206 
THE GREAT COFFEE CORNER. 
By J. AI. McChesney. 
Coffee reached its lowest price on November 13, 1902 — No. 
7 Rio selling at 5 1-16 cents per pound on that day in New York. 
The crop of 1906-7 was the largest ever produced — reaching 
the enormous amount of nearly 24,000,000 bags. 
These were the two factors which brought about the great 
coffee ''corner," and raised the price to consumers of the break- 
fast cup two and a half times in six years. 
In 1895 this grade (No. 7 Rio) was selling at 17 cents in New 
York. This high price stimulated planting in Brazil to such an 
extent that in seven years (by 1902) prices reached their lowest 
level, and bankruptcy threatened coffee growers throughout the 
world. The price again rose gradually till it reached 7^^ cents in 
1906-7, when the bumper crop of that season (nearly 24,000,000 
bags of 130 pounds each) turned the scale again, and prices 
dropped to 5% at New York in December, 1907. Since when 
the combine between Brazil and European capitalists, commonly 
called the ''Valorization Scheme," has caused a slow but steady 
advance in prices, till in December last No. 7 Rio sold at 13^ 
cents in New York. 
Brazil is the great coffee growing country of the world, pro- 
ducing on an average more than 65 per cent, of the world's con- 
sumption. Sao Paulo, a State of Brazil, produces about 60 per cent, 
of the Brazilian crop. One plantation in Brazil produces 250,000 
bags of 130 pounds each, by actual figuring enough to furnish 
a cup to every man, woman and child in the United States and 
Canada every day for a week. Eight thousand persons live on 
this estate and make their living cultivating coffee. The fol- 
lowing table will be of interest as showing the world's produc- 
tion, the consumption yearly, the visible supply, and the price, 
on July 1, annually, for twenty years past: — 
Price No. 7 Ric, 
Year. World's A^isible Supply. New York. 
1891 
1.909,120 
17H 
1892 
2,955,023 
12^8 
1893 
3,100,618 
leys 
1894 
2,146,423 
ley. 
1895 
3,115,680 
isy 
1896 
2,588,193 
13 
1897 
3,975,880 
yys 
1898 
5,435,974 
6y4 
1899 
6,200,013 
6y 
1900 
5.840,561 
8 15-16 
1901 
6,867,327 
6 
