Coffee and Chicory, Their Culture (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: SECTION III. PRODUCTION AND SUPPLY. The changes in the sources of supply of coffee within the last quarter of a century are very remarkable. The British possessions in the East, where land and labour is cheap, have taken the place which our "Western possessions formerly occupied. The British West India Islands and Denaerara have fallen off in their production of coffee from 30.000,000 Ibs. to 4,000,000 Ibs. San Domingo, Cuba, and the French West India colonies are also gradually giving up coffee culture in favour of other staples. It is chiefly Brazil, some of the Central American republics, Java, Ceylon, and British India, that are able to render coffee a profitable crop. At the close of the last century the consumption of coffee was under one million pounds; the only descriptions then known in the London market were Grenada, Jamaica, and Mocha?the two former averaging about 51. per cwt., and the latter 201. per cwt. Grenada coffee is now unknown, and Ceylon, Java, and Brazil are the largest producers. In 1760 the total quantity of coffee consumed in the United Kingdom was 262,000 Ibs., or three-quarters of an ounce to each person in the population. Prom 1801 to 1804 the average quantity of coffee consumed by each individual of the population was only about loz.,- whilst 1-lbs. of tea per head was used. From 1805 to 1809 the consumption of coffee was 3 oz. per head. Prom 1810 to 1824, when the duty was reduced by about onethird, the consumption was 8 oz. After this, when the duty on British-grown coffee was further reduced to 9d. and 6d. the pound, the consumption rose to lib., and by 1850 to 1J Ibs. But this consumption was not uniform for the United Kingdom, for while in England 1 Ib. 12 oz. was used, in Scotland only 6 oz. were consumed, and in Ireland but 2 oz...