or coffee are, in fact, rarely drinkers; and hence the use of these beverages has benefited both manners and morals."-(Scotsman, 17th of October, 1827.) So early as 1710, the famous Latin poet Vanierius described the preparation and eulogised the virtues of coffee. "illo medicamine vates Ingenium emendet, lætusque infecta resumat Lib. xi. p. 272. ed. 1774. Supply and Consumption of Coffee. - Owing to the increasing consumption of coffee in this country, the Continent, and America, the great value of the article, the large amount of capital and labour employed in its production, and the shipping required for its transport, it has become a commodity of primary commercial importance. It deserves particular attention, too, inasmuch as there are few, if any, articles that exhibit such variations, not only of consumption, but also of growth and price. These are occasioned partly by changes of commercial regulations and duties, and partly, also, by the plant requiring 4 or 5 years before it comes to bear; so that the supply is neither suddenly increased when the demand increases, nor diminished when it falls off. St. Domingo used formerly to be one of the greatest sources of supply, having exported, in 1786, about 35,000 tons; and it is supposed that, but for the negro insurrection which broke out in 1792, the exports of that year would have amounted to 42,000 tons. The devastation occasioned by this event caused, for a series of years, an almost total cessation of supplies. They have again, however, increased, and are understood to amount, at present, to about 15,000 tons a-year, From Cuba, the exports of coffee have, for some years, owing partly to the decline in its price, and partly to the efforts of the planters having been more directed to the cultivation of sugar, greatly fallen off. They may at present amount, including Porto Rico, to 17,000 tons. In Java and Brazil, the culture of coffee has increased with unprecedented rapidity (see BATAVIA and RIO JANEIRO); so much so, that the exports from Java, which did not, a few years ago, exceed 18,000 tons, now amount to at least 62,000; while those from Brazil, which have increased in an equal degree, amount to above 100,000 tons. The growth of coffee in India and Ceylon has, also, been very greatly increased, especially in the latter, where, within the last few years, the plantations have been so much extended, that their produce is now equal to the present consumption of the U. Kingdom. There has, no doubt, been a serious decrease in the exports of coffee from the British West Indies; the imports into the U. Kingdom having declined from 11,014 tons in 1832 to 1,903 do. in 1850; but when reference is made to the whole supply, this diminution is but inconsiderable. The following may, we believe, be regarded as a pretty fair estimate of the present (1851) exports of coffee from the principal places where it is produced, and of the annual consumption in those countries into which it is imported from abroad. Of the entire export of coffee from Arabia, not more, perhaps, than 4,000 or 5,000 tons finds its way to the places mentioned above; so that, supposing these estimates to be about correct, it follows that the supply of coffee at present exceeds the demand by about 13,500 tons a-year. The latter, however, is rapidly increasing; and it is not easy to say whether it be destined to outrun, keep pace with, or fall short of the supply. On the whole, however, we should be inclined to think, that though they may occasionally vary to the extent of a few thousand tons on the one side or the other, the probability is that the supply and demand will be pretty nearly balanced; so that, supposing tranquillity to be preserved in Brazil, Java, and other coffee-producing countries, and no violent measures to be adopted with respect to the slaves in them, we do not anticipate any very great variation of price. When prices are considerably depressed, consumption is stimulated, and production checked, and conversely when prices are high. Oscillations will, no doubt, continue to take place in future, as they have done hitherto; but unless the cost of producing coffee should be seriously affected, which is not very likely, they will not be more than temporary. The consumption of coffee in the United States has increased with great rapidity since 1821, in which year it amounted to only 5,306 tons. Part of this increase is, no doubt, to be ascribed to the reduction of the duty, first from 5 to 2 cents per pound, and its subsequent repeal; part to the fall in the price of coffee; and a part, perhaps, to the increase of temperance societies. Probably, also, it was in some degree ascribable to the comparatively high duties formerly laid on the teas imported into the United States; these, however, finally ceased in 1833. According to Mr. Cook, the prices of Jamaica and St. Domingo (Hayti) coffee, exclusive of duty in the London market, at the close of the following years, were The following Statement shows the Prices in Bond of the principal varieties of Coffee in the London Market, 8th August, 1851. Species of Caffee. Roasting, &c. 6-40 6 36 042 0 75 0-80 0 37 047 0 34 6 Coffee is sold in bond; the business being done in the public market either by private or public sales. It is always sold st landing weights and revenue tares; the latter being on casks. barrels, and boxes identical with the real tares, and an average rate on bales and bags. Draft is allowed for as follows; I on packages weighing under 1 cwt., 1 lb.; 1 ewt. and under 3 cwt., 2 lbs.; 3 cwt. and under 5 cwt., 4 lbs; and 5 cwt, and upwards 5 lbs. Coffee is sold at a prompt of i month, allowing a discount of 24 per cent, or 1 per cent. Thus the coffee of St. Domingo, Havannali, and Brazil (with the exception of the "plantation" variety of the last two), are sold at a discourt of 24 per cent., whereas all coffee of British plantation, of that liable to the low duty, including also the coffees of Laguayra, Costa Rica, “ Plantation" Rie and Havannah, Mocha, Java, and other East India varieties, are sold at a discount of 1 per cent. The following Pro formd account of the sale of coffee froma Ceylon may be taken as representing coffee sold at a discount of per cent., and that of the sale of Rio coffee as representing coffee sold at a discount of 23 per cent.; but, of course, the freight and insurance would vary according to the port it came from. These sales are made out as if the goods were sold within one month from arrival. There is no charge for rent, as the consolidated rate covers that charge for 12 weeks. Coffee is always rent-free to the purchaser to the prompt day, and lies at the seller's risk till then, unless paid for. The coffees of Jamaica, Ceylon, and Mocha are generally esteemed the best; then follow the coffees of Costa Rica, Dominica, Berbice, Demerara, Bourbon, Java, Martinique and Hayti. Arabian or Mocha coffee is produced in a very dry climate, the best being raised upon mountainous slopes and sandy soils. The most fertile soils are not suitable for the growth of very fine coffee. Mr. Bryan Edwards observes, that "a rich deep soil, frequently ameliorated by showers, will produce a luxuriant tree and a great crop; but the beans, which are large, and of a dingy green, prove, for many years, rank and vapid.' And the same remark is made by Mr. Crawfurd, with respect to the coffee of Java.-(East Indian Archipelago, vol. i. p. 487.) Coffee is improved by being kept; it then becomes of a paler colour. Mocha, or as it is commonly called, Turkey coffee, should be chosen of a greenish light olive hue, fresh and rew, free from any mustiness, the berries of a middling size, clean, plump, and without any intermixture of sticks or other impurities. Particular care should be taken that it be not false packed. Good West In 'ia coffee should be of a greenish colour, fresh, free from any unpleasant smell, the berries small and unbroken. Coffee berries readily imbibe exhalations from other bodies, and thereby acquire an adventitious and disagreeable flavour. Sugar placed near coffee will, in a short time, so impregnate the berries and in jure their flavour, as to lower its value 10 or 20 per cent. Dr. Moseley mentions, that a few bags of pepper, on board a ship from India, spoiled a whole cargo of coffee. "The roasting of the berry to a proper degree requires great nicety: the virtue and agreeableness of the drink depend upon it; and both are often injured by the ordinary method. Bernier says, when he was at Cairo, where coffee is so much used, he was assured by the best judges, that there were only two people in that great city who understood how to prepare it in perfection. If it be under-done, its virtues will not be imparted, and, in use, it will load and oppress the stomach; if it be over-done, it will yield a flat, burnt, and bitter taste, its virtues will be destroyed, and, in use, it will heat the body, and act as an astringent."— (Moseley, p. 39.) Regulations with respect to Sale, Importation, &c.- Roasted beans and rye, reduced to powder, have frequently been used to adulterate ground coffee; and the possession of such substitutes for coffee was formerly an offence punishable by the forfeiture of the articles, and a penalty of 100. But by the act 3 Geo 4. c. 53., persons who are not dealers in coffee may take a licence for roasting and selling corn, peas, beans, or pars neps, labelling the parcels with the naines, and conforming to the various regulations prescribed in the act. Dealers in coffee must take out a licence, renewable annually, which, at present, costs 118. No coffee can be imported in packages of less than 100 lbs. nett weight. No abatement of duties is made on account of any damage coffee may have received. Coffee cannot be entered as being the produce of any British possession in America or of the Mauritius, until the master of the ship in which the coffee is imported deliver to the collector or comptroller a certificate of its origin, and declare that the coffee is the produce of such place.-(8 & 9 Vict. cap. 86. $38.) PRO FORMA SALES of 15 Tierces 10 Barrels Coffee per " Kingston," from Jamaica, sold by Order and for Account of J. K. and Co. PRO FORMA SALES of 500 Bags Ceylon Coffee per "Persia," and sold by Order and for Account of D. A. M. and Co. 1815. 8. d. d. d. 0 4 6 38 5 0 11 9 6 49 Insurance against fire for 2 months on 20007, at 2 per cent 92 Freight 607 cwt. O qrs. 16 lbs. at 41. 10s. per ton of 18 cwt. 37 9 10 151 0 Public sale expenses, stamps, &c. 2 10 Brokerage and guarantee 1 per cent. 993308 15 8 311 18 5 Nett proceeds. Cash, 3d January, 1946. 1612 16 9 Errors excepted. London, 3d of Jenuary, 1846. COINS, pieces of metal, most commonly gold, silver, or copper, impressed with a public stamp, and frequently made legal tender in payment of debts, either to a limited or an unlimited extent. 1. Circumstances which led to the Introduction and Use of Coins. When the precious metals first began to be used as money, or as standards by which to measure the value of different articles, and the equivalents for which they were most commonly exchanged, they were in an unfashioned state, in bars or ingots. The parties having agreed upon the quantity of metal to be given for a commodity, the exact amount was then ascertained by weight. But it is obvious that a practice of this sort must have been attended with a great deal of trouble and inconvenience. There can, however, be little doubt that the greatest obstacle to the use of unfashioned metals as money would be found in the difficulty of determining their quality, or the degree of their purity, with sufficient precision. The operation of assaying is one of great nicety and difficulty; and could not be performed in the early ages otherwise than in a clumsy, tedious, and inaccurate manner. It is, indeed, most probable, that when the precious metals were first used as money, their quality would be appreciated only by their weight and colour. A very short experience would, however, be sufficient to show the extreme inexactness of conclusions derived from such loose and unsatisfactory criteria; and the devising of some method, by which the fineness of the metal might be easily and correctly ascertained, would very soon be felt as indispensable to the general use of gold and silver as money. Such a method was not long in presenting itself: it was early discovered, that, to ascertain the purity of the metal, and also to avoid the trouble and expense of weighing it, no more was necessary than to mark each piece with a stamp, declaring its weight and fineness. This invention was made at a very early period. According to Herodotus, the Lydians were the first who coined money. — (Lib. i. c. 94. ) Other ancient authors say that the art of coining was invented during the period when Saturn and Janus reigned in Italy; that is, in a period antecedent to authentic history. — (Goguet, de l'Origine des Loix, &c. tom. i. p. 267.) 2. Metal used in the Manufacture of Coins. — Before the art of metallurgy was well understood, the baser metals were frequently used as money. Iron was the primitive money of the Lacedæmonians, and copper of the Romans. But both iron and copper deteriorate by being kept; and besides this defect, the rapid improvement of the arts, by lowering their price, rendered their bulk too great in proportion to their value to permit of their continuing to be used as money. Copper, indeed, is still used in the form of tokens, convertible into silver in very small payments. In this country, copper pence and halfpence are rated at about 72 per cent. above their real value; but as their issue is exclusively in the hands of government, and as they are only legal tender to the extent of one shilling in any one payment, this over-valuation is not productive of any bad effect. The use of copper in other countries is limited in much the same way; gold and silver being every where the only metals made use of in the manufacture of the coins used in considerable payments. 3. Standard of Coins. By the standard of a coin, is meant the degree of its purity, and its weight; that is, the fineness of the metal of which it is made, and the quantity of metal contained in it. (1.) Silver Coins. A pound Troy, or 12 ounces, of the metal of which English silver coins are made, contains 11 oz. 2 dwts. pure silver, and 18 dwts. alloy. This pound is coined into 66 shillings; so that each shilling contains 80-727 grains fine silver, and 87 27 grains standard silver; and the money pound, consisting of 20 shillings, contains 1614 545 grains pure silver, and 1745-454 grains standard silver. From 1600 down to 1816, the pound weight of standard silver bullion was coined into 62 shillings. All the English silver coins have been coined out of silver of 11 oz. 2 dwts. fine, from the Conquest to this moment, except for the short period of 16 years, from the 34th Henry VIII. to the 2d Elizabeth. (2.) Gold Coins. - The purity of gold is not estimated by the weights commonly in use, but by an Abyssinian weight called a carat. The carats are subdivided into four parts, called grains, and these again into quarters; so that a carat grain, with respect to the common divisions of a pound Troy, is equivalent to 2 dwts. Gold of the highest degree of fineness, or pure, is said to be 24 carats fine. When gold coins were first made at the English mint, the standard of the gold put in them was of 28 carats 3 grains fine and grain alloy; and so it continued, without any variation, to the 18th of Henry VIII., who, in that year, first introduced a new standard of gold of 22 carats fine, and 2 carats alloy. The first of these standards was called the old; and the second the new standard, or crown gold; because crowns, or pieces of the value of 5s, were first coined of this new standard. Henry VIII. made his gold coins of both these standards under different denominations; and this practice was continued by his successors until 1633. From that period to the present, the gold of which the coins of this kingdom have been made has been invariably of the new standard, or crown gold; though some of the coins made of the old standard, previously to 1633, continued to circulate till 1732, when they were forbidden to be any longer current. – (Liverpool on Coins, p. 27.) The purity of our present gold coins is, therefore, 11 parts fine gold and 1 part alloy. The sovereign, or 20 shilling piece, contains 113-001 grains fine gold, and 123-274 grains standard gold. The pound Troy of standard gold is coined into 46 sovereigns, or into 461. 148. 6d. The mint, or standard price of gold is, therefore, said to be 461 148. 6d. per lb. Troy, or 31. 178. 10d. an ounce. The alloy in coins is reckoned of no value. It is allowed, in order to save the trouble and expense that would be incurred in refining the metals, so as to bring them to the highest degree of purity; and because, when its quantity is small, it has a tendency to render the coins harder, and less liable to be worn or rubbed. If the quantity of alloy were considerable, it would lessen the splendour and ductility of the metals, and would add too much to the weight of the coins. The standard of the coins of foreign countries may be learned at a glance, by inspecting the Table of Coins subjoined to this article. 4. Variations of the Standard. -The value of all sorts of property being estimated, and the stipulations in almost all contracts for its purchase, sale, or hire, being made in money or coins, it is plain that no change can take place in the value of such money or coins, without virtually subverting these estimates and contracts, and enriching the debtor portion of society at the expense of the creditor portion, or vice versâ. As the cost of producing all commodities is liable to vary from improvements in the arts, the exhaustion of the present or the discovery of new sources of supply, none can be selected to serve as money or coin that may not vary in its real value. It is believed, however, that the precious metals vary less than any material that could be suggested. And with the exception of the extraordinary fall in their value caused by the discovery of the American mines, it seems to have been remarkably constant at other periods. But in addition to the fluctuations naturally inherent in the value of coins, arising from variations in the cost of the metal of which they are made, their standard has been repeatedly changed. Notwithstanding that money or coin, from its being universally used as a scale by which to compute the value of all commodities, and as the equivalent for which they are commonly exchanged, is by far the most important of all the measures used in society; and should, consequently, be preserved as invariable as possible; there is none that has been so frequently altered. The necessities or extravagance of governments have forced them to borrow; and to relieve themselves of the incumbrances thus contracted, they have almost universally had recourse to the disgraceful expedient of degrading the coin; that is, of cheating those who lent them money, to the extent of the degradation, and of enabling every other debtor in their dominions to do the same. The ignorance of the public in remote ages facilitated this species of fraud. Had the names of the coins been changed when the quantity of metal contained in them was diminished, there would have been no room for misapprehension. But, although the weight of the coins was undergoing perpetual, and their purity occasional, reductions, their ancient denominations were almost uniformly preserved and the people who saw the same names still remaining after the substance was diminished; who saw coins of a certain weight and fineness circulate under the names of florins, livres, dollars, and pounds; and who saw them continue to circulate as such, after both their weight and the degree of their fineness had been lessened; began to think that they derived their value more from the stamp affixed to them by authority of government, than from the quantity of the precious metals they contained. This was long a very prevalent opinion. But the rise of prices which invariably followed every reduction of the standard, and the derangement that was thereby occasioned in every pecuniary transaction, undeceived the public, and taught them, and their rulers, the expediency of preserving the standard of money inviolate. The standard may be reduced by simply raising the denomination of the coin; by ordering, for example, that a half-sovereign should pass for a sovereign, and the latter for a double sovereign, &c. If injustice be resolved upon, this is the least mischievous way in which it can be perpetrated, inasmuch as it saves all the trouble and expense of a recoinage. But as it renders the fraud obvious and glaring, it has rarely been resorted to; and most reductions have been effected either by diminishing the weight of the coins, or by increasing the proportion of alloy in the metal of which they are made, or both. Originally the coins of all countries seem to have had the same denomination as the weights commonly used in them; and contained the exact quantity of the precious metals indicated by their name. Thus, the talent was a weight used in the earliest period by the Greeks, the as or pondo by the Romans, the livre by the French, and the pound by the English and Scotch; and the coins originally in use in Greece, Italy, Y |
