Down to 1690 the only source of coffee supply was Arabia, but in that year Governor-General Van Hoorne of the Dutch East Indies received a few coffee seeds by traders who plied between the Arabian Gulf and Java. These seeds he planted in a garden at Batavia, where they grew and flourished so abundantly that the culture, on an extended scale, was immediately commenced in Java. One of the first plants grown in that island was sent to Holland as a present to the governor of the Dutch East India Company. It was planted in the Botanic Garden at Amsterdam, and young plants grown from its seeds were sent to Surinam, where the cultivation was established in 1718. Ten years later the plant was introduced in the West Indian Islands, and gradually the culture extended throughout the New World, till now the progeny of the single plant sent from Java to Holland produces more coffee than is grown by all the other plants in the world. The cultivation is now general throughout all civilized regions of the tropical world. In point of quantity Brazil heads the list of coffee-growing countries, its annual produce probably exceeding that of all other localities combined. It is calculated that no less than 530,000,000 coffee trees are at present nourishing throughout that empire. During the Brazilian financial year ending 1872, more than 2,000,000 bags, each containing 160 Ib, were exported from Brazil; and the United States alone absorb upwards of 200,000,000 lb of Brazilian coffee annually. The other principal American localities for coffee-growing are Costa Rica, Guatemala, Venezuela, Guiana, Peru, and Bolivia, with Jamaica, Cuba, Porto Rico, and the West Indian Islands generally. In the East the principal coffee regions, following Brazil in amount, but much superior in the quality of their produce, are Java and Ceylon. The annual produce of Java reaches to about 130,000,000 lb; and from Ceylon about 100,000,000 lb is annually exported. The culture of coffee is an important and rapidly growing feature in Southern India, and it is also prosecuted in Sumatra, Réunion, Mauritius, and Southern Arabia, and on the west coast of Africa. The present total annual production of the world has been estimated to amount to not less than 1,000,000,000 lb. At the beginning of the 18th century, while Arabia was still the only source of supply, probably not more than 7,500,000 lb was yearly exported from that country; the consumption of Europe in 1820 was stated by A. Von Humboldt at about 140,000,000 lb, while 300,000,000 lb probably represented the quantity used throughout the world. The yearly consumption in Great Britain has for about 30 years been drooping in the face of a rapidly increasing population and consuming capacity, while the quantity absorbed by other countries has increased with extraordinary rapidity. The whole amount entered for home consumption in 1790 was 973,110 lb; and an increase in the duty charged caused the consumption to drop in 1796 to 396,953 lb. A reduction in the duty caused the consumption in 1808 to shoot up suddenly from 1,069,691 lb in that year to 9,251,837 lb in 1809. The quantity consumed, never again mounted so high till in 1825 it was affected by another reduction of duty, and 10,760,112 lb was retained for the home market. Thereafter the consumption rapidly and steadily increased, reaching 22,069,253 lb in 1830, 28,664,341 lb in 1840, and in 1847 coming to its maximum of 37,441,373 lb, from which point it again declined. In 1857 the consumption had fallen to 34,352,123 lb; in 1867 it was 31,567,760; and in 1869 it fell so low as 29,109,113 lb. The total imports for the year 1874 amounted to 157,351,376 lb, but of this only 31,859,408 lb were retained for home consumption. The chief cause of the declining popularity of coffee in Great Britain is doubtless to be found in the extraordinary hold which its rival beverage tea has taken on the community; but something of the falling off is also attributable to the extent to which coffee was for a long period made the subject of adulteration and sophistication. Indeed for some years, between 1840 and 1852, much of what was sold under the name of coffee was actually chicory, a root which at that period was cultivated and manufactured duty free, while coffee was subject to a heavy import duty.
The different estimation in which coffee is held in various countries is well brought out in the following estimate of the consumption per head calculated from the official returns for 1873:—
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Total Imports of Coffee for consumption. France 98,635,000ft Belgium 49,771,000 Switzerland 18,779,500 Russia, European 1 4, 740, 920 Sweden 26,555,213 Average per head. 273 Ib 13-48 7-03 0-19 6-11 9-80 13-89 21-00 Norway 17,636,080 Denmark 26,035,652 Holland 72,395,800 Hamburg (Germany) 178,715,936 Austria (1871) 76,876,576 2 13 Greece 2,131,367 1 42 Italy (1871) 28,511,560 I OO United Kingdom 32,330,928 1 00 United States 293,293,833 7 61
The commercial distinctions as established in the British market relate—first, to qualities, as “fine,” “middling,” “ordinary,” “low,” and “triage,” the last being broken and damaged seeds; and secondly, to localities of production.
