CACAO PRODUCTION AND SALE
When the English Commander, Thomas Candish, coming into the
Haven Guatulco, burnt two hundred thousand tun of cacao, it
proved no small loss to all New Spain, the provinces
Guatimala and Nicaragua not producing so much in a whole
year.
John Ogilvy's _America_, 1671.
When one starts to discuss, however briefly, the producing areas, one
ought first to take off one's hat to Ecuador, for so long the principal
producer, and then to Venezuela the land of the original cacao, and
producer of the finest criollo type. Having done this, one ought to say
words of praise to Trinidad, Grenada and Ceylon for their scientific
methods of culture and preparation; and, last but not least, the newest
and greatest producer, the Gold Coast, should receive honourable
mention. It is interesting to note that in 1918 British Possessions
produced nearly half (44 per cent.) of the world's supply.
Whilst the war has not very materially hindered the increase of cacao
production in the tropics, the shortage of shipping has prevented the
amount exported from maintaining a steady rise. The table below, taken
mainly from the "Gordian," illustrates this:
WORLD PRODUCTION OF CACAO.
Total in tons (1 ton = 1000 kilogrammes)
1908 194,000 1914 277,000
1909 206,000 1915 298,000
1910 220,000 1916 297,000
1911 241,000 1917 343,000
1912 234,000 1918 273,000
1913 258,000 1919 431,000
The following table is compiled chiefly from Messrs. Theo. Vasmer &
Co.'s reports in the _Confectioners' Union_.
CACAO PRODUCTION OF THE CHIEF PRODUCING AREAS OF THE WORLD.
(1 ton = 1000 kilogrammes).
Country. 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918
Tons. Tons. Tons. Tons. Tons.
Gold Coast[1] 53,000 77,300 72,200 91,000 66,300
Brazil 40,800 45,000 43,700 55,600 41,900
Ecuador 47,200 37,000 42,700 47,200 38,000
San Thomé 31,400 29,900 33,200 31,900 26,600
Trinidad[1] 28,400 24,100 24,000 31,800 26,200
San Domingo 20,700 20,200 21,000 23,700 18,800
Venezuela 16,900 18,300 15,200 13,100 13,000
Lagos[1] 4,900 9,100 9,000 15,400 10,200
Grenada[1] 6,100 6,500 5,500 5,500 6,700
Fernando Po 3,100 3,900 3,800 3,700 4,200
Ceylon[1] 2,900 3,900 3,500 3,700 4,000
Jamaica[1] 3,800 3,600 3,400 2,800 3,000
Surinam 1,900 1,700 2,000 1,900 2,500
Cameroons 1,200 2,400 3,000 2,800 1,300
Haiti 2,100 1,800 1,900 1,500 2,300
French Cols. 1,800 1,900 1,600 2,200 1,700
Cuba 1,800 1,700 1,500 1,500 1,000
Java 1,600 1,500 1,500 1,600 800
Samoa 1,100 900 900 1,200 800
Togo 200 300 400 1,600 1,000
St. Lucia[1] 700 800 700 600 500
Belgian Congo 500 600 800 800 900
Dominica[1] 450 550 300 300 300
St. Vincent[1] 100 100 75 50 75
Other countries 3,200 3,000 3,500 3,500 3,500
-------------------------------------------
Total 275,900 296,100 295,400 344,000 275,600
-------------------------------------------
Total British
Empire 102,000 128,000 120,000 153,000 119,000
[1] British Possessions.
[Illustration: MAP OF THE WORLD, WITH ONLY CACAO-PRODUCING AREAS
MARKED.]
_SOUTH AMERICAN CACAO._
In the map of South America given on p. 89 the principal cacao producing
areas are marked. Their production in 1918 was as follows:
CACAO BEANS EXPORTED.
Percentage of
Country. Metric Tons.[2] World's production.
Brazil 41,865 15.4
Ecuador 38,000 14.0
(Guayaquil alone 34,973 tons)
Venezuela 13,000 5.0
Surinam 2,468 0.9
British Guiana 20 0.01
------------------------------------------
South American Total 95,353 tons 35.31 per cent.
------------------------------------------
[2] These figures, and others quoted later in this chapter,
are estimates given by Messrs. Theo. Vasmer & Co. in
their reports.
ECUADOR.
_Arriba and Machala Cacaos._--In Ecuador, for many years the chief
producing area of the world, dwell the cacao kings, men who possess very
large and wild cacao forests, each containing several million cacao
trees. The method of culture is primitive, and no artificial manures are
used, yet for several generations the trees have given good crops and
the soil remains as fertile as ever. The two principal cacaos are known
as _Arriba_ and _Machala_, or classed together as Guayaquil after the
city of that name. Guayaquil, the commercial metropolis of the Republic
of Ecuador, is an ancient and picturesque city built almost astride the
Equator. Despite the unscientific cultural methods, and the imperfect
fermentation, which results in the cacao containing a high percentage of
unfermented beans and not infrequently mouldy beans also, this cacao is
much appreciated in Europe and America, for the beans are large and
possess a fine strong flavour and characteristic scented aroma. The
amount of Guayaquil cacao exported in 1919 was 33,209 tons.
[Illustration: RAKING CACAO BEANS ON THE DRIERS.]
[Illustration: GATHERING CACAO PODS IN ECUADOR.
(La Clementina Plantation, Ecuador.)]
[Illustration: SORTING CACAO FOR SHIPMENT, GUAYAQUIL, ECUADOR.]
An interesting experiment was made in 1912, when a protective
association known as the _Asociacion de Agricultores del Ecuador_ was
legalised. This collects half a golden dollar on every hundred pounds of
cacao, and by purchasing and storing cacao on its own account whenever
prices fall below a reasonable minimum, attempts in the planter's
interest to regulate the selling price of cacao. Unfortunately, as cacao
tends to go mouldy when stored in a damp tropical climate, the
_Asociacion_ is not an unmixed blessing to the manufacturer and
consumer.
BRAZIL.
_Parâ and Bahia Cacaos._--Brazil has made marked progress in recent
years, and has now overtaken Ecuador in quantity of produce; the cacao,
however, is quite different from, and not as fine as, that from
Guayaquil. The principal cacao comes from the State of Bahia, where the
climate is ideal for its cultivation. Indeed so perfect are the natural
conditions that formerly no care was taken in cacao production, and much
of that gathered was wild and uncured. During the last decade there has
been an improvement, and this would, doubtless, be more noteworthy if
the means of transport were better, for at present the roads are bad and
the railways inadequate; hence most of the cacao is brought down to the
city of Bahia in canoes. Nevertheless, Bahia cacao is better fermented
than the peculiar cacao of Pará, another important cacao from Brazil,
which is appreciated by manufacturers on account of its mild flavour.
Bahia exported in 1919 about 51,000 tons of cacao.
VENEZUELA.
_Caracas, Carupano and Maracaibo Cacaos._--Venezuela has been called
"the classic home of cacao," and had not the chief occupation of its
inhabitants been revolution, it would have retained till now the
important position it held a hundred years ago. It is in this enchanted
country (it was at La Guayra in Caracas, as readers of _Westward Ho!_
will remember, that Amyas found his long-sought Rose) that the finest
cacao in the world is produced: the criollo, the bean with the
golden-brown break. The tree which produces this is as delicate as the
cacao is fine, and there is some danger that this superb cacao may die
out--a tragedy which every connoisseur would wish to avert.
The _Gordian_ estimates that Venezuela sent out from her three principal
ports in 1919 some 16,226 tons of cacao.
_THE WEST INDIES._
In the map of South America the principal West Indian islands producing
cacao are marked. Their production in 1918 was as follows:
CACAO BEANS EXPORTED. Percentage of
Metric Tons. World's production.
Trinidad (British) 26,177 9.7
San Domingo 18,839 7.0
Grenada (British) 6,704 2.5
Jamaica (British) 3,000 1.1
Haiti 2,272 0.8
St. Lucia (British) 500 0.2
Dominica (British) 300 0.1
St. Vincent (British) 70 0.02
----------- ---------------
West Indies Total 57,862 tons 21.42 per cent.
----------- ---------------
Br. West Indies 36,751 tons 13.6 per cent.
TRINIDAD AND GRENADA.[3]
[3] Cacao production in 1919: Trinidad 27,185 tons; Grenada
4,020 tons.
Cacao was grown in the West Indies in the seventeenth century, and the
inhabitants, after the destructive "blast," which utterly destroyed the
plantations in 1727, bravely replanted cacao, which has flourished there
ever since. The cacaos of Trinidad and Grenada have long been known for
their excellence, and it is mainly from Trinidad that the knowledge of
methods of scientific cultivation and preparation has been spread to
planters all round the equator. The cacao from Trinidad (famous alike
for its cacao and its pitch lake) has always held a high place in the
markets of the world, although a year or two ago the inclusion of
inferior cacao and the practice of claying was abused by a few growers
and merchants. With the object of stopping these abuses and of producing
a uniform cacao, there was formed a Cacao Planters' Association, whose
business it is to grade and bulk, and sell on a co-operative basis, the
cacao produced by its members. This experiment has proved successful,
and in 1918 the Association handled the cacao from over 100 estates.
We may expect to see more of these cacao planters' associations formed
in various parts of the world, for they are in line with the trend of
the times towards large, and ever larger, unions and combinations.
Trinidad is also progressive in its system of agricultural education and
in its formation of agricultural credit societies. The neighbouring
island of Grenada is mountainous, smaller than the Isle of Wight and (if
the Irish will forgive me) greener than Erin's Isle. The methods of
cacao cultivation in vogue there might seem natural to the British
farmer, but they are considered remarkable by cacao planters, for in
Grenada the soil on which the trees grow is forked or tilled. Possibly
from this follows the equally remarkable corollary that the cacao trees
flourish without a single shade tree. The preparation of the bean
receives as much care as the cultivation of the tree, and the cacao
which comes from the estates has an unvaried constancy of quality, not
infrequently giving 100 per cent. of perfectly prepared beans. It is
largely due to this that the cacao from this small island occupies such
an important position on the London market.
[Illustration: MAP OF SOUTH AMERICA AND THE WEST INDIES.
Only cacao-producing areas are marked.]
[Illustration: WORKERS ON A CACAO PLANTATION.
(Messrs. Cadbury's estate in Trinidad.)]
The cacao from San Domingo is known commercially as _Samana_ or
_Sanchez_. A fair proportion is of inferior quality, and is little
appreciated on the European markets. The bulk of it goes to America. The
production in 1919 was about 23,000 tons.
_AFRICAN CACAO._
In the map of Africa the principal producing areas are marked. Their
production in 1918 was as follows:
CACAO BEANS EXPORTED.
Metric Tons. Percentage of
World's production.
Gold Coast (British) 66,343 24.5
San Thomé 19,185 7.1
Lagos (British) 10,223 3.8
Fernando Po 4,220 1.6
Cameroons 1,250 0.4
Togo 1,000 0.4
Belgian Congo 875 0.3
------------ --------------
African Total 103,096 tons 38.1 per cent.
------------ --------------
British Africa 76,566 tons 28.3 per cent.
THE GOLD COAST (_Industria floremus_).
_Accra Cacao._
The name recalls stories of a romantic and awful past, in which gold and
the slave trade played their terrible part. Happily these are things of
the past; so is the "deadly climate." We are told that it is now no
worse than that of other tropical countries. According to Sir Hugh
Clifford, until recently Governor of the Gold Coast, the "West African
Climatic Bogie" is a myth, and the "monumental reputation for
unhealthiness" undeserved. When De Candolle wrote concerning cacao, "I
imagine it would succeed on the Guinea Coast,"[4] as the West African
coast is sometimes called, he achieved prophecy, but he little dreamed
how wonderful this success would be. The rise and growth of the
cacao-growing industry in the Gold Coast is one of the most
extraordinary developments of the last few decades. In thirty years it
has increased its export of cacao from nothing to 40 per cent. of the
total of the world's production.
[4] De Candolle, _Origin of Cultivated Plants_, quoted by R.
Whymper.
[Illustration: MAP OF AFRICA--WITH ONLY CACAO-PRODUCING AREAS MARKED.]
[Illustration: FORESHORE AT ACCRA, WITH STACKS OF CACAO READY FOR
SHIPMENT.
Reproduced by permission of the Editor of "West Africa".]
PRODUCTION OF CACAO ON THE GOLD COAST.
Year. Quantity. Value. £
1891 0 tons (80 lbs.) 4
1896 34 tons 2,276
1901 980 tons 42,837
1906 8,975 tons 336,269
1911 30,798 tons 1,613,468
1916 72,161 tons 3,847,720
1917 90,964 tons 3,146,851
1918 66,343 tons 1,796,985
1919 177,000 tons 8,000,000
The conditions of production in the Gold Coast present a number of
features entirely novel. We hear from time to time of concessions being
granted in tropical regions to this or that company of enterprising
European capitalists, who employ a few Europeans and send them to the
area to manage the industry. The inhabitants of the area become the
manual wage earners of the company, and too often in the lust for
profits, or as an offering to the god of commercial efficiency, the once
easy and free life of the native is lost for ever and a form of
wage-slavery takes its place with doubtful effects on the life and
health of the workers. In defence it is pointed out that yet another
portion of the earth has been made productive, which, without the
initiative of the European capitalist, must have lain fallow. But in
the Gold Coast the "indolent" native has created a new industry entirely
native owned, and in thirty years the Gold Coast has outstripped all the
areas of the world in quantity of produce. Forty years ago the natives
had never seen a cacao tree, now at least fifty million trees flourish
in the colony. This could not have happened without the strenuous
efforts of the Department of Agriculture. The Gold Coast now stands head
and shoulders above any other producing area for quantity. The problem
of the future lies in the improvement of quality, and difficult though
this problem be, we cannot doubt, given a fair chance, that the
far-sighted and energetic Agricultural Department will solve it. Indeed,
it must in justice be pointed out that already a very marked improvement
has been made, and now fifty to one hundred times as much good fermented
cacao is produced as there was ten years ago.[5] However, if a high
standard is to be maintained, the work of the Department of Agriculture
must be supplemented by the willingness of the cacao buyers to pay a
higher price for the better qualities.
[5] "Towards this latter result Messrs. Cadbury Bros., Ltd.,
rendered great assistance. This firm sent representatives
into the country, who proved to the natives that they
were willing to pay an enhanced price for cocoa prepared
in a manner suitable for their requirements. A fair
amount of cocoa was purchased by them, and demonstrations
were made in some places with regard to the proper mode
of fermentation."
(The Agricultural and Forest Products of British West
Africa. _Imperial Institute Handbook_, by G.C. Dudgeon).
[Illustration: CARRIERS CONVEYING BAGS OF CACAO TO SURF BOATS, ACCRA.
Reproduced by permission of the Editor of "West Africa."]
The phenomenal growth of this industry is the more remarkable when we
consider the lack of roads and beasts of burden. The usual pack animals,
horses and oxen, cannot live on the Gold Coast because of the tsetse
fly, which spreads amongst them the sleeping sickness. And so the
native, used as he is to heavy head-loads, naturally adopted this as his
first method of transport, and hundreds of the less affluent natives
arrive at the collecting centres with great weights of cacao on their
heads. "Women and children, light-hearted, chattering and cheerful, bear
their 60 lbs. head-loads with infinite patience. Heavier loads,
approaching sometimes two hundredweight, are borne by grave, silent
Hausa-men, often a distance of thirty or forty miles."
[Illustration: CROSSING THE RIVER AT NSAWAM, GOLD COAST.]
[Illustration: DRYING CACAO BEANS AT MRAMRA.
Reproduced by permission from the Imperial Institute series of Handbooks
to the Commercial Resources of the Tropics.]
One day, not so many years ago, some more ingenious native in the hills
at the back of the Coast, filled an old palm-oil barrel with cacao and
rolled it down the ways to Accra. And now to-day it is a familiar sight
to see a man trundling a huge barrel of cacao, weighing half a ton, down
to the coast. The sound of a motor horn is heard, and he wildly turns
the barrel aside to avoid a disastrous collision with the new, weird
transport animal from Europe. Motor lorries have been used with great
effect on the coast for some seven years; they have the advantage over
pack animals that they do not succumb to the bite of the dreaded tsetse
fly, but nevertheless not a few derelicts lie, or stand on their heads,
in the ditches, the victims of over-work or accident.
[Illustration: SHOOTING CACAO FROM THE ROAD TO THE BEACH, ACCRA.]
Having brought the cacao to the coast, there yet remains the
lighterage to the ocean liner, which lies anchored some two miles from
the shore, rising and falling to the great rollers from the broad
Atlantic. A long boat is used, manned by some twenty swarthy natives,
who glory--vocally--in their passage through the dangerous surf which
roars along the sloping beach. The cacao is piled high on wood racks and
covered with tarpaulins and seldom shares the fate of passengers and
crew, who are often drenched in the surf before they swing by a crane in
the primitive mammy chair, high but not dry, on board the hospitable
Elder Dempster liner.
[Illustration: ROLLING CACAO, GOLD COAST.]
SAN THOMÉ (AND PRINCIPE).
We now turn from the Gold Coast and the success of native ownership to
another part of West Africa, a scene of singular beauty, where the
Portuguese planters have triumphed over savage nature.
Two lovely islands, San Thomé and its little sister isle of Principe,
lie right on the Equator in the Gulf of Guinea, about two hundred miles
from the African mainland. A warm, lazy sea, the sea of the doldrums,
sapphire or turquoise, or, in deep shaded pools, a radiant green,
joyfully foams itself away against these fairy lands of tossing palm,
dense vegetation, rushing cascades, and purple, precipitous peaks. A
soil of volcanic origin is covered with a rich humus of decaying
vegetation, and this, with a soft humid atmosphere, makes an ideal home
for cacao.
The bean, introduced in 1822, was not cultivated with diligence till
fifty years ago. To-day the two islands, which together have not half
the area of Surrey, grow 32,000 metric tons of cacao a year, or about
one-tenth of the world's production.[6] The income of a single planter,
once a poor peasant, has amounted to hundreds of thousands sterling.
[6] The _Gordian's_ estimate for the amount exported in 1919
is 40,766 tons.
[Illustration: ROLLING CACAO, GOLD COAST.
Reproduced by permission of the Editor of "West Africa."]
Dotted over the islands, here nestling on a mountain side, there
overlooking some blue inlet of the sea, are more than two hundred
plantations, or _rocas_, whose buildings look like islands in a green
sea of cacao shrubs, above which rise the grey stems of such forest
trees as have been left to afford shade.
[Illustration: CARRYING CACAO TO THE RAILWAY STATION, NSAWAM, GOLD
COAST.]
Here, not only have the cultivation, fermentation and drying of cacao
been brought to the highest state of perfection, but the details of
organisation--planters' homes, hospitals, cottages, drying sheds and the
Decauville railways--are often models of their kind.
Intelligent and courteous, the planters make delightful hosts. At their
homes, five thousand miles away from Europe, the visitor, who knows what
it means to struggle with steaming, virgin forests, rank encroaching
vegetation, deadly fevers, and the physical and mental inertia
engendered by the tropics, will marvel at the courage and energy that
have triumphed over such obstacles. Calculating from various estimates,
each labourer in the islands appears to produce about 1,640 pounds of
cacao yearly, and the average yield per cultivated acre is 480 pounds,
or about 30 pounds more than that of Trinidad in 1898.
[Illustration: WAGON LOADS OF CACAO BEING TAKEN FROM MESSRS. CADBURY'S
DEPOT TO THE BEACH, ACCRA.]
As there is no available labour in San Thomé, the planters get their
workers from the mainland of Africa. Prior to the year 1908, the labour
system of the islands was responsible for grave abuses. This has now
been changed. Natives from the Portuguese colonies of Angola and
Mozambique now enter freely into contracts ranging from one to five
years, two years being the time generally chosen. At the end of their
term of work they either re-contract or return to their native land with
their savings, with which they generally buy a wife. The readiness with
which the natives volunteer for the work on the islands is proof both of
the soundness of the system of contract and of the good treatment they
receive at the hands of the planters.
[Illustration: THE BUILDINGS OF THE BOA ENTRADA CACAO ESTATE, SAN
THOMÉ.]
Unfortunately, the mortality of the plantation labourers has generally
been very heavy, one large and well-managed estate recording on an
average of seven years an annual death rate of 148 per thousand, and
many _rocas_ have still more appalling records. Against this, other
plantations only a few miles away may show a mortality approximating to
that of an average European city. In February, 1918, the workers in San
Thomé numbered 39,605, and the deaths during the previous year, 1917,
were 1,808, thus showing on official figures an annual mortality of 45
per thousand. Comparing this with the 26 per thousand of Trinidad, and
remembering that most of the San Thomé labourers are in the prime of
life, it will be seen that this death rate represents a heavy loss of
life and justifies the continued demand from the British cocoa
manufacturers for the appointment and report of a special medical
commission.
The Portuguese Government is prepared to meet this demand, for it has
recently sent a Commissioner, Dr. Joaquim Gouveia, to San Thomé to make
a thorough examination of labour conditions, including work, food,
housing, hospitals and medical attendance, and to report fully and
confidentially to the Portuguese Colonial Secretary.
[Illustration: DRYING CACAO AT AGUA IZE, SAN THOMÉ.
The trays are on wheels, which run on rails.]
If this important step is followed by adequate measures of reform there
is every reason to hope that the result will be a material reduction in
the death rate, as the good health enjoyed on some of the _rocas_ shows
San Thomé to be not more unhealthy than other tropical islands.
CAMEROONS.
The Cameroons, which we took from the Germans in 1916, is also on the
West Coast of Africa. It lags far behind the Gold Coast in output,
although both commenced to grow cacao about the same time. The Germans
spent great sums in the Cameroons in giving the industry a scientific
basis, they adopted the "estate plan," and possibly the fact that they
employ contract labour explains why they have not had the same
phenomenal success that the natives working for themselves have achieved
on the Gold Coast.
[Illustration: BARREL ROLLING, GOLD COAST.]
Various countries and districts which are responsible for about 97 per
cent. of the world's cacao crop have now been named and briefly
commented upon. Of other producing areas, the islands, Ceylon and Java,
are worthy of mention. In both of these (as also in Venezuela, Samoa[7]
and Madagascar) is grown the criollo cacao, which produces the plump,
sweet beans with the cinnamon "break." Cacao beans from Ceylon or Java
are easily recognised by their appearance, because, being washed, they
have beautiful clean shells, but there is a serious objection to washed
shells, namely, that they are brittle and as thin as paper, so that many
are broken before they reach the manufacturer. Ceylon is justly famous
for its fine "old red"; along with this a fair quantity of inferior
cacao is produced, which by being called Ceylon (such is the power of a
good name), tends to claim a higher price than its quality warrants.
[7] Robert Louis Stevenson was one of the pioneers in cacao
planting in Samoa, as readers of his _Vailima Letters_
will remember.
[Illustration: BAGGING CACAO, GOLD COAST.
Reproduced by permission of the Editor of "West Africa."]
CACAO MARKETS.
_From the Plantation to the European Market._
It is mentioned above that on the Gold Coast cacao is brought down to
Accra as head-loads, or in barrels, or in motor-lorries. These methods
are exceptional; in other countries it is usually put in sacks at the
estate. Every estate has its own characteristic mark, which is stamped
on the bags, and this is recognised by the buyers in Europe, and gives a
clue to the quality of the contents. There is not as yet a uniform
weight for a bag of cacao, although they all vary between one and two
cwt., thus the bags from Africa contain 1-1/4 cwts., whilst those from
Guayaquil contain 1-3/4 cwts. In these bags the cacao is taken to the
port on the backs of mules, in horse or ox carts, in canoes down a
stream, or more rarely, by rail. It is then conveyed by lighters or surf
boats to the great ocean liners which lie anchored off the shore. In the
hold of the liner it is rocked thousands of miles over the azure seas of
the tropics to the grey-green seas of the temperate zone. In pre-war
days a million bags used to go to Hamburg, three-quarters of a million
to New York, half a million to Havre, and only a trifling quarter of a
million to London. Now London is the leading cacao market of the world.
During the war the supplies were cut off from Hamburg, whilst Liverpool,
becoming a chief port for African cacao, in 1916 imported a million
bags. Then New York began to gorge cacao, and in 1917 created a record,
importing some two and a half million bags, or about 150,000 tons.
Whilst everything is in so fluid a condition it is unwise to prophesy;
it may, however, be said that there are many who think, now that the
consumption of cocoa and chocolate in America has reached such a
prodigious figure, that New York may yet oust London and become the
central dominating market of the world.
[Illustration: SURF BOATS BY THE SIDE OF THE OCEAN LINER, ACCRA.]
_Difficulties of Buying._
Every country produces a different kind of cacao, and the cacao from any
two plantations in the same country often shows wide variation. It may
be said that there are as many kinds of cacao as there are of apples,
cacao showing as marked differences as exhibited by crabs and Blenheims,
not to mention James Grieves, Russets, Worcester Pearmains, Newton
Wonders, Lord Derbys, Belle de Boskoops, and so forth. Further, whilst
the bulk of the cacao is good and sound, a little of the cacao grown in
any district is liable to have suffered from drought or from attacks by
moulds or insect pests. It will be realised from these fragmentary
remarks that the buyer must exercise perpetual vigilance.
[Illustration: BAGGING CACAO BEANS FOR SHIPMENT, TRINIDAD.]
[Illustration: TRANSFERRING BAGS OF CACAO BEANS TO LIGHTERS, TRINIDAD.]
_Cacao Sales._
Before the Cocoa Prices Orders were published (March, 1918) the manner
of conducting the sale of cacao in London was as follows. Brokers' lists
giving the kinds of cacao for sale, and the number of bags of each, were
sent, together with samples, to the buyers some days beforehand, so that
they were able to decide what they wished to purchase and the price they
were willing to pay. The sales always took place at 11 o'clock on
Tuesdays in the Commercial Sale Room in Mincing Lane, that narrow street
off Fenchurch Street, where the air is so highly charged with expert
knowledge of the world's produce, that it would illuminate the prosaic
surroundings with brilliant flashes if it could become visible. On the
morning of the sale samples of the cacaos are on exhibit at the
principal brokers. The man in the street brought into the broker's
office would ask what these strange beans might be. "A new kind of
almond?" he might ask. And then, on being told they were cacao, he would
see nothing to choose between all the various lots and wonder why so
much fuss was made over discriminating amongst the similar and
distinguishing the identical. He might even marvel a little at the
expert knowledge of the buyers; yet, frankly, the pertinent facts
concerning quality, known by the buyer, are fewer and no more difficult
to learn than the thousand and one facts a lad must have at his finger
ends to pass the London Matriculation; they are valued because they are
inaccessible to the multitude; only a few people have the opportunity of
learning them, and their use may make or mar fortunes. The judgment of
quality is, however, only one side of the art of buying. We have to add
to these a knowledge of the conditions prevailing in the various markets
of the world, a knowledge of stocks and probable supplies, and given
this knowledge, an ability to estimate their effect, together with other
conditions, agricultural, political and social, on the price of the
commodity. The room in which the sales are conducted is not a large one,
and usually not more than a hundred people, buyers, pressmen, etc., are
present. Not a single cacao bean is visible, and it might be an auction
sale of property for all the uninitiated could tell. The cacao is put up
in lots. Usually the sales proceed quietly, and it is difficult to
realize that many thousands of bags of cacao are changing hands. The
buyers have perfect trust in the broker's descriptions; they know the
invariable fair-play of the British broker, which is a by-word the world
over. The machinery of the proceedings is lubricated by an easy flow of
humour. Sometimes a few bags of sea-damaged cacao or of cacao sweepings
are put up, and a good deal of keenness is shown by the individuals who
buy this stuff. It is curious that a whole crowd of busy people will
allow their time to be taken up whilst there is a spirited fight between
two or three buyers for a single bag.
Whilst the London Auction Sales are of importance as fixing the prices
for the various markets, and reflecting to a certain extent the position
of supply and demand, only a fraction of the world's cacao changes hands
at the Auction Sales, the greater part of it being bought privately for
forward delivery.
_Prices and Quotations._
[Illustration: DIAGRAM SHOWING VARIATION IN PRICE OF CACAO BEANS FROM
1913 TO 1919.]
The price of cacao is liable to fluctuations like every other product,
thus in 1907 Trinidad cacao rose to one shilling a pound, whilst there
have been periods when it has only fetched sixpence per pound. On April
2nd, 1918, the Food Controller fixed the prices of the finest
qualities of the different varieties of raw cacao as follows:
British West Africa (Accra) 65s. per cwt.
Bahia }
Cameroons }
San Thomé } 85s. " "
Congo }
Grenada }
Trinidad }
Demerara } 90s. " "
Guayaquil }
Surinam }
Ceylon }
Java } 100s. " "
Samoa }
The diagram on p. 113 shows the average market price in the United
Kingdom of some of the more important cacaos before, during, and after
the war. The most striking change is the sudden rise when the Government
control was removed. All cacaos showed a substantial advance varying
from 80 to 150 per cent. on pre-war values. Further large advances have
taken place in the early months of 1920.
_The Call of the Tropics._
Many a young man, reading in some delightful book of travel, has longed
to go to the tropics and see the wonders for himself. There can be no
doubt that a sojourn in equatorial regions is one of the most educative
of experiences. In support of this I cannot do better than quote Grant
Allen, who regarded the tropics as the best of all universities. "But
above all in educational importance I rank the advantage of seeing human
nature in its primitive surroundings, far from the squalid and chilly
influences of the tail-end of the Glacial epoch." ... "We must forget
all this formal modern life; we must break away from this cramped, cold,
northern world; we must find ourselves face to face at last, in Pacific
isles or African forests, with the underlying truths of simple naked
nature."
[Illustration: GROUP OF WORKERS ON CACAO ESTATE.
Some are standing on the Drying Platform, which is the roof of the
Fermentary.]
Many will recall how Charles Kingsley's longing to see the tropics was
ultimately satisfied. In his book, in which he describes how he "At
Last" visited the West Indies, we read that he encountered a happy
Scotchman living a quiet life in the dear little island of Monos. "I
looked at the natural beauty and repose; at the human vigour and
happiness; and I said to myself, and said it often afterwards in the
West Indies: 'Why do not other people copy this wise Scot? Why should
not many a young couple, who have education, refinement, resources in
themselves, but are, happily or unhappily for them, unable to keep a
brougham and go to London balls, retreat to some such paradise as this
(and there are hundreds like it to be found in the West Indies),
leaving behind them false civilisation, and vain desires, and useless
show; and there live in simplicity and content 'The Gentle Life'?"
_The Planter's Life._
Few who go to the tropics escape their fascination, and of those that
are young, few return to colder climes. Some become overseers, others,
more fortunate, own the estates they manage. It is inadvisable for the
inexperienced to start on the enterprise of buying and planting an
estate with less capital than two or three thousand pounds; but, once
established, a cacao plantation may be looked upon as a permanent
investment, which will continue to bear and give a good yield as long as
it receives proper attention.
In the recently published _Letters of Anthony Farley_ the writer tells
how Farley encounters in South America an old college friend of his, who
in his early days was on the high road to a brilliant political career.
Here he is, a planter. He explains:
"My mother was Spanish; her brother owned this place. When he
died it came to me."
"How did your uncle hold it through the various revolutions?"
"Nothing simpler. He became an American citizen. When trouble
threatened he made a bee-line for the United States
Consulate. I'm British, of course. Well, just when I had
decided upon a political life, I found it necessary to come
here to straighten things out. One month lengthened itself
into a year. I grew fascinated. Here I felt a sense of
immense usefulness. On the mountain side my coffee-trees
flourished; down in the valley grew cacao."
"I grow mine on undulations."
"You needn't, you know, so long as you drain."
"Yes, but draining on the flat is the devil."
"Anyhow, I always liked animals--you haven't seen my pigs
yet--and horses and mules need careful tending. A cable
arrived one morning announcing an impending dissolution. I
felt like an unwilling bridegroom called to marry an ugly
bride. I invited my soul. Here, thought I to myself, are
animals and foodstuffs--good, honest food at that. If I go
back it is only to fill people's bellies with political east
wind.
"To come to the point, I decided to grow coffee and cacao. I
cabled infinite regrets. The decision once made, I was happy
as a sandboy. _J'y suis, j'y reste_, said I to myself, said
I. Nor have I ever cast one longing look behind."[8]
[8] Quoted from the _New Age_, where the _Letters of Anthony
Farley_ first appeared.
This is fiction, but I think it is true that very few, if any, who
become planters in the tropics ever return permanently to England. The
hospitality of the planters is proverbial: there must be something good
and free about the planter's life to produce men so genial and generous.
There is a picture that I often recall, and never without pleasure. A
young planter and I had, with the help of more or less willing mules,
climbed over the hills from one valley to the next. The valley we had
left is noted for its beauty, but to me it had become familiar; the
other valley I saw now for the first time. The sides were steep and
covered with trees, and I could only see one dwelling in the valley. We
reached this by a circuitous path through cacao trees. Approaching it as
we did, the bungalow seemed completely cut off from the rest of the
world. We were welcomed by the planter and his wife, and by those of the
children who were not shy. I have never seen more chubby or jolly
kiddies, and I know from the sweetness of the children that their mother
must have given them unremitting attention. I wondered indeed if she
ever left them for a moment. I knew, too, from the situation of the
bungalow in the heart of the hills that visitors were not likely to be
frequent. The planter's life is splendid for a man who likes open air
and nature, but I had sometimes thought that their wives would not find
the life so good. I was mistaken. When we came away, after riding some
distance, through a gap in the cacao we saw across the valley a group of
happy children. They saw us, and all of them, even the shy ones, waved
us adieux.
[Illustration: CARTING CACAO TO RAILWAY STATION, CEYLON.]
[Illustration: THE CARENAGE, GRENADA.]