Coffee : The Keystone of Capitalism

A good case can be made that coffee is the foundation of modern civilization, no not Starbucks, but the whole capitalist, democratic edifice. Coffee originated in Ethiopia and is first documented in the 9th century. There are several legends as to its discovery
by the outside world, the most popular has it that a renowned Arab Sufi mystic, while traveling in Ethiopia saw goats jumping around after eating berries, he tried some and found that they were energizing. An Ethiopian variant revolves around a goatherder, named Kaldi, who made a similar observation, later immortalized in 'The legend of the Dancing Goats'.

The word coffee comes originally from the Arabic 'qahwat al-bun' meaning the wine of the bean, shortened to 'qahwa' it became 'kahve' in Turkish and 'caffé' in Italian. Yemeni traders, ubiquitous to the shores of the Indian ocean, brought the beans back to Arabia, probably in the early 1400's, and the use of coffee began to spread. It is not documented as to who first decided it would be better to boil the roasted beans in water rather than just chew on them as the goats had done, but while Columbus was stumbling upon the Americas the Muslim world was discovering the delights of a good cup of coffee. As with every great advance in civilization, it was not without it's detractors; in 1511 the court at Mecca issued a ban on coffee, overturned a mere 13 years later by the Ottoman Sultan, Selim I. Similarly a fatwa issued in Egypt, In 1532, allowing coffee was quickly followed by a secular ban and the sacking of the coffee warehouses in Cairo. But you cannot stop the tide, in 1530 the first coffeehouse opened in Damascus.
Under Sharia law, followed by the Muslim world, the consumption of alcohol is forbidden. This ban meant that there was no corner bar, no cozy pub, no meeting place where people could congregate and discuss ideas without supervision and direction. The
coffee-house provided that, with the added fillip of the stimulating drink itself. The Venetians, the greatest Mediterranean traders of that time, soon brought the beverage and concept to Europe where it spread like wildfire. Initially marketed as a luxury for the wealthy, it was actually 'baptized', in 1600, by Pope Clement VIII, somewhat akin to the FDA seal of approval.

There are several claimants to the first English coffeehouse, the first one, not withstanding the plaque adorning the wall in 'The Grand Cafe', Oxford, would appear to have opened in St. Michael's Alley, Cornhill, London. Theses establishments. Especially in London and Amsterdam, soon became meeting-places, often developing a particular following. Will's Coffee House, in Convent Garden was frequented by John Dryden and other satirists but probably the most famous was that run by Edward Lloyd which evolved into the insurance giant Lloyds of London. By 1739, it is estimated, there were over 500 coffeehouses in London frequented by specific groups; jobbers, writers, poets, men of fashion, lawyers, merchants, agents and, of course, every political faction in the spectrum. As the century evolved the private club grew more popular, coffeehouses being open to anyone, in an effort to separate the riff-raff from their 'betters'.

Given the stimulative effect of coffee, it is easy to surmise that these places deserve credit, at least in part, for the explosion of industry and commerce around that time. London and Amsterdam became the centers of mercantile power; coincidence? No, I don't think so. The Stock Exchange, Lloyds, the Bank of England, the growth of the East India Company and the Dutch East India Company all emerged from these establishments (the fact that women were banned from English and French coffeehouses may well explain the male dominance of these areas of business - especially considering that women were well-represented in other business ventures prior to this). Both Sotheby's and Christie's were founded by auctions being held in coffeehouses.
The first coffeehouse in America was founded in Boston in 1670, again quickly gaining popularity. Once more they became a place "where you have the right to read all the papers for and against the government," to quote Abbe Provost, and thus a breeding ground
for revolution. By the early 18th century, coffee was being grown in the West Indies and by 1727, when the Emperor of Brazil dispatched an Ambassador to French Guiana to steal some plants, a venture he succeeded in by seducing the wife of the Governor so that she gave them to him as a gift, there was a plantation in Brazil. Production escalated to the point that it became a drink for the masses, a common staple. In 1893 plant was introduced to Kenya, an ironic twist as this was just around the corner from it's place of origin. With further irony, Vietnam is today the second largest producer of coffee; communism supplies the capitalist tool.

Edmond Albius : A great discovery

This is the story of how a 12 year old slave changed society. It is certainly ironic that vanilla, actually the second most expensive spice in the world after saffron, should be synonymous with bland and boring. The vanilla bean, from which we get the delicious flavoring actually comes from an orchid, the word is Spanish in origin and means 'little pod'. For those of you who have only experienced the vanilla extract we get in super-markets, I would strongly recommend buying a couple of beans just to inhale that wondrous fragrance. The legend of the origin of this orchid says that a beautiful Princess, named Xanat, fell in love with a mere mortal. Forbidden to marry the couple eloped but were caught and beheaded. The spot where there blood touched the ground was where the first vanilla orchid bloomed.
More reliably attested to is the fact that the Totonac people, living in Mexico near what is today, Veracruz, were the first to utilize the bean. The Aztecs were so enamored of the flavor that they conquered the Totonacs to ensure there supply. The Aztecs called it 'black flower' because of the way it dries, darkens and shrivels up shortly after picking. When Cortes arrived at the Aztec court Montezuma in 1519 he was greeted with bowls of a dark liquid topped by frothy 'snow'. Chocolate, from the cacao bean, is bitter in its natural form so that the Aztecs had taken to mixing the chocolate with vanilla to sweeten it. The result was similar to the advent of Starbucks except on a grander scale. The Spanish soon had the royalty of Europe paying through the nose for a product for which they had the only source of both ingredients.
The English Queen, Elizabeth I, was notorious for her sweet tooth, ladies-in-waiting carried pockets full of candies, usually of confections of chocolate and vanilla, which she munched on through the day. In 1602 her apothecary, Hugh Morgan, suggested using the vanilla to flavor other products, he made candies from almond paste with vanilla amongst other things. Almost overnight a whole industry was born, particularly amongst French chefs, which is why we refer to French Vanilla; this is not a distinct flavor, rather an acknowledgment of their creative industry in producing so many marvelous vanilla variants.
This was where the problem arose. With the vanilla orchid nature has produced one of those great symbiotic relationships; the vine which produces the orchid can only be pollinated by the local species of Melipona bee. Unfortunately no one realized this until a Belgian botanist, Charles Morren, worked it out in 1836 (he watched the bees while drinking coffee on a patio in Veracruz). Given the value of the commodity, both monetarily and in terms of power by virtue of the the nobility's craving, you can well imagine the numerous attempts to transplant the orchid. The French, in particular, tried to grow it in what remained of their North American possessions, and then, as they dwindled, the islands and enclaves they controlled in the Indian Ocean. All to no avail! Morren did devise a very convoluted way of pollinating the orchids but it was so time consuming as to not be worth the effort.
Reunion is a volcanic island in the Indian ocean, east of Madagascar. Only 40 miles long by 30 wide it was first used as a 'prison' for French mutineers in 1642. Immigrant French set up sugar plantations with African, Chinese, Malay and Arab labor and, by 1830, the population had topped a 100,000. One of the slaves on the plantations was a 12 year old of African descent called Edmond Albius who was employed by his master, Fereol Beaumont, to watch over the valuable vanilla flowers he had imported. Without the assistance of the bees to watch, he also discovered how they were pollinated and worked out a method, using a twisted sliver of bamboo to lift the flap that separates the male anther from the female stigma he simply smeared the pollen on with his thumb. Success! This, with hindsight, simple method of pollination would revolutionize vanilla production as well as allowing it's cultivation throughout the tropics.
Today very little vanilla comes from Mexico, often the product sold in markets is mixed with the tonka bean; the majority of vanilla now comes from Madagascar, considered to be the best, and Indonesia. Between them they exported 8,600 tons in 2006, over 80% of the world's production. One of the culinary ironies is that vanilla and chocolate are considered the two poles of ice-cream where once they were inseparable.

Slate in Caernarfon

The geological structure of an area, obviously, has a great influence on the later evolvement. Gwynedd, North Wales, conjures up a picture of pastoral slopes, mountains, rushing brooks and castles; the countryside populated more by sheep than people. A closer look at the landscape reveals a once thriving industry: slate quarrying. The use of slate in the area goes back at least until Roman times when it was used to roof the fort at Segontium (Caernarfon). It was quarried by local men and shipped to England, Ireland and France as it was much prized for castle roofs for it's incombustible and impervious qualities. Generally the quarrymen paid a royalty to the landowner and worked as independent contractors, a rent roll from 1413 shows that workers in Penrhyn Quarry were paid 10 pence (about 16¢) for 5000 slates. The Cilgwyn Quarry was on Crown land and thus the quarrymen did not have to pay rent or royalties, a fact which became a subject of complaints about unfair competition.

Towards the end of the 18th century the industrial revolution was gathering steam in Britain and there was increasing demand from the mill-owners of Lancashire, Yorkshire and the Midlands to throw up cheap houses. Demand soared for the slate and landowners, beginning with Richard Pennant, Baron Penrhyn started employing quarrymen themselves. In 1782 the independent workers were bought out or evicted and the new quarry, near Bethesda was to become the largest in the world. The quarrying system now became industrialized, horse drawn carts being replaced by trams and then narrow gauge railways. Small communities such as Bethesda, Pen-y-Groes and Blaneau Ffestiniog grew into towns with populations of 5000 - 10,000, with shops, an ice-rink and dance-halls.
he quarrymen stayed in barracks next to the quarries through the week, bidding farewell to their wives and sweethearts at kissing gates. The industry prospered through the 19th century, 17,000 men were employed to produce over half a million slates in 1893. A bitter labor dispute at the
Penrhyn quarry at the turn of the century followed by a depression and two world wars saw the decline and closure of the quarries. Today the quarries are flooded and tourists may ride the small railways to envision a hard life of a hundred and fifty years ago.