s in
the days of Queen Anne, and well known by its sign of the "Cocoa Tree,"
was at first the headquarters of the Jacobite party, and the resort of
Tories of the strictest school. It became later a noted gambling house
("The gamesters shook their elbows in White's and the chocolate houses
round Covent Garden," _National Review_, 1878), and ultimately developed
into a literary club, including amongst its members Gibbon, the
historian, and Byron, the poet.

_Tax on Cacao._

The growing consumption of chocolate did not escape the all-seeing eye
of the Chancellors of England. As early as 1660 we find amongst various
custom and excise duties granted to Charles II:

"For every gallon of chocolate, sherbet, and tea made and
sold, to be paid by the maker thereof ..... 8d."

Later the raw material was also made a source of revenue. In _The Humble
Memorial of Joseph Fry_, of Bristol, Maker of Chocolate, which was
addressed to the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury in 1776 (Messrs.
Fry and Sons are the oldest English firm of chocolate makers, having
been founded in 1728), we read that "Chocolate ... pays two shillings
and threepence per pound excise, besides about ten shillings per
hundredweight on the Cocoa Nuts from which it is made."

In 1784 a preferential customs rate was proposed in favour of our
Colonies. This they enjoyed for many years before 1853, when the uniform
rate, until recently in force, was introduced. This restrictive tariff
on foreign growths rose in 1803 to 5s. 10d. per pound, against 1s. 10d.
on cacao grown in British possessions. From this date it gradually
diminished. High duties hampered for many years the sale of cocoa, tea
and coffee, but in recent times these duties have been brought down to
more reasonable figures. For many years before 1915 the import duty was
1d. per pound on the raw cacao beans, 1d. per pound on cacao butter, and
2s. a hundredweight (less than a farthing a pound) on cacao shells or
husks. In the Budget of September, 1915, the above duties were increased
by fifty per cent. A further and greater increase was made in the Budget
of April, 1916, when cacao was made to pay a higher tax in Britain than
in any other country in the world. In 1919 Imperial preference was
introduced after a break of over sixty years, the duty on cocoa from
foreign countries being 3/4d. a pound more than that from British
Possessions.

_Duty on Cacao._

1855-1915. 1915