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)]




CHAPTER II

CACAO AND ITS CULTIVATION