This means that 22 pounds of coffee have a gold value of 63
British pence (8.4 x 7-1/2 = 63.0), or 5/3, as the Englishman would
write it, which is equal to $1.27-1/2, making the coffee worth 5.8 cents
per pound. Of course the person familiar with Brazil quotations will not
need to make this reduction to the pound-cent term in order to
understand the figures. They will have a proper relative meaning to him
in their original form; and it must not be overlooked that it is in this
form only that they express correctly the value of the coffee in Brazil.
It may make a great difference to the Brazilian planter or exporter
whether an increased gold value of his coffee arises through a higher
milreis bid or an appreciated exchange, simply on account of local
currency considerations. That is to say, the purchasing power of a
milreis in Brazil will not necessarily vary exactly as the rate of
exchange on London.

London quotations are made in shillings and pence, on one hundred-weight
(cwt) of coffee. This "cwt" is not 100 pounds but 112 pounds, one
twentieth of the English ton (our long ton) of 2,240 pounds. And in all
English coffee statistics the coffee quantities are expressed in this
ton. A London quotation of 30/9 (30 shillings and 9 pence) for example,
is equivalent to $7.44 for 112 pounds of coffee, or 6.64 cents per pound
at the normal rate of exchange, $4.80 to $4.86 the pound sterling.

At Havre, the coffee price is given in francs, on a quantity of 50
kilograms. This is 110 pounds and almost as much, therefore, as the
British cwt. In normal times the franc is equal to 19.3 cents. A French
quotation of 37-1/2, for instance, means, therefore, $7.19 for 110
pounds of coffee, or 6.53 cents per pound.

The Hamburg quotation (formerly from Brazil per fifty kilos) is made on
one pound German, equal to 1/2 kilogram, and is expressed in pfennigs.
One pfennig is one-hundredth of a mark, and the mark once was equal to
23.8 cents. A German quotation of, say, 31, means, therefore, 7.38 cents
(31 x .238 = 7.378) for 1.1 pounds, or 6.71 cents per pound.

_Three Kinds of Brokers_

In the coffee trade there are three kinds of brokers--floor, spot, and
cost and freight.

Floor brokers are those who buy and sell options on the Coffee Exchange
for a fixed consideration per lot of 250 bags. The coffee commission
rate put into effect June 8, 1920, for round term (buying and selling)
by the New York Coffee Exchange was as follows: