490 COCOA 



CHAP. 



inferior quality, and is not better than the cocoa from 

 the Gold Coast. The Kamerun cocoa of lower quality 

 bears the commercial name " Victoria." 



The taste of the Kamerun cocoa is bitter, and the 

 beans are small and flat, whilst many lots are " smoky " 

 in flavour on account of defective artificial drying, as 

 used to occur with Thome cocoa. 



MARKETS 1 



The commerce takes place partly in the countries 

 of production and partly in Europe and New York. 



In the different ports from which cocoa is shipped, 

 cocoa merchants are established, who buy the cocoa 

 from the planters, and ship *it to Europe or New York 

 direct to manufacturers or to merchants there. In 

 Java, however, the planter usually ships it direct to 

 the merchant, who sells it for him at auction in 

 Amsterdam. 



From San Thome the cocoa goes direct to Lisbon 

 merchants. 



When the local commerce is important, it greatly 

 influences the prices paid on the world market, especially 

 when the local merchants are working in a speculative 

 way. 



Large quantities of cocoa are nowadays shipped 

 from the cocoa-growing country direct to the manu- 

 facturers in the different countries, but the greatest 

 part is conveyed to one of the ports of arrival, where 

 an important cocoa market exists. Of these ports 

 five of importance are in Europe Hamburg, Havre, 

 London, Amsterdam, and Lisbon and one in America 

 - New York. Of minor importance are Bordeaux, 

 Bremen, and Liverpool. 



1 The reader who takes an interest in the commerce of cocoa is strongly 

 recommended to read the interesting little book of Walter Stollwerck, Der 

 Kakao und die Schokoladenindustrie (Jena, Fischer, 1907), while the German 

 fortnightly review, Gordian, is always well informed as well about production 

 and commerce as about industry and manufacture. 



In speaking of the cocoa markets and the customs in trade I have for the 

 most part followed these two sources. 



