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COCOA AND CHOCOLATE
_Their History from Plantation to Consumer_
By
ARTHUR W. KNAPP
B. Sc. (B'ham.), F.I.C., B. Sc. (Lond.) Member of the Society of
Public Analysts; Member of the Society of Chemical Industry; Fellow
of the Institute of Hygiene. Research Chemist to Messrs. Cadbury
Bros., Ltd.
LONDON
CHAPMAN AND HALL, LTD.
1920
PREFACE
Although there are several excellent scientific works dealing in a
detailed manner with the cacao bean and its products from the various
view points of the technician, there is no comprehensive modern work
written for the general reader. Until that appears, I offer this little
book, which attempts to cover lightly but accurately the whole ground,
including the history of cacao, its cultivation and manufacture. This is
a small book in which to treat of so large a subject, and to avoid
prolixity I have had to generalise. This is a dangerous practice, for
what is gained in brevity is too often lost in accuracy: brevity may be
always the soul of wit, it is rarely the body of truth. The expert will
find that I have considered him in that I have given attention to recent
developments, and if I have talked of the methods peculiar to one place
as though they applied to the whole world, I ask him to consider me by
supplying the inevitable variations and exceptions himself.
The book, though short, has taken me a long time to write, having been
written in the brief breathing spaces of a busy life, and it would never
have been completed but for the encouragement I received from Messrs.
Cadbury Bros., Ltd., who aided me in every possible way. I am
particularly indebted to the present Lord Mayor of Birmingham, Mr. W.A.
Cadbury, for advice and criticism, and to Mr. Walter Barrow for reading
the proofs. The members of the staff to whom I am indebted are Mr. W.
Pickard, Mr. E.J. Organ, Mr. T.B. Rogers; also Mr. A. Hackett, for whom
the diagrams in the manufacturing section were originally made by Mr.
J.W. Richards. I am grateful to Messrs. J.S. Fry and Sons, Limited, for
information and photographs. In one or two cases I do not know whom to
thank for the photographs, which have been culled from many sources. I
have much pleasure in thanking the following: Mr. R. Whymper for a large
number of Trinidad photos; the Director of the Imperial Institute and
Mr. John Murray for permission to use three illustrations from the
Imperial Institute series of handbooks to the Commercial Resources of
the Tropics; M. Ed. Leplae, Director-General of Agriculture, Belgium,
for several photos, the blocks of which were kindly supplied by Mr. H.
Hamel Smith, of _Tropical Life_; Messrs. Macmillan and Co. for five
reproductions from C.J.J. van Hall's book on _Cocoa_; and _West Africa_
for four illustrations of the Gold Coast.
The photographs reproduced on pages 2, 23, 39, 47, 49 and 71 are by
Jacobson of Trinidad, on pages 85 and 86 by Underwood & Underwood of
London, and on page 41 by Mrs. Stanhope Lovell of Trinidad.
The industry with which this book deals is changing slowly from an art
to a science. It is in a transition period (it is one of the humours of
any live industry that it is always in a transition period). There are
many indications of scientific progress in cacao cultivation; and now
that, in addition to the experimental and research departments attached
to the principal firms, a Research Association has been formed for the
cocoa and chocolate industry, the increased amount of diffused
scientific knowledge of cocoa and chocolate manufacture should give rise
to interesting developments.
A.W. KNAPP.
Birmingham, _February, 1920._
CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE v
INTRODUCTION 1
CHAPTER I
COCOA AND CHOCOLATE--A SKETCH OF THEIR HISTORY 5
CHAPTER II
CACAO AND ITS CULTIVATION 17
CHAPTER III
HARVESTING AND PREPARATION FOR THE MARKET 45
With a dialogue on "The Kind of Cacao the Manufacturers Like."
CHAPTER IV
CACAO PRODUCTION AND SALE 81
With notes on the chief producing areas, cacao markets, and the
planter's life
CHAPTER V
THE MANUFACTURE OF COCOA AND CHOCOLATE 119
CHAPTER VI
THE MANUFACTURE OF CHOCOLATE 139
CHAPTER VII
BY-PRODUCTS OF THE COCOA AND CHOCOLATE INDUSTRY 157
(_a_) Cacao Butter, (_b_) Cacao Shell
CHAPTER VIII
THE COMPOSITION AND FOOD VALUE OF COCOA AND CHOCOLATE 165
(including Milk Chocolate)
CHAPTER IX
ADULTERATION, AND THE NEED FOR DEFINITIONS 179
CHAPTER X
THE CONSUMPTION OF CACAO 183
BIBLIOGRAPHY 191
A List of the Important Books on Cocoa and Chocolate
from the earliest times to the present day.
INDEX 207
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Cacao Pods
Old Drawing of an American Indian, with Chocolate Whisk, etc.
Native American Indians Roasting the Beans, etc.
Ancient Mexican Drinking Cups
Cacao Tree, with Pods and Leaves
Cacao Tree, shewing Pods Growing from Trunk
Flowers and Fruits on main branches of a Cacao Tree
Cacao Pods
Cut Pod, revealing the White Pulp round the Beans
Cacao Pods, shewing Beans inside
Drawing of Typical Pods illustrating varieties
Tropical Forest, Trinidad
Characteristic Root System of the Cacao Tree
Nursery with the Young Cacao Plants in Baskets, Java
Planting Cacao from Young Seedlings in Bamboo Pots, Trinidad
Cacao in its Fourth Year
Copy of an Old Engraving shewing the Cacao Tree, and a tree shading it
Cacao Trees shaded by Kapok, Java
Cacao Trees shaded by Bois Immortel, Trinidad
Cacao Tree with Suckers
Cutlassing
Common Types of Cacao Pickers
Gathering Cacao Pods, Trinidad
Collecting Cacao Pods into a Heap
Men Breaking Pods, etc.
Sweating Boxes, Trinidad
Fermenting Boxes, Java
Charging Cacao on to Trucks in the Plantation, San Thomé
Cacao in the Fermenting Trucks, San Thomé
Tray-barrow for Drying Small Quantities
Spreading the Cacao Beans on mats to dry, Ceylon
Drying Trays, Grenada
"Hamel Smith" Rotary Dryer
Drying Platforms with Sliding Roofs, Trinidad
Cacao Drying Platforms, San Thomé
Washing the Beans, Ceylon
Claying Cacao Beans, Trinidad
Sorting Cacao Beans, Java
Diagram: World's Cacao Production
MAP of the World, with only Cacao-Producing Areas marked
Raking Cacao Beans on the Driers, Ecuador
Gathering Cacao Pods, Ecuador
Sorting Cacao for Shipment, Ecuador
MAP of South America and the West Indies
Workers on a Cacao Plantation
MAP of Africa, with only Cacao-Producing Areas marked
Foreshore at Accra, with Stacks of Cacao ready for Shipment
Carriers conveying Bags of Cacao to Surf Boats, Accra
Crossing the River, Gold Coast
Drying Cacao Beans, Gold Coast
Shooting Cacao from the Road to the Beach, Accra
Rolling Cacao, Gold Coast
Rolling Cacao, Gold Coast
Carrying Cacao to the Railway Station, Gold Coast
Wagon Loads of Cacao being taken from Depot to the Beach, Accra
The Buildings of the Boa Entrada Cacao Estate, San Thomé
Drying Cacao, San Thomé
Barrel Rolling, Gold Coast
Bagging Cacao, Gold Coast
Surf Boats by the Side of the Ocean Liner, Accra
Bagging Cacao Beans for Shipment, Trinidad
Transferring Bags of Cacao to Lighters, Trinidad
Diagram showing Variation in Price of Cacao Beans, 1913-1919
Group of Workers on Cacao Estate
Carting Cacao to Railway Station, Ceylon
The Carenage, Grenada
Early Factory Methods
Women Grinding Chocolate
Cacao Bean Warehouse
Cacao Bean Sorting and Cleaning Machine
Diagram of Cacao Bean Cleaning Machine
Section through Gas Heated Cacao Roaster
Roasting Cacao Beans
Cacao Bean, Shell and Germ
Section through Kibbling Cones and Germ Screens
Section through Winnowing Machine
Cacao Grinding
Section through Grinding Stones
A Cacao Press
Section through Cacao Press-pot and Ram-plate
Chocolate Mélangeur
Plan of Chocolate Mélangeur
Chocolate Refining Machine
Grinding Cacao Nib and Sugar
Section through Chocolate Grinding Rolls
"Conche" Machines
Section through "Conche" Machine
Machines for Mixing or "Conching" Chocolate
Chocolate Shaking Table
Girls Covering or Dipping Cremes, etc.
The Enrober
A Confectionery Room
Factory at which Milk is Evaporated for Milk Chocolate Manufacture
Cocoa and Chocolate Despatch Deck
Boxing Chocolates
Packing Chocolates
Factory at which Milk is Evaporated for Milk Chocolate Manufacture
Cacao Pods, Leaves and Flowers
INTRODUCTION
In a few short chapters I propose to give a plain account of the
production of cocoa and chocolate. I assume that the reader is not a
specialist and knows little or nothing of the subject, and hence both
the style of writing and the treatment of the subject will be simple. At
the same time, I assume that the reader desires a full and accurate
account, and not a vague story in which the difficulties are ignored. I
hope that, as a result of this method of dealing with my subject, even
experts will find much in the book that is of interest and value. After
a brief survey of the history of cocoa and chocolate, I shall begin with
the growing of the cacao bean, and follow the _cacao_ in its career
until it becomes the finished product ready for consumption.
_Cacao or Cocoa?_
The reader will have noted above the spelling "cacao," and to those who
think it curious, I would say that I do not use this spelling from
pedantry. It is an imitation of the word which the Mexicans used for
this commodity as early as 1500, and when spoken by Europeans is apt to
sound like the howl of a dog. The Mexicans called the tree from which
cacao is obtained _cacauatl_. When the great Swedish scientist Linnaeus,
the father of botany, was naming and classifying (about 1735) the trees
and plants known in his time, he christened it _Theobroma Cacao_, by
which name it is called by botanists to this day. Theo-broma is Greek
for "Food of the Gods." Why Linnaeus paid this extraordinary compliment
to cacao is obscure, but it has been suggested that he was inordinately
fond of the beverage prepared from it--the cup which both cheers and
satisfies. It will be seen from the above that the species-name is
cacao, and one can understand that Englishmen, finding it difficult to
get their insular lips round this outlandish word, lazily called it
cocoa.
[Illustration: CACAO PODS (Amelonado type) in various states of growth
and ripeness.]
In this book I shall use the words cacao, cocoa, and chocolate as
follows:
_Cacao_, when I refer to the cacao tree, the cacao pod, or the cacao
bean or seed. By the single word, cacao, I imply the raw product, cacao
beans, in bulk.
_Cocoa_, when I refer to the powder manufactured from the roasted bean
by pressing out part of the butter. The word is too well established to
be changed, even if one wished it. As we shall see later (in the
chapter on adulteration) it has come legally to have a very definite
significance. If this method of distinguishing between cacao and cocoa
were the accepted practice, the perturbation which occurred in the
public mind during the war (in 1916), as to whether manufacturers were
exporting "cocoa" to neutral countries, would not have arisen. It should
have been spelled "cacao," for the statements referred to the raw beans
and not to the manufactured beverage. Had this been done, it would have
been unnecessary for the manufacturers to point out that cocoa powder
was not being so exported, and that they naturally did not sell the raw
cacao bean.
_Chocolate._--This word is given a somewhat wider meaning. It signifies
any preparation of roasted cacao beans without abstraction of butter. It
practically always contains sugar and added cacao butter, and is
generally prepared in moulded form. It is used either for eating or
drinking.
_Cacao Beans and Coconuts._
In old manuscripts the word cacao is spelled in all manner of ways, but
_cocoa_ survived them all. This curious inversion, _cocoa_, is to be
regretted, for it has led to a confusion which could not otherwise have
arisen. But for this spelling no one would have dreamed of confusing the
totally unrelated bodies, cacao and the milky coconut. (You note that I
spell it "coconut," not "cocoanut," for the name is derived from the
Spanish "coco," "grinning face," or bugbear for frightening children,
and was given to the nut because the three scars at the broad end of the
nut resemble a grotesque face). To make confusion worse confounded the
old writers referred to cacao _seeds_ as cocoa _nuts_ (as for example,
in _The Humble Memorial of Joseph Fry_, quoted in the chapter on
history), but, as in appearance cacao seeds resemble _beans_, they are
now usually spoken of as beans. The distinction between cacao and the
coconut may be summarised thus:
Cacao. Coconut.
Botanical Name Theobroma Cacao Cocos nucifera Palm
Tree Palm
Fruit Cacao pod, containing Coconut, which with outer
many seeds (cacao beans) fibre is as large as a
man's head
Products Cocoa Broken coconut (copra)
Chocolate Coconut matting
Fatty Constituent Cacao butter Coconut oil
CHAPTER I
COCOA AND CHOCOLATE--A SKETCH OF THEIR HISTORY
Did time and space allow, there is much to be told on the
romantic side of chocolate, of its divine origin, of the
bloody wars and brave exploits of the Spaniards who conquered
Mexico and were the first to introduce cacao into Europe,
tales almost too thrilling to be believed, of the intrigues
of the Spanish Court, and of celebrities who met and sipped
their chocolate in the parlours of the coffee and chocolate
houses so fashionable in the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries.
_Cocoa and Chocolate_ (Whymper).
On opening a cacao pod, it is seen to be full of beans surrounded by a
fruity pulp, and whilst the pulp is very pleasant to taste, the beans
themselves are uninviting, so that doubtless the beans were always
thrown away until ... someone tried roasting them. One pictures this
"someone," a pre-historic Aztec with swart skin, sniffing the aromatic
fume coming from the roasting beans, and thinking that beans which
smelled so appetising must be good to consume. The name of the man who
discovered the use of cacao must be written in some early chapter of the
history of man, but it is blurred and unreadable: all we know is that he
was an inhabitant of the New World and probably of Central America.
_Original Home of Cacao._
The corner of the earth where the cacao tree originally grew, and still
grows wild to-day, is the country watered by the mighty Amazon and the
Orinoco. This is the very region in which Orellano, the Spanish
adventurer, said that he had truly seen El Dorado, which he described as
a City of Gold, roofed with gold, and standing by a lake with golden
sands. In reality, El Dorado was nothing but a vision, a vision that for
a hundred years fascinated all manner of dreamers and adventurers from
Sir Walter Raleigh downwards, so that many braved great hardships in
search of it, groped through the forests where the cacao tree grew, and
returned to Europe feeling they had failed. To our eyes they were not
entirely unsuccessful, for whilst they failed to find a city of gold,
they discovered the home of the golden pod.
[Illustration: OLD DRAWING OF AN AMERICAN INDIAN; AT HIS FEET A
CHOCOLATE-CUP, CHOCOLATE-POT, AND CHOCOLATE WHISK OR "MOLINET."
(From _Traitez Nouveaux et Curieux du Café, du Thé, et du Chocolate_.
Dufour, 1693).]
_Montezuma--the First Great Patron of Chocolate._
When Columbus discovered the New World he brought back with him to
Europe many new and curious things, one of which was cacao. Some years
later, in 1519, the Spanish conquistador, Cortes, landed in Mexico,
marched into the interior and discovered to his surprise, not the huts
of savages, but a beautiful city, with palaces and museums. This city
was the capital of the Aztecs, a remarkable people, notable alike for
their ancient civilisation and their wealth. Their national drink was
chocolate, and Montezuma, their Emperor, who lived in a state of
luxurious magnificence, "took no other beverage than the chocolatl, a
potation of chocolate, flavoured with vanilla and other spices, and so
prepared as to be reduced to a froth of the consistency of honey, which
gradually dissolved in the mouth and was taken cold. This beverage if so
it could be called, was served in golden goblets, with spoons of the
same metal or tortoise-shell finely wrought. The Emperor was exceedingly
fond of it, to judge from the quantity--no less than fifty jars or
pitchers being prepared for his own daily consumption: two thousand more
were allowed for that of his household."[1] It is curious that Montezuma
took no other beverage than chocolate, especially if it be true that the
Aztecs also invented that fascinating drink, the cocktail (xoc-tl). How
long this ancient people, students of the mysteries of culinary science,
had known the art of preparing a drink from cacao, is not known, but it
is evident that the cultivation of cacao received great attention in
these parts, for if we read down the list of the tributes paid by
different cities to the Lords of Mexico, we find "20 chests of ground
chocolate, 20 bags of gold dust," again "80 loads of red chocolate, 20
lip-jewels of clear amber," and yet again "200 loads of chocolate."
[1] Prescott's _Conquest of Mexico_.
Another people that share with the Aztecs the honour of being the first
great cultivators of cacao are the Incas of Peru, that wonderful nation
that knew not poverty.
_The Fascination of Chocolate._
That chocolate charmed the ladies of Mexico in the seventeenth century
(even as it charms the ladies of England to-day) is shown by a story
which Gage relates in his _New Survey of the West Indias_ (1648). He
tells us that at Chiapa, southward from Mexico, the women used to
interrupt both sermon and mass by having their maids bring them a cup of
hot chocolate; and when the Bishop, after fair warning, excommunicated
them for this presumption, they changed their church. The Bishop, he
adds, was poisoned for his pains.
_Cacao Beans as Money._
Cacao was used by the Aztecs not only for the preparation of a beverage,
but also as a circulating medium of exchange. For example, one could
purchase a "tolerably good slave" for 100 beans. We read that: "Their
currency consisted of transparent quills of gold dust, of bits of tin
cut in the form of a T, and of bags of cacao containing a specified
number of grains." "Blessed money," exclaims Peter Martyr, "which
exempts its possessor from avarice, since it cannot be long hoarded, nor
hidden underground!"
_Derivation of Chocolate._
The word was derived from the Mexican _chocolatl_. The Mexicans used to
froth their chocolatl with curious whisks made specially for the purpose
(see page 6). Thomas Gage suggests that _choco, choco, choco_ is a
vocal representation of the sound made by stirring chocolate. The suffix
_atl_ means water. According to Mr. W.J. Gordon, we owe the name of
chocolate to a misprint. He states that Joseph Acosta, who wrote as
early as 1604 of chocolatl, was made by the printer to write
_chocolaté_, from which the English eliminated the accent, and the
French the final letter.
[Illustration: NATIVE AMERICAN INDIANS ROASTING AND GRINDING THE BEANS,
AND MIXING THE CHOCOLATE IN A JUG WITH A WHISK. (From Ogilvy's
_America_, 1671)]
_First Cacao in Europe._
The Spanish discoverers of the New World brought home to Spain
quantities of cacao, which the curious tasted. We may conclude that they
drank the preparation cold, as Montezuma did, _hot_ chocolate being a
later invention. The new drink, eagerly sought by some, did not meet
with universal approval, and, as was natural, the most diverse opinions
existed as to the pleasantness and wholesomeness of the beverage when it
was first known. Thus Joseph Acosta (1604) wrote: "The chief use of this
cocoa is in a drincke which they call Chocholaté, whereof they make
great account, foolishly and without reason; for it is loathsome to such
as are not acquainted with it, having a skumme or frothe that is very
unpleasant to taste, if they be not well conceited thereof. Yet it is a
drincke very much esteemed among the Indians, whereof they feast noble
men as they passe through their country. The Spaniards, both men and
women, that are accustomed to the country are very greedy of this
chocholaté." It is not impossible that the English, with the defeat of
the Armada fresh in memory, were at first contemptuous of this "Spanish"
drink. Certain it is, that when British sea-rovers like Drake and
Frobisher, captured Spanish galleons on the high seas, and on searching
their holds for treasure, found bags of cacao, they flung them overboard
in scorn. In considering this scorn of cacao, shown alike by British
buccaneers and Dutch corsairs, together with the critical air of Joseph
Acosta, we should remember that the original chocolatl of the Mexicans
consisted of a mixture of maize and cacao with hot spices like chillies,
and contained no sugar. In this condition few inhabitants of the
temperate zone could relish it. It however only needed one thing, the
addition of sugar, and the introduction of this marked the beginning of
its European popularity. The Spaniards were the first to manufacture and
drink chocolate in any quantity. To this day they serve it in the old
style--thick as porridge and pungent with spices. They endeavoured to
keep secret the method of preparation, and, without success, to retain
the manufacture as a monopoly. Chocolate was introduced into Italy by
Carletti, who praised it and spread the method of its manufacture
abroad. The new drink was introduced by monks from Spain into Germany
and France, and when in 1660 Maria Theresa, Infanta of Spain, married
Louis XIV, she made chocolate well known at the Court of France. She it
was of whom a French historian wrote that Maria Theresa had only two
passions--the king and chocolate.
Chocolate was advocated by the learned physicians of those times as a
cure for many diseases, and it was stated that Cardinal Richelieu had
been cured of general atrophy by its use.
From France the use of chocolate spread into England, where it began to
be drunk as a luxury by the aristocracy about the time of the
Commonwealth. It must have made some progress in public favour by 1673,
for in that year "a Lover of his Country" wrote in the _Harleian
Miscellany_ demanding its prohibition (along with brandy, rum, and tea)
on the ground that this imported article did no good and hindered the
consumption of English-grown barley and wheat. New things appeal to the
imaginative, and the absence of authentic knowledge concerning them
allows free play to the imagination--so it happened that in the early
days, whilst many writers vied with one another in writing glowing
panegyrics on cacao, a few thought it an evil thing. Thus, whilst it was
praised by many for its "wonderful faculty of quenching thirst,
allaying hectic heats, of nourishing and fattening the body," it was
seriously condemned by others as an inflamer of the passions!
_Chocolate Houses and Clubs._
"The drinking here of chocolate
Can make a fool a sophie."
In the spacious days of Queen Elizabeth, tea, coffee, and chocolate were
unknown save to travellers and savants, and the handmaidens of the good
queen drank beer with their breakfast. When Shakespeare and Ben Jonson
forgathered at the Mermaid Tavern, their winged words passed over
tankards of ale, but later other drinks became the usual accompaniment
of news, story, and discussion. In the sixteen-sixties there were no
strident newspapers to destroy one's equanimity, and the gossip of the
day began to be circulated and discussed over cups of tea, coffee, or
chocolate. The humorists, ever stirred by novelty, tilted, pen in hand,
at these new drinks: thus one rhymster described coffee as
"Syrrop of soot or essence of old shoes."
The first coffee-house in London was started in St. Michael's Alley,
Cornhill, in 1652 (when coffee was seven shillings a pound); the first
tea-house was opened in Exchange Alley in 1657 (when tea was five
sovereigns a pound), and in the same year (with chocolate about ten to
fifteen shillings per pound) a Frenchman opened the first
chocolate-house in Queen's Head Alley, Bishopsgate Street. The rising
popularity of chocolate led to the starting of more of these chocolate
houses, at which one could sit and sip chocolate, or purchase the
commodity for preparation at home. Pepys' entry in his diary for 24th
November, 1664, contains: "To a coffee house to drink jocolatte, very
good." It is an artless entry, and yet one can almost hear him smacking
his lips. Silbermann says that "After the Restoration there were shops
in London for the sale of chocolate at ten shillings or fifteen
shillings per pound. Ozinda's chocolate house was full of aristocratic
consumers. Comedies, satirical essays, memoirs and private letters of
that age frequently mention it. The habit of using chocolate was deemed
a token of elegant and fashionable taste, and while the charms of this
beverage in the reigns of Queen Anne and George I. were so highly
esteemed by courtiers, by lords and ladies and fine gentlemen in the
polite world, the learned physicians extolled its medicinal virtues."
From the coffee house and its more aristocratic relative the chocolate
house, there developed a new feature in English social life--the Club.
As the years passed the Chocolate House remained a rendezvous, but the
character of its habitués changed from time to time. Thus one, famous in
the days of Queen Anne, and well known by its sign of the "Cocoa Tree,"
was at first the headquarters of the Jacobite party, and the resort of
Tories of the strictest school. It became later a noted gambling house
("The gamesters shook their elbows in White's and the chocolate houses
round Covent Garden," _National Review_, 1878), and ultimately developed
into a literary club, including amongst its members Gibbon, the
historian, and Byron, the poet.
_Tax on Cacao._
The growing consumption of chocolate did not escape the all-seeing eye
of the Chancellors of England. As early as 1660 we find amongst various
custom and excise duties granted to Charles II:
"For every gallon of chocolate, sherbet, and tea made and
sold, to be paid by the maker thereof ..... 8d."
Later the raw material was also made a source of revenue. In _The Humble
Memorial of Joseph Fry_, of Bristol, Maker of Chocolate, which was
addressed to the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury in 1776 (Messrs.
Fry and Sons are the oldest English firm of chocolate makers, having
been founded in 1728), we read that "Chocolate ... pays two shillings
and threepence per pound excise, besides about ten shillings per
hundredweight on the Cocoa Nuts from which it is made."
In 1784 a preferential customs rate was proposed in favour of our
Colonies. This they enjoyed for many years before 1853, when the uniform
rate, until recently in force, was introduced. This restrictive tariff
on foreign growths rose in 1803 to 5s. 10d. per pound, against 1s. 10d.
on cacao grown in British possessions. From this date it gradually
diminished. High duties hampered for many years the sale of cocoa, tea
and coffee, but in recent times these duties have been brought down to
more reasonable figures. For many years before 1915 the import duty was
1d. per pound on the raw cacao beans, 1d. per pound on cacao butter, and
2s. a hundredweight (less than a farthing a pound) on cacao shells or
husks. In the Budget of September, 1915, the above duties were increased
by fifty per cent. A further and greater increase was made in the Budget
of April, 1916, when cacao was made to pay a higher tax in Britain than
in any other country in the world. In 1919 Imperial preference was
introduced after a break of over sixty years, the duty on cocoa from
foreign countries being 3/4d. a pound more than that from British
Possessions.
_Duty on Cacao._
1855-1915. 1915. 1916. 1919.
Cacao beans per lb. 1d. 1-1/2d. 6d. 4-1/2d. foreign, 3-3/4d. British
Cacao butter per lb. 1d. 1-1/2d. 6d. 4-1/2d. foreign, 3-3/4d. British
Cacao shells per cwt. 2s. 3s. 12s. 6s. foreign, 5s. British
In considering this duty and its effect on the price of the finished
article, it should be remembered that there are substantial losses in
manufacture. Thus the beans are cleaned, which removes up to 0.5 per
cent.; roasted, which causes a loss by volatilisation of 7 per cent.;
and shelled, the husks being about 12 per cent. Therefore, the actual
yield of usable nib, which has to bear the whole duty, is about 80 per
cent. It may be well to add that the yield of cocoa powder is 48 per
cent. of the raw beans, or roughly, one pound of the raw product yields
half a pound of the finished article.
_Introduction of Cocoa Powder._
The drink "cocoa" as we know it to-day was not introduced until 1828.
Before this time the ground bean, mixed with sugar, was sold in cakes.
The beverage prepared from these chocolate cakes was very rich in
butter, and whilst the British Navy has always consumed it in this
condition (the sailors generally remove with a spoon the excess of
butter which floats to the top) it is a little heavy for less hardy
digestions. Van Houten (of the well-known Dutch house of that name) in
1828 invented a method of pressing out part of the butter, and thus
obtained a lighter, more appetising, and more easily assimilated
preparation. As the butter is useful in chocolate manufacture, this
process enabled the manufacturer to produce a less costly cocoa powder,
and thus the circle of consumers was widened. Messrs. Cadbury Bros., of
Birmingham, first sold their "cocoa essence" in 1866, and Messrs. Fry
and Sons, of Bristol, introduced a pure cocoa by pressing out part of
the butter in 1868.
_Growing Popularity of Cacao Preparations._
The incidence of import duties did not prevent the continuous increase
in the amount of cacao consumed in the British Isles. When Queen
Victoria came to the throne the cacao cleared for home consumption was
about four or five thousand tons, more than half of which was consumed
by the Navy. At the time of Queen Victoria's death it had increased to
four times this amount, and by 1915 it had reached nearly fifty
thousand tons. (For statistics of consumption, see p. 183).
* * * * *
This brief sketch of the history of cacao owes much to "Cocoa--all about
it," by Historicus (the pseudonym of the late Richard Cadbury). This
work is out of print, but those who are fortunate enough to be able to
consult it will find therein much that is curious and discursive.
[Illustration: ANCIENT MEXICAN DRINKING CUPS (British Museum)]