84 COCOA 



and chocolate factories. Joseph Fry first specialised 

 in the sale of " chocolate, nibs and cocoa " at a little 

 factory in Wine Street, Bristol. 



Cocoa, introduced into England in 1656, was still 

 a novelty in this country when the hero of our story 

 began to trade in it. But by that time it had become 

 a fashionable craze, under the name of " chocolata," 

 and the blue-bloods of English seventeenth-century 

 society had acquired the habit of resorting to cocoa- 

 houses to gossip, talk politics, and patronise the bever- 

 age which enjoyed the attractive recommendation of 

 having been served at Montezuma's feasts in Mexico. 

 Those cocoa-houses, by the way, were the origin of 

 some of modern London's most exclusive clubs. 



Inspired by a broad outlook and a scholarly appre- 

 ciation of the valuable nutritive properties of the cocoa 

 bean, Joseph Fry conceived the idea of popularising 

 cocoa and chocolate. By 1777, his business had far 

 outgrown the accommodation of its birthplace, so he 

 moved to more commodious premises in Union Street, 

 Bristol, near to where we are now standing. Those 

 premises have developed into the group of twelve 

 great factories we are about to visit, into a vast con- 

 course of up-to-date buildings in which the oldest 

 cocoa and chocolate making business in England has 

 grown into one of the largest and most prosperous of 

 industrial enterprises. 



Throughout the record-making career in which this 

 House of Fry has woven itself into one of the finest 

 romances of British industrial history, the business has 

 been captained by the founder's family. Although it 

 is now a limited company, the able Chairman is a 

 member of the historic family, and other members of 



