounds per capita. In the same year, Belgium had a net importation of 83,824,000 pounds.
Spain, in 1920, consumed 48,513,821 pounds. Portugal, in 1919, imported 6,926,575 pounds; and exported 1,258,271 pounds, leaving 5,668,304 pounds for home consumption. Coffee is not especially popular in the Balkan States and Italy; importations into the last-named country in 1920 amounting to 66,494,925 pounds net. Switzerland is a steady coffee drinker, consuming 31,535,260 pounds in 1921. Russia was never fond of coffee; and her total imports in 1917, according to a compilation made under Soviet auspices, were only 4,464,000 pounds.
[Ill.u.s.tration: A MEETING OF THE COFFEE BROKERS OF AMSTERDAM, 1820
Reproduced from an old print]
OTHER COUNTRIES. The Union of South Africa, in 1920, imported 27,798,000 pounds net, or about 3.8 pounds per capita. Cuba purchased 39,981,696 pounds in the fiscal year 1920; Argentina, 37,541,000 pounds in 1919; Chile, 12,358,000 pounds in 1920; Australia, 2,239,000 pounds in 1920; and New Zealand, 283,633 pounds in that year.
_Three Centuries of Coffee Trading_
The story of the development of the world's coffee trade is a story of about three centuries. When Columbus sailed for the new world, the coffee plant was unknown even as near its original home as his native Italy. In its probable birthplace in southern Abyssinia, the natives had enjoyed its use for a long time, and it had spread to southwestern Arabia; but the Mediterranean knew nothing of it until after the beginning of the sixteenth century. It then crept slowly along the coast of Asia Minor, through Syria, Damascus, and Aleppo, until it reached Constantinople about 1554. It became very popular; coffee houses were opened, and the first of many controversies arose. But coffee made its way against all opposition, and soon was firmly established in Turkish territory.
In those deliberate times, the next step westward, from Asia to Europe, was not taken for more than fifty years. In general, its introduction and establishment in Europe occupied the whole of the seventeenth century.
The greatest pioneering work in coffee trading was done by the Netherlands East India Company, which began operations in 1602. The enterprise not only promoted the spread of coffee growing in two hemispheres; but it was active also in introducing the sale of the product in many European countries.
Coffee reached Venice about 1615, and Ma.r.s.eilles about 1644. The French began importing coffee in commercial quant.i.ties in 1660. The Dutch began to import Mocha coffee regularly at Amsterdam in 1663; and by 1679 the French had developed a considerable trade in the berry between the Levant and the cities of Lyons and Ma.r.s.eilles. Meanwhile, the coffee drink had become fas.h.i.+onable in Paris, partly through its use by the Turkish amba.s.sador, and the first Parisian _cafe_ was opened in 1672. It is significant of its steady popularity since then that the name _cafe_, which is both French and Spanish for coffee, has come to mean a general eating or drinking place.
[Ill.u.s.tration: BILL OF PUBLIC SALE OF COFFEE, ETC., 1790
Reproduction of an advertis.e.m.e.nt by the Dutch East India Company]
Active trading in coffee began in Germany about 1670, and in Sweden about 1674.
Trading in coffee in England followed swiftly upon the heels of the opening of the first coffee house in London in 1652. By 1700, the trade included not only exporting and importing merchants, but wholesale and retail dealers; the latter succeeding the apothecaries who, up to then, had enjoyed a kind of monopoly of the business.
Trade and literary authorities[318] on coffee trading tell us that in the early days of the eighteenth century the chief supplies of coffee for England and western Europe came from the East Indies and Arabia. The Arabian, or--as it was more generally known--Turkey berry, was bought first-hand by Turkish merchants, who were accustomed to travel inland in Arabia Felix, and to contract with native growers.
It was moved thence by camel transport through Judea to Grand Cairo, _via_ Suez, to be trans.h.i.+pped down the Nile to Alexandria, then the great s.h.i.+pping port for Asia and Europe. By 1722, 60,000 to 70,000 bales of Turkish (Arabian) coffee a year were being received in England, the sale price at Grand Cairo being fixed by the Bashaw, who "valorized" it according to the supply. "Indian" coffee, which was also grown in Arabia, was brought to Bettelf.u.kere (Beit-el-fakih) in the mountains of southwestern Arabia, where English, Dutch, and French factors went to buy it and to transport it on camels to Moco (Mocha), whence it was s.h.i.+pped to Europe around the Cape of Good Hope.
In the beginning, "Indian" coffee was inferior to Turkish coffee; because it was the refuse, or what remained after the Turkish merchants had taken the best. But after the European merchants began to make their own purchases at Bettelf.u.kere, the character of the "Indian" product as sold in the London and other European markets was vastly improved.
Doubtless the long journey in sailing vessels over tropic seas made for better quality. It was estimated that Arabia in this way exported about a million bushels a year of "Turkish" and "Indian" coffee.
The coffee houses became the gathering places for wits, fas.h.i.+onable people, and brilliant and scholarly men, to whom they afforded opportunity for endless gossip and discussion. It was only natural that the lively interchange of ideas at these public clubs should generate liberal and radical opinions, and that the const.i.tuted authorities should look askance at them. Indeed the consumption of coffee has been curiously a.s.sociated with movements of political protest in its whole history, at least up to the nineteenth century.
Coffee has promoted clear thinking and right living wherever introduced.
It has gone hand in hand with the world's onward march toward democracy.
As already told in this work, royal orders closed the coffee houses for short periods in Constantinople and in London; Germany required a license for the sale of the beverage; the French Revolution was fomented in coffee-house meetings; and the real cradle of American liberty is said to have been a coffee house in New York. It is interesting also to note that, while the consumption of coffee has been attended by these agitations for greater liberty for three centuries, its production for three centuries, in the Dutch East Indies, in the West Indies, and in Brazil, was very largely in the hands of slaves or of forced labor.