STATISTICAL TABLES. 



243 



TABLE XIY. 



Prof. Van Den Berg estimated, in 1879, the consumption of coffee in the non- 

 coffee producing countries to be as follows : 



or 481,345 tons, against a production, as estimated above, of 490,840,000 kilos, 

 or 483,087 tons. 



The increased production of coffee in the last years thus scarcely keeps pace 

 with the increased consumption, and a serious failure of the crops must immedi- 

 ately cause a deficiency that would occasion a considerable rise in prices. 



But, on the other hand, we should not lose sight of the fact that the con- 

 sumption can suddenly decline very considerably through fiscal measures, and 

 with the present state of affairs in Europe it would not be advisable to look 

 upon this eventuality too slightingly. 



A diminished consumption must, in its turn, necessarily lower the prices of 

 this article, and for Netherlands,. " that has made her financial prosperity wholly 

 dependent on the prices of coffee, and where the rise or fall of a single cent in 

 the prices of coffee either enriches or impoverishes the exchequer by a million" 

 (D. C. Steijn ParvS : " Overzicht van het Handelsverkeer tusschen Nederland en 

 Engeland," p. 102 — " Review of the Commercial Relations between Netherlands 

 and England "), it is therefore of great importance that the sale of coffee should 

 everywhere remain as free and unobstructed as possible, in order that the con- 

 sumption may increase uninterruptedly in the same proportion as the production 

 will, by degrees, probably develop itself. 



Her own interests should prompt Netherlands to set the example to other 

 countries in this matter ; and a prudent policy seems also to require that the 

 system should be gradually abandoned that makes it almost an impossibility 

 for the stranger to procure the coffee he requires for his own consumption at the 

 place of production itself. 



N. P. VAN DEN BERG. 



Batavia, November, 1879. 



