THE COFFEE TEADE. 195 



Considering the large supplies, prices ruled liigh in January, 1880, 

 fair to prime Kio selling at 15^ @ 17 cents ; Maracaibo, 13^ @ 

 17 cents ; Padang Java, 22 @ 24 cents. 



The deliveries in the early part of the year were large, but 

 during the spring and summer months they were comparatively 

 light. During the summer there was an attempt made by heavy 

 holders of East India coffee to control the supply of Brazil on the 

 spot, and to arrive, and their free purchases carried the price of 

 fair E.io, which, under the influence of a dull spring trade, had 

 dropped to 14J cents, up to 16J cents, and loaded them with a 

 heavy stock. Large receipts in E.io de Janeiro, however, and the 

 general statistical position, made buyers timid ; the combina- 

 tion being unable to sustain the market, prices declined rapidly, 

 and they soon found themselves owners of an immense stock of 

 Java and Brazil coffee that showed a loss of from three to five 

 cents per pound. The enormous shrinkage caused the failure of 

 the two largest coffee firms in America, and the sudden death of 

 a leading member of the combination threw affairs into confu- 

 sion, and thus led to the breaking up of the three largest coffee 

 houses in the United States. The loss sustained by the trade in 

 I^ew York and Boston, between July, 1880, and January, 1881, is 

 estimated at between $5,000,000 and $7,000,000, 



— 1881 — 



At the commencement of 1881 there was a stock at Atlantic 

 coast ports of 19,353 tons, and when the holdings are compared 

 with the stock held at the beginning of 1880, it will be noted that 

 on January 1, 1881, there were 95,429 bags of Brazil held at 

 'New York, against 223,249 bags on the 1st of January, 1880, a 

 difference of 127,820 bags ; while of Java and Singapore there 

 were 169,639 mats, or 133,363 mats more than were held at the 

 beginning of 1880. When prices are compared, it will be seen 

 that during 1880 there was a greater decline in the price of mild 

 coffee than in that of Brazil sorts, and this led to a;n increased de- 

 mand for Central American, Mexican, and Venezuela, as well as 

 low grade East India coffee, of which there was an unusually large 

 stock — the largest, in fact, that this market ever carried of grades 



