Islands, half in half, and pretend by this Mixture to make
the Chocolate better. I believe in the bottom, the difference
of Chocolates is not considerable, since they are only
obliged to increase or diminish the Proportion of Sugar,
according as the Bitterness of the Kernels require it.

_The Natural History of Chocolate_, R. Brookes, 1730.

The war has caused such a disturbance that the statistics for the years
of the war are difficult to obtain. For many years the German
publication, the _Gordian_, was the most reliable source of cacao
statistics, and so far we have nothing in England sufficiently
comprehensive to replace it, although useful figures can be obtained
from the Board of Trade returns of imports into Great Britain, from Mr.
Theo. Vasmer's reports which appear from time to time in _The
Confectioners' Union_ and elsewhere, from Mr. Hamel Smith's collated
material in _Tropical Life_, and from the reports of important brokers
like Messrs. Woodhouse. In 1919 the _Bulletin of the Imperial Institute_
gave a very complete _resume_ of cacao production as far as the British
Empire is concerned.

_Great Britain._

Since 1830 the consumption of cacao in the British Isles has shown a
great and continuous increase, and there is every reason to believe that
the consumption will easily keep pace with the rapidly growing
production. One effect of the war has been to increase the consumption
of cocoa and chocolate. Many thousands of men who took no interest in
"sweets" learned from the use of their emergency ration that chocolate
was a very convenient and concentrated foodstuff.

CACAO BEANS CLEARED FOR HOME CONSUMPTION.

Year. English Tons.
1830 450
1840 900
1850 1,400
1860 1,450
1870 3,100
1880 4,700
1890 9,000
1900 16,900
1910 24,550

CACAO BEANS IMPORTED INTO UNITED KINGDOM.

_Total _Retained in _Home
Year. Imported_ the country_ Consumption_
tons. tons. tons.
1912 33,600 27,450 24,600
1913 35,000 28,200 23,200
1914 41,750 29,600 24,900
1915 81,800 54,400 40,300
1916 88,800 64,750 29,300
1917 57,900 53,100 41,300

The above figures are compiled from the _Bulletin of the Imperial
Institute_ (No. 1, 1919). Th