14 



COCOA. 



643,215 fanegas (the fanega consisting of 110 lbs.); in the following 

 eighteen years (up to 1748) to 869,247 fanegas; and in the fifteen 

 years following (up to 1754) to 887,191 fanegas ; the first period 

 giving 21,440, the second 48,291, and the third 55,449 fanegas as the 

 annual average ; the exportation last alluded to being thus divided : 



Fanegas. 



To Spain 503,721 



Canary Islands 76,141 



„ Vera Cruz 279,074 



„ San Domingo, Porto Eico, and Havana 28 , 255 



887,191 



From the same work, it appears that in the year 1728 the Dutch 

 sold the cocoa which they imported into Spain at from 70 to 80 dollars 

 per fanega, the price in Caracas at that period being from 7 to 

 10 dollars ; whilst the Guipuzcuanian Trading Company, which was 

 established in the same year (1728), sold their cocoa in Spain for 

 from 45 to 50 dollars, having, after the war of 1738, lowered the price 

 to 30 dollars, which was the highest price they ever paid for cocoa in 

 Caracas up to the year 1765. In the year 1730 the produce of the 

 759 cocoa estates, which then existed in Venezuela, was calculated at 

 60,000 fanegas annually ; and in the year 1765 it was computed to 

 have attained the amount of 130,000 fanegas annually. From the 

 year 1770 to 1774 the Guipuzcuanian Trading Company declared its 

 total exports of cocoa from the provinces of Caracas and Maracaibo 

 to Spain amounted to 179,156 fanegas, giving a yearly average of 

 35,830 fanegas. 



Lizarruga, a respectable Biscayan planter of the neighbourhood of 

 Caracas, writing in the year 1830, on behalf of the agriculturists 

 of the country, estimated the former annual yield of cocoa of the 

 whole of the republic of Venezuela at about 150,000 fanegas, which, 

 at the medium price of the time, 20 dollars per fanega, amounted 

 in value to 3,000,000 dollars ; but at the date of his writing he calcu- 

 lated the yield at but 75,000 fanegas. M. Mollien, a French traveller 

 in Venezuela during the years 1822-23, states, upon the authority of 

 a report sent in to the Spanish Viceroy Samana by Seiior Jove, an 

 enlightened public functionary, the approximate amount of the annual 

 export of cocoa from the Venezuelan provinces to have been, during 

 the six years anterior to 1810, 100,000 fanegas, at an average rate of 

 20 dollars per fanega. The Trinitario seed is, at the present time, 

 the staple of cocoa from the districts of Giiiria, Maturin, Cardpano, 

 and down the eastward, or windward, coast as far as the Eio Chica ; 

 but the native or genuine " Creole " plant is still cultivated uj)on 

 some few estates. The Trinitario seed is also sown to some extent in 

 the valleys of the Tuy, near the capital, although the majority of the 

 estates there are sown with Creole seed, and thus good cocoa can still 

 be procured from thence. From the port of La Guayra, running 

 westward towards Puerto Cabello, and particularly at Choroni, Ocu- 

 mare, Turiamo, Patanemo, and Borburato, lie the districts where the 

 best Venezuelan cocoa is now produced ; and the choicest of all at an 

 estate called Chuao, near Choroni, the property of the University of 



