CHAPTEE XXIV. 



COFFEE-CONSUMPTION OF THE WOELD. 



The United States consumes nearly one-third of the exports 

 of coffee from all producing countries, having absorbed from a 

 total production of about 526,000 tons, an average of 166,482 tons 

 per annum for the last five years, of which about seventy-three 

 per cent, was the product of Brazil. There seems to be a steady 

 increase in the quantity taken, it having risen from an average of 

 79,848 tons annually from 1857 to 1861, to 156,482 tons annually 

 from 1876 to 1880. The tables of H. E. Moring & Co. make the 

 consumption on the Atlantic coast for 1880, 168,678 tons, and 

 the average for the five years from 1876 to 1881, 151,900 tons.' 

 The Pacific coast consumption averaged for the same period 5,080 

 tons, making a total for the United States of 156,980 tons, or 498 

 tons more than the net imports as reported by the United States 

 Bureau of Statistics. One notable feature is the disposition among 

 consumers in favor of mild coffee ; and with the opening of direct 

 railway communication with our sister republic of Mexico, a greater 

 disparity than now exists between the imports of coffee from Brazil 

 and those from other countries may be anticipated. In order to 

 study correctly the progress of coffee consumption in the United 

 States, it will be necessary to examine the subject somewhat in 

 detail. 



We first present the quantities and values of tea and coffee 

 imported into and exported from the United States, together with 

 the net imports and the estimated imports per capita of popula- 

 tion, from 1859 to 1880 inclusive. The net imports represent the 

 approximate consumption, those of tea being placed in comparison 

 with coffee in order to show the relative consumption of two 

 articles the active principle of which is identical in each. It is 



