1850, that not less than 18,000,000 lbs. of
vegetable matter of various kinds were sold annually under the
deceptive name of coffee. Three-fourths of these 18,000,000 lbs. of
pretended coffee were composed of chicory, and the remaining fourth of
other ingredients prejudicial to health, as well as a fraud upon the
revenue. The various substances used in adulterating both chicory and
coffee, when sold in the powdered state, have been specifically
pointed out and set forth from time to time in memorials from the
trade and the coffee-growers. Mr. M'Culloch and other competent judges
set down the actual consumption of chicory in the United Kingdom at
12,500 tons per annum. When we consider the vast difference of price
between chicory and coffee, as purchased by the wholesale dealer, the
temptation to its fraudulent use was obviously great, and there was no
penal restriction against it.

It will be interesting and useful to trace the history of the trade in
chicory from its first introduction.

The substitution of chicory for coffee occasioned a loss to the
revenue of three hundred thousand pounds sterling a-year, besides its
mischievous effect in adulterating and debasing a popular beverage
when used in such large and undue proportions for admixture, and sold
at the price of coffee.

Since the prohibition of the admixture of chicory with coffee, when
sold to the public, and the compulsory sale by Treasury minute of the
two articles in separate packages, a large and rapid increase in the
consumption of coffee has taken place, and the trade is now placed in
a healthy position. Whilst the increase in the consumption of coffee
from the 1st of January, to 5th September, 1852, was but 142,267 lbs.
as compared with the same period of 1851; the increase in the
remaining four months of the year was to the amazing extent of
2,350,368 lbs. This increased consumption is likely to continue, and
our colonial possessions are furnishing us with larger proportionate
supplies, as may be seen by the following figures:--

TOTAL IMPORTS OF COFFEE IN
1848 1849 1850 1851 1852
Produce of lbs. lbs. lbs. lbs. lbs.
British
Possessions
35,970,507 40,339,245 36,814,036 35,972,163 42,519,297
Ditto foreign
countries 21,082,943 22,976,542 13,989,116 17,138,497 11,857,957
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