CHAPTER XXX
DEVELOPMENT OF THE GREEN AND ROASTED COFFEE BUSINESS IN THE UNITED STATES
_A brief history of the growth of coffee trading--Notable firms and personalities that have played important parts in green coffee in the principal coffee centers--Green coffee trade organizations--Growth of the wholesale coffee-roasting trade, and names of those who have made history in it--The National Coffee Roasters Association--Statistics of distribution of coffee-roasting establishments in the United States_
Coffee trading in the American colonies probably had its beginnings about the middle of the seventeenth century. Tea seems to have preceded coffee as an article of merchandise. Several merchants in the New England and New York settlements imported small quantities of coffee with other foodstuffs toward the close of the seventeenth century.
The early supplies of the green bean were brought from the Dutch East Indies, Arabia, Haiti, and Jamaica. About 1787, the French opened Mauritius and Bourbon to American ships, which then began to bring back coffee and tea to the Atlantic-coast cities. Mocha coffee was being imported direct in American bottoms about 1804. Coffee from Brazil was first imported by the United States in 1809. Central America began shipping coffee to the United States in 1840. The total coffee imports in 1876 were 339,789,246 pounds, valued at $56,788,997, and received chiefly from Brazil, Haiti, British and Dutch East Indies, the West Indies, and Mexico.
New York early became the leading green-coffee market of the country.
There was a number of large importing merchants in New York in 1760, nearly all of whom brought in coffee. Among them were Isaac and Nicholas Gouverneur, Robert Murray, Walter and Samuel Franklin, John and Henry Cruger, the Livingstons, the Beekmans, Lott & Low, Philip Cuyler, Anthony Van Dam, Hugh and Alexander Wallace, Leonard and Anthony Lispenard, Theophylact Bache, and William Walton.
Some early green-coffee prices per pound were as follows:
1683--18s. 9d.; 1743--5s.; 1746--5s.; 1774--9s.; 1781[347]--96s. O.T.; 1782--2s. 1d. O.T.; 1783--1s.; 1789--10 cents.
Leading New York coffee importers in 1786 were Henry Sheaff, on the dock between Burling Slip and the Fly Market; John Rooney, 26 Cherry Street; William Eccles, 10 Hunters Key; Ludlow & Goold, 47 Wall Street; Scriba, Schroppel & Starmen, 17 Queen Street; and William Taylor, Crane Wharf.
The wholesale coffee roaster appeared about 1790; and from that time the separation between the green-coffee trader and the coffee roaster became more marked. In 1794 the principal green-coffee importers in New York were: Lawrence & Van Zandt; D. Smith & Co., 323 Pearl Street; Gilchrist Dickinson, 17 Taylor's Wharf; Armstrong & Barnewall, 129 Water Street; William Bowne, 265 Pearl Street; Stephen Cole & Son, 26 Ferry Street; J.S. De Lessert & Co., 123 Front Street; Joseph Thebaud, 262 Pearl Street; Nathaniel Cooper & Co., 38 Little Dock Street; Coll. M'Gregor, 28 Wall Street; David Wagstaff, 137 Front Street; Conkling & Lloyd, 15 Taylor's Wharf; and S.B. Garrick, Westphal & Co., 43 Cherry Street.
[Illustration: Hermann Sielcken
B.G. Arnold
F.B. Arnold
Joseph Purcell
SOME DEPARTED DOMINANT FIGURES IN THE NEW YORK GREEN COFFEE TRADE]
The leading New York coffee importers in 1848 were Henry and William Delafield, 108 Front Street; and Des Arts & Henser, 78 Water Street.
There were seven leading New York coffee importers in 1854, as follows: Aymar & Co., 34 South Street; Henry Coit & Son, 43 South Street; Henry Delafield, 129 Pearl Street; Howland & Aspinwall, 54 South Street; Mason & Thompson, 33 Pearl Street; J.L. Phipps & Co., 19 Cliff Street; and Moses Taylor & Co., 44 South Street.
Following the so-called "consortium" of 1868, the ramifications of which centered in Frankfort-on-the-Main--its speculations finally ending in disaster to many--the green-coffee trade was in a precarious condition until well into the eighties. "Previously," says a contemporary writer, "it had been the safest and prettiest of all colonial produce."
About 1868, "iron steamers began to be freely availed of as carriers of coffee; and later on, the telegraph became a factor, rendering the business more exciting and expensive".
Coffee consumption in the United States had, moreover, increased from one pound per capita in 1790 to nine pounds per capita in 1882.
1892-93 the biggest figure in the world's coffee trade was George Kaltenbach, a German living in Paris, whose resources were estimated at twelve million to fifteen million dollars, and whose holdings at one time were said to be one million bags. He was reported to have made $1,500,000 on his coffee corner. In September, 1892, he bested a bull clique and forced prices down to twelve cents. Aided by three other European operators, he then started a bull syndicate, and put the price up to seventeen cents. The story of this corner, and of other notable coffee booms and panics, is told in more detail in