Commercial Geography Part 11

The value of the product depends on two factors, age and the care with which it is sorted. Formerly, in the Dutch East Indies, coffee-growing, for the greater part, was a government privilege, and the crop was kept for several years in storage before it was permitted to be sold--therefore the term "Old Government" Java. Other coffee was designated as "Private Plantations." The quality of coffee is greatly improved with age. Brazilian and other American coffee-beans are rarely seasoned by storage.

American coffees are almost wholly sorted by machinery. This process, however, merely collects beans of the same size; it still leaves the good and the bad beans together, though it is to be said that among the largest beans there are fewer poor ones. In the coffees handled by the Arab dealers all the sorting is done by hand, the very choice grade selling in the large cities of Europe for the equivalent of nearly three dollars per pound. All machine-sorted coffee is greatly improved by a subsequent hand-sorting to remove the imperfect beans.

The naming of the different kinds of coffee is somewhat arbitrary. Thus, Brazilian coffees are commercially known as _Rio_ because they are s.h.i.+pped from the port of Rio de Janeiro; the same name is applied to the product s.h.i.+pped from Santos. Nearly all Venezuela coffees are called _Maracaibo_ although they differ much in kind and quality; most Central American coffee is sold as _Costa Rica_; most peaberry varieties are known as _Mocha_; and most of the East India product is popularly called _Java_, no matter whence it comes.

[Ill.u.s.tration: COFFEE PRODUCTION]

Of the American coffees Rio const.i.tutes about half the world's product.

After sorting, the larger beans are often marketed as Java coffee, and when the beans have been roasted it is exceedingly difficult to tell the difference. The best Maracaibo is regarded as choice coffee, but its flavor is not liked by all coffee-drinkers. The best Honduras and Puerto Rico coffees take a high rank and command very high prices, retailing in some instances at sixty cents per pound. A very choice peaberry is grown in the volcanic soils of Mexico to which the name of _Oaxaca_ is given; most of it is sold in the United States as a choice Mocha.

Mocha is the commercial name of a coffee at one time marketed in the Arabian city of that name. Since the completion of the Suez Ca.n.a.l, Hodeida has been the chief centre of the Arabian coffee-trade. Formerly most of this coffee was grown in the Province of Yemen, but now it is brought to Hodeida, from Egypt, Ceylon, and India.

About all the product is hand-sorted. The choicest is sold in Constantinople, Cairo, and other cities near by, in some instances bringing five dollars per pound. Very little, and only that of the most inferior quality, ever finds its way into western Europe or the United States. Even the best Mocha is not superior to fine Oaxaca coffee.

Java coffee is renowned the world over for its fine flavor. The best quality was formerly that which had been held in storage to season for a few years. The government coffee was generally the better, but some of the private plantations crop is now equally good. Some of the Sumatra coffees are equal to the best Java beans.

The Liberia coffees have never been favorites in the United States on account of their flavor. In Europe they are used for blending with other varieties.

Of the entire coffee-crop of the world, the United States consumes more than three-quarters of a billion pounds--a yearly average of very nearly eleven pounds for each inhabitant. This is nearly three times as much per inhabitant as is consumed in Germany, and almost fifteen times the average used in Great Britain. Nearly all the world's crop is consumed in the United States and western Europe.

Chicory, parched grain, pease, and burnt parsnip are sometimes added as adulterants to ground coffee. Of those, chicory most nearly resembles coffee in flavor and taste. It is harmless and usually improves the flavor of inferior coffee. A tariff recently placed upon chicory has somewhat lessened the use of it.

=Tea.=--The tea of commerce consists of the dried and prepared leaves of an evergreen shrub (_Thea chinensis_) belonging most probably to the _camellia_ family. Tea has been a commercial product of China for more than fourteen hundred years, but seems to have been carried thither from India about five hundred years before the Christian era; for its virtues were praised by (the probably mythical) Chinung, an emperor of that period.

The cultivated plants are scarcely higher than bushes, but the wild plant found in India is a tree fifteen or twenty feet in height. The cultivated plant is quite hardy; severe winters kill it but ordinary freezing weather merely r.e.t.a.r.ds its growth. It thrives best in red, mouldy soils; the choicest varieties are grown in new soils. The leaves are not picked until the plants are three or four years old.

Two general cla.s.ses of tea are known in commerce--the green and the black. Formerly these were grown on different varieties of the plant, but in the newer plantations no distinction is made in the matter of variety; the color is due wholly to the manner of preparation.

The plants are watched carefully during the seasons of picking, of which there are three or four each year. The April picking yields the choicest crop of leaves, and only the youngest leaves and buds are taken.[35] A single plant rarely yields more than four or five ounces of tea yearly.

Each acre of a tea-garden yields about three hundred and fifty pounds.

After picking, the leaves are partly crushed and allowed to wilt until they begin to turn brown in color. They are then rolled between the hands and either dried very slowly in the sun, or else rapidly in pans over a charcoal fire--a process known as "firing." The former method produces _black_, the latter _green_, tea. The color of the latter is sometimes heightened by the use of a mixture of powdered gypsum and Prussian blue. In the black teas the green coloring matter of the leaf is destroyed by fermentation; in the green teas it remains unchanged.

The greater part of the Chinese tea designed for export is packed rather loosely in wooden chests lined with sheet-lead, the folds and joints of which are soldered in order to make the cover both air-tight and moisture-tight. A full chest contains seventy-five pounds of tea. The j.a.pan product is also packed in moisture-tight wrappers, the original parcels being usually ten-pound, five-pound, and pound packages. Similar devices are used in preparing the India and Formosa teas for ocean s.h.i.+pment.

The chief tea-producing countries are India (including Ceylon) China, j.a.pan (including Formosa), and Java. A successful tea-garden is in operation near Charleston, S.C. A small amount is grown in the Fiji and Samoan Islands. The Ceylon and Formosa teas take a very high rank.

[Ill.u.s.tration: AREA OF TEA PRODUCTION]

Great Britain and her colonies consume the bulk of the tea-crop. The average yearly consumption per person is eight pounds in Australia, six in Great Britain and Cape of Good Hope, and more than four in Canada. In the United States and Russia it is less than one pound per person.

Before the opening of the Suez Ca.n.a.l, in 1869, most of the crop for the English market was despatched by way of Cape of Good Hope. So important was it to get the consignments to London without loss of time, that fast clipper s.h.i.+ps were built especially for carrying tea. Since the opening of the ca.n.a.l the crop has been s.h.i.+pped mainly by the Suez route.

A part of the tea required for the United States reaches New York by way of the Suez Ca.n.a.l, but the movement is gradually changing since the building of the fast liners that now ply between Asian and American ports. These steams.h.i.+ps carry it to Seattle, or to Vancouver, whence it is distributed by rail. The increased cost of s.h.i.+pment by this route is more than offset by a gain of from five to seven days in time.

In some respects the Russian "caravan route" is the most important channel of the tea-trade. The tea is collected mainly at Tientsin, and sent by camel caravans through Manchuria to the most convenient point on the Siberian railway. Not only the s.h.i.+pments of brick tea[36] for the Russian market, but the choicest products for western Europe also are sent by this route. It is probably an economical way of s.h.i.+pping the brick tea, but a more expensive method of s.h.i.+pment for the latter could not be found easily; it is preferred from the fact that, no matter how carefully sealed, the flavor of tea is materially injured by an ocean voyage.

It is evident, therefore, that for the tea product alone the Siberian railway will soon become an important factor in the commerce of Europe.

s.h.i.+pments of tea are also sent from Canton to Odessa, Russia, but this route is not less expensive in the long run than the Cape route, and the tea suffers as much deterioration from the shorter as from the longer voyage.

=Cacao.=--Cacao, the "cocoa" of commerce, consists of the prepared seeds of several species of _Theobroma_, the greater part being obtained from the _Theobroma cacao_. The name is unfortunately confused with that of the cocoa-palm, but there is no relation whatever between the two.

The seeds of the cacao were used in ancient America long before its discovery by Columbus, and the latter carried the first knowledge of it to Europe. By the middle of the seventeenth century it was much used in Spain, and less than a hundred years later it had become the fas.h.i.+onable drink of western Europe.

The cacao-tree, originally native to Mexico, is now cultivated throughout tropical America and the West Indies. It is not cultivated to any extent in the Eastern continent. The fruit consists of large, fleshy pods, which are cut from the trees usually in June and December. The seeds are then piled in heaps, or else packed in pits, and allowed to undergo a rapid fermentation for a period of several days, to which process their flavor is mainly due. The roasted and broken seeds are the cocoa-nibs of commerce. The husks are known as cocoa-sh.e.l.ls.

A very large part of the cacao product comes from Ecuador, Guayaquil being perhaps the chief market of the world. The Venezuelan and Brazilian products, however, are the choicest; these are known in commerce respectively as Caracas and Trinidad cacao. Spain, Portugal, and France are the chief purchasers, and in the first-named country the consumption per person is five or six times as great as in other countries.

Cacao is not only a stimulant beverage, but a food as well; about one-half its weight is fat, and about one-third consists of starch and flesh-making substances. The stimulant principle is the same as that occurring in tea and coffee, but the proportion is considerably less. In preparing the cocoa for the market, much of the fat is intentionally withdrawn. The fat, commercially known as "cocoa-b.u.t.ter," and "oil of theobroma," does not turn rancid.

Chocolate consists of cocoa ground to a paste with sugar and flavoring matter, and then cast in moulds to harden. It is used mainly in the manufacture of confectionery. Most of the chocolate is made in France, Spain, and the United States. More than forty million pounds of cocoa are yearly consumed in the United States.

=Mate.=--Mate, yerba mate, or Paraguay tea, is the leaf of a shrub, a species of holly, growing profusely in the forests of Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, and Uruguay. In many instances, the shrub is cultivated. The leaves are prepared in much the same manner as tea-leaves are, but instead of being rolled, they are broken by beating.

The mate of commerce has a stimulant principle identical with that of tea and coffee, which is the only reason for its use. The consumption, about fifteen thousand tons a year, is confined almost wholly to the countries named.

=Tobacco.=--The tobacco of commerce is the prepared and manufactured leaf of several species of plant, belonging to the nightshade family. Most of the product is derived from the species known as Virginia tobacco (_Nicotiana tabac.u.m_) and the Brazilian species (_Nicotiana rustica_).

The former is cultivated in the United States, West Indies, the Philippine Islands, and Turkey; the latter has been transplanted to central Europe and the East Indies.

The use of tobacco was prevalent in the New World at the time of Columbus's first voyage, and was quickly introduced into Europe. The prepared leaf contains a substance, nicotine, which is one of the most deadly of poisons when swallowed, and an intense narcotic stimulant when inhaled. On account of the evil effects arising from its introduction, its use was forbidden by the Church and also by sovereigns of several European states. The latter, however, finding that its use was becoming general, made it a Crown monopoly. In Great Britain its cultivation was forbidden in order to encourage its cultivation in Virginia.

Tobacco does not thrive best in a poor soil, but the latter produces a thin, half-developed leaf, which in other plants would be called "sickly." It grows in almost any kind of soil, but requires warm summer nights. In many instances the tobacco of temperate lat.i.tudes yields a more salable leaf when grown under cover. The flavor is due partly to soil and climate, and partly to skill in curing. The choicest product is obtained in only a few localities of limited area. It sometimes happens that the products of two plantations almost side by side, and similarly situated, are very unlike in character and quality.

[Ill.u.s.tration: TOBACCO]

The choicest cigar-tobacco is grown on the Vuelta Abajo district in the province of Pinar del Rio, Cuba; another very choice Cuban leaf is known as Partidos. Cuban-made cigars of fine quality are commercially "Havana"

cigars, although tobacco from Manila and Porto Rico is apt to be largely used in their manufacture. In order to avoid the very heavy duty on cigars, which is not far from six dollars per pound, a great deal of the Havana tobacco is exported to points along the Florida coast, mainly Key West and Tampa. The unmanufactured tobacco pays a comparatively small duty, and the cigars made from it are commercially known as "Key West."

In some parts of Mexico a fine-flavored tobacco is grown, but as the cigars are not uniform in quality they are not popular. Some of the Brazilian tobacco is a high-cla.s.s product, but not much is exported.

Porto Rican leaf has a fine flavor, but is not popular because of its dark color. The demand for it in the United States is growing, however.

Of the leaf grown in the East, that from Sumatra and the Philippine Islands is by far the best, and the exports are heavy. Cuban manufacturers purchase the Manila leaf; the Sumatra wrappers are purchased in the United States.

The choicest cigarette-tobacco is grown in Asiatic Turkey, Transcaucasia, and Egypt. It is selected with great care, and is "long-cut." The common grades are made of chopped Virginia tobacco, or of chopped cigar-tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs. The cheapest grades consist of refuse leaf mixed with half-smoked cigar-stumps. The United States leads in the manufacture of cigarettes, and a large part of the product is sold in China, India, and j.a.pan. Most of the world's product of snuff is made in the United States, and nearly all of it is sold abroad.

The United States produces yearly about seven hundred million pounds. A large part of this is sold to European countries. Great Britain purchases about four-fifths of the tobacco there consumed from the United States. The latter country purchases from Europe (mainly the Netherlands) about half as much as it sells to Europe. Louisville, Ky., is probably the largest tobacco-market in the world. New York, Baltimore, Richmond, Manila, and Havana are the chief s.h.i.+pping-ports.

In almost every civilized country tobacco is heavily taxed. In the United States there is not only a heavy import duty, but an internal revenue in addition. In Austria, France, Italy, j.a.pan, and Spain the manufacture and sale is in the hands of the government. The consumption of tobacco varies greatly. In the Netherlands it averages about seven pounds a year to each individual; in the United States it is more than four pounds; in central Europe, three pounds; in Spain, Sweden, Great Britain, and Italy, it is less than two pounds.

=Opium.=--The opium of commerce is the hardened juice obtained from the seed capsules of several species of the poppy-plant. A variety having a large capsule (_Papaver somniferum_) is most commonly cultivated for the commercial production of the substance. Half-a-dozen times during the season the capsules are scratched or cut; the juice exuding when hard is picked or sc.r.a.ped off and pressed into cakes.

Opium is not only a narcotic poison, but it has the property of lessening the pain of disease, and this is its chief use in medicine. In Mohammedan countries where the use of alcoholic liquors is forbidden as a religious custom, opium is used as a subst.i.tute. In Turkey, Persia, Arabia, and Egypt the production of opium is an important industry connected with social and religious life. In British India it is a political factor, being extensively cultivated as a government monopoly to be sold to the Chinese, who are probably the chief consumers of it.

The Indian Government derives a revenue sometimes reaching twenty million dollars from this source.

The best quality of opium is marketed at Smyrna, and most of this is purchased by the United States. A considerable amount of Chinese opium is imported for the use of the Chinese, and a larger amount is probably smuggled over the Canadian and Mexican borders. Laudanum is an alcoholic tincture, and morphine an extractive of opium; both are used as medicine.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION