COFFEA L. 7 



they easily distributed it; and its use readily extended to Persia and 

 Syria, then to Cairo and Venice; and it soon became the favorite 

 drink at Constantinople. Coffee-houses appeared in the cities of 

 all countries bordering on the eastern Mediterranean sea. The use 

 of coffee was introduced into Europe about the middle ot the seven- 

 teenth century; and, within a brief period, it became a favorite 

 drink in London, in Paris, and throughout Europe. Coffee-houses 

 became numerous, and served as gathering-places for literary men, 

 politicians, and all other ranks of society. 



Until about eighteen hundred, the world was dependent upon 

 Africa for its coffee-supply. Louis XIV is credited with being the 

 first to decree its introduction into the French West Indies at 

 Martinique. Other European governments soon afterward intro- 

 duced it successfully in the West Indies. The Dutch carried it 

 into Java, Sumatra, and other islands of the Malay Archipelago. 

 The coffee-plant was introduced into India about seventeen hundred 

 and into Ceylon soon afterward. Spanish missionaries brought it 

 to the Philippine Islands from Java in 1740. About this time, the 

 first plant was grown in Brazil. Later it spread to Cuba, Porto 

 Rico, and Mexico, and finally throughout Central and tropical South 

 America. 



Religious and state governments at various times attempted to 

 check the popularity of the coffee-beverage by denouncing it as an 

 insidiously pernicious drink and as occasioning gathering-places which 

 gave birth to and nourished sedition and dangerous revolutionary 

 ideas. Heavy taxation was levied as a source of governmental rev- 

 enue. In spite, however, of attempted prohibition and the changes 

 m the customs and habits of successive generations, the popularity 

 of coffee has increased until tTie annual world consumption is now 

 more than the enormous sum of 2,500,000,000 to 3,000,000,000 

 pounds. 



Africa, the original and only important source for world con- 

 sumption up to eighteen hundred, is to-day an unimportant factor 

 in the bulk of coffee-production; while Brazil, where the coffee- 

 plant is not native, has become the world's greatest coffee-growing 

 country. Although the United States is the largest consumer of 

 coffee with per capita consumption of twelve pounds per annum. 



