<h2><SPAN name="preface" id="preface">PREFACE</SPAN></h2>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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diagrams in the manufacturing section were originally
made by Mr.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.
<SPAN name="pagevi" id="pagevi"></SPAN>
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 <i>Tropical Life</i>; Messrs. Macmillan and Co. for five
reproductions from C.J.J. van Hall's book on <i>Cocoa</i>;
and <i>West Africa</i> for four illustrations of the Gold
Coast.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>A.W. KNAPP.</p>
<p>Birmingham,
<i>February, 1920.</i></p>
<p><SPAN name="pagevii" id="pagevii"></SPAN></p>
<hr class="longer" />
<p><SPAN name="page1" id="page1"></SPAN></p>
<h2><SPAN name="intro" id="intro">INTRODUCTION</SPAN></h2>
<p>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 <i>cacao</i> in its career
until it becomes the finished product ready for consumption.</p>
<h3><i>Cacao or Cocoa?</i></h3>
<p>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
<i>cacauatl</i>. 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 <i>Theobroma Cacao</i>, 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
<SPAN name="page2" id="page2"></SPAN>
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.</p>
<div class="centre">
<SPAN name="image1" id="image1"></SPAN>
<SPAN href="images/image001.jpg">
<ANTIMG src="images/image001_thumb.jpg" alt="CACAO PODS (Amelonado type) in various states of growth and ripeness." title="CACAO PODS (Amelonado type) in various states of growth and ripeness." /></SPAN>
<p class="caption">
CACAO PODS (Amelonado type) in various states of growth and ripeness.</p>
</div>
<p>In this book I shall use the words cacao, cocoa, and
chocolate as follows:</p>
<p><i>Cacao</i>, 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.</p>
<p><i>Cocoa</i>, 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,
<SPAN name="page3" id="page3"></SPAN>
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.</p>
<p><i>Chocolate.</i>—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.</p>
<h3><i>Cacao Beans and Coconuts.</i></h3>
<p>In old manuscripts the word cacao is spelled in all
manner of ways, but <i>cocoa</i> survived them all. This
curious inversion, <i>cocoa</i>, 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 <i>seeds</i> as cocoa <i>nuts</i> (as
for example, in <i>The Humble Memorial of Joseph Fry</i>,
quoted in the chapter on history), but, as in appearance
cacao seeds resemble <i>beans</i>, they are now usually
<SPAN name="page4" id="page4"></SPAN>
spoken of as beans. The distinction between cacao
and the coconut may be summarised thus:</p>
<div class="centre">
<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
<tr>
<td class="bt"> </td>
<td align="center" class="bt bb bl">Cacao.</td>
<td align="center" class="bt bb bl">Coconut.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">Botanical Name</td>
<td align="left" class="bl">Theobroma Cacao<br/>Tree</td>
<td align="left" class="bl">Cocos nucifera Palm<br/>Palm</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">Fruit</td>
<td align="left" class="bl">Cacao pod, containing<br/> many seeds (cacao<br/>
beans)</td>
<td align="left" class="bl">Coconut, which with<br/>
outer fibre is as<br/>
large as a man's<br/>
head</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">Products</td>
<td align="left" class="bl">Cocoa<br/>Chocolate</td>
<td align="left" class="bl">Broken coconut (copra)<br/>Coconut matting</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left" class="bb">Fatty Constituent</td>
<td align="left" class="bb bl">Cacao butter</td>
<td align="left" class="bb bl">Coconut oil</td>
</tr>
</table></div>
<hr class="longer" />
<p><SPAN name="page5" id="page5"></SPAN></p>
<h2><SPAN name="chapter1" id="chapter1">CHAPTER I</SPAN></h2>
<h3>COCOA AND CHOCOLATE—A SKETCH OF THEIR HISTORY</h3>
<div class="blkquot">
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.</div>
<div class="citation">
<i>Cocoa and Chocolate</i> (Whymper).</div>
<p> </p>
<p>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.</p>
<h3><i>Original Home of Cacao.</i></h3>
<p>The corner of the earth where the cacao tree originally
grew, and still grows wild to-day, is the country
<SPAN name="page6" id="page6"></SPAN>
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,
<SPAN name="page7" id="page7"></SPAN>
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.</p>
<div class="centre">
<SPAN name="image2" id="image2"></SPAN>
<SPAN href="images/image002.jpg">
<ANTIMG class="noborder" src="images/image002_thumb.jpg" alt="OLD DRAWING OF AN AMERICAN INDIAN; AT HIS FEET A CHOCOLATE-CUP, CHOCOLATE-POT, AND CHOCOLATE WHISK OR "MOLINET."" title="OLD DRAWING OF AN AMERICAN INDIAN; AT HIS FEET A CHOCOLATE-CUP, CHOCOLATE-POT, AND CHOCOLATE WHISK OR "MOLINET."" /></SPAN>
<p class="caption">
OLD DRAWING OF AN AMERICAN INDIAN; AT HIS FEET
A CHOCOLATE-CUP, CHOCOLATE-POT, AND CHOCOLATE
WHISK OR "MOLINET."<br/>
(From <i>Traitez Nouveaux et Curieux du Café, du Thé, et
du Chocolate</i>. Dufour, 1693).</p>
</div>
<h3><i>Montezuma—the First Great Patron of Chocolate.</i></h3>
<p>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."<SPAN name="I-1m" id="I-1m" href="#I-1"><small>[1]</small></SPAN>
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
<SPAN name="page8" id="page8"></SPAN>
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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<h3><i>The Fascination of Chocolate.</i></h3>
<p>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 <i>New Survey of the West Indias</i> (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.</p>
<h3><i>Cacao Beans as Money.</i></h3>
<p>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!"</p>
<h3><i>Derivation of Chocolate.</i></h3>
<p>The word was derived from the Mexican <i>chocolatl</i>.
The Mexicans used to froth their chocolatl with curious
whisks made specially for the purpose (see <SPAN href="#page6">page 6</SPAN>).
<SPAN name="page9" id="page9"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="page10" id="page10"></SPAN>
Thomas Gage suggests that <i>choco, choco, choco</i> is a
vocal representation of the sound made by stirring
chocolate. The suffix <i>atl</i> 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 <i>chocolaté</i>, from which the English eliminated
the accent, and the French the final letter.</p>
<div class="centre">
<SPAN name="image3" id="image3"></SPAN>
<SPAN href="images/image003.jpg">
<ANTIMG src="images/image003_thumb.jpg" alt="NATIVE AMERICAN INDIANS ROASTING AND GRINDING THE BEANS, AND MIXING THE CHOCOLATE IN A JUG WITH A WHISK. (From Ogilvy's _America_, 1671)" title="NATIVE AMERICAN INDIANS ROASTING AND GRINDING THE BEANS, AND MIXING THE CHOCOLATE IN A JUG WITH A WHISK. (From Ogilvy's _America_, 1671)" /></SPAN>
<p class="caption">
NATIVE AMERICAN INDIANS ROASTING AND GRINDING THE BEANS, AND MIXING THE
CHOCOLATE IN A JUG WITH A WHISK.<br/>
(From Ogilvy's <i>America</i>, 1671)</p>
</div>
<h3><i>First Cacao in Europe.</i></h3>
<p>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, <i>hot</i> 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
<SPAN name="page11" id="page11"></SPAN>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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 <i>Harleian Miscellany</i> 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
<SPAN name="page12" id="page12"></SPAN>
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!</p>
<h3><i>Chocolate Houses and Clubs.</i></h3>
<div class="blkquot">
"The drinking here of chocolate<br/>
Can make a fool a sophie."</div>
<p>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</p>
<div class="blkquot">
"Syrrop of soot or essence of old shoes."</div>
<p>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
<SPAN name="page13" id="page13"></SPAN>
"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," <i>National Review</i>, 1878), and ultimately
developed into a literary club, including amongst
its members Gibbon, the historian, and Byron, the
poet.</p>
<h3><i>Tax on Cacao.</i></h3>
<p>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:</p>
<div class="blkquot">
For every gallon of chocolate, sherbet, and tea
made and sold, to be paid by the maker thereof
..... 8d."</div>
<p>Later the raw material was also made a source of
revenue. In <i>The Humble Memorial of Joseph Fry</i>, of
Bristol, Maker of Chocolate, which was addressed to
the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury in 1776
<SPAN name="page14" id="page14"></SPAN>
(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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<h3><i>Duty on Cacao.</i></h3>
<div class="centre">
<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
<tr>
<td align="left"></td>
<td align="center">1855-1915.</td><td align="center">1915.</td><td align="center">1916.</td>
<td align="center">1919.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">Cacao beans per lb.</td><td align="center">1d.</td><td align="center">1-1/2d.</td>
<td align="center">6d.</td><td align="center">4-1/2d. foreign, 3-3/4d. British</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">Cacao butter per lb.</td><td align="center">1d.</td><td align="center">1-1/2d.</td>
<td align="center">6d.</td><td align="center">4-1/2d. foreign, 3-3/4d. British</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">Cacao shells per cwt.</td><td align="center">2s.</td><td align="center">3s.</td>
<td align="center">12s.</td><td align="center">6s. foreign, 5s. British</td>
</tr>
</table></div>
<p>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.;
<SPAN name="page15" id="page15"></SPAN>
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.</p>
<h3><i>Introduction of Cocoa Powder.</i></h3>
<p>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.</p>
<h3><i>Growing Popularity of Cacao Preparations.</i></h3>
<p>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
<SPAN name="page16" id="page16"></SPAN>
thousand tons. (For statistics of consumption, see <SPAN href="#page183"></SPAN>).</p>
<hr />
<p>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.</p>
<div class="centre">
<SPAN name="image4" id="image4"></SPAN>
<SPAN href="images/image004.jpg">
<ANTIMG class="noborder" src="images/image004_thumb.jpg" alt="ANCIENT MEXICAN DRINKING CUPS (British Museum)" title="ANCIENT MEXICAN DRINKING CUPS (British Museum)" /></SPAN>
<p class="caption">
ANCIENT MEXICAN DRINKING CUPS<br/>
(British Museum)</p>
</div>
<div class="footnote">
<SPAN name="I-1" id="I-1" href="#I-1m">[1]</SPAN> Prescott's <i>Conquest of Mexico</i>.</div>
<hr class="longer" />
<p><SPAN name="page17" id="page17"></SPAN></p>
<div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />
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