uring
unloading, although this is sometimes postponed until the consignment is
in the warehouse. It is then graded and priced, and is offered for sale
by samples through brokers.

San Francisco is better equipped with modern unloading machinery and
other apparatus than either New Orleans or New York, even more liberal
use being made there than in New Orleans of the automatic-belt conveyors
both for transferring the bags from the ships to the docks and for
stacking them in high tiers on the pier. Another notable feature of the
modern coffee docks is that the newer ones are of steel and concrete
and, as in New Orleans, are covered to protect the coffee from wind and
storm.

_Europe's Great Coffee Markets_

Europe has three great coffee-trading markets--Havre, Hamburg, and
Antwerp. Rotterdam and Amsterdam are also important coffee centers, but
rank far below the others named. In point of volume of stocks, Havre led
the world before the war; while in respect to commercial transactions,
it ranked second, with New York first. In pre-war days, the largest part
of the world's visible supply of coffee was stored in the Havre bonded
warehouses, being available for shipment to any part of Europe on short
notice, or even to the United States in emergencies. Even during the
World War, this French port remained a powerful factor in international
coffee trading. Coffee trading in Havre, both exchange and "spot"
transactions, follows about the same general lines as in New York and
the other great coffee markets. Coffee "futures" are dealt in on the
Havre Bourse.

Green coffee is sold in London by auction in Mincing Lane. On arrival,
it is stored in bonded warehouses, and is released for domestic use only
when customs duty at the rate of four and one-half pence per pound has
been paid. The bulk of the coffee comes in parchment on consignment; and
before sale, it must be hulled and sorted in the milling establishments,
most of which are on the banks of the Thames.

[Illustration: ONE OF THE MODERN DEVICES USED IN SAN FRANCISCO FOR
HANDLING GREEN COFFEE]

The auctions are held four times a week, usually on Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday, and Friday. The sales are advertised in the market
papers--chief among which is the _Public Ledger_--and also by the
auctioneers, who issue catalogs of their offerings. A few hours before
the beginning of the sale, samples are laid out for inspection by
prospective buyers, who may cup-test them if