COMMISSION RATE ON 250 BAGS

(For Round Term--Buying and Selling)

Up to 10c to
9.99c 19.99c 20c & up
per lb. per lb. per lb.
Members $12.50 $15.00 $20.00
Non-members 25.00 30.00 40.00
Foreign members 17.50 20.00 25.00
Foreign non-members 30.00 35.00 45.00
Floor brokerage--
Buying or selling 1.50 1.75 2.00

There is at present (1922) a stamp tax of two cents on each hundred
dollars value, or fraction thereof, figured on each separate lot.

[Illustration: SUN-CURING THE WASHED GREEN BEANS ON CEMENT DRYING
PATIOS]

[Illustration: NEAR VIEW OF HEAVILY LADEN TREES READY FOR THE PICKERS]

[Illustration: TYPICAL COFFEE SCENES IN COSTA RICA]

Spot brokers are those who deal in actual coffee, selling from jobber
to jobber, or representing out-of-town houses; the seller paying a
commission of about fifteen cents a bag in small lots, and half of one
percent in large lots.

Cost and freight brokers represent Brazilian accounts, and generally
receive a brokerage of one and one-quarter percent. On out-of-town
business, they usually split the commission with the out-of-town or
"local" brokers. The out-of-town brokers sometimes, however, deal direct
with the importer. All brokers except floor brokers are sometimes called
"street brokers." Most of the large New York, New Orleans, and San
Francisco brokerage houses also do a commission business, handling one
or more Brazilian or other coffee-producing-country accounts.

_Important Rulings Affecting Coffee Trading_

The United States have no coffee law as they have a tea law--prescribing
"purity, quality and fitness for consumption"--but buyers and sellers of
green coffees are required to observe certain well defined federal rules
and regulations relating specifically to coffee. Up to the year 1906,
when the Pure Food and Drugs Act became law, the green coffee trade was
practically unhampered; and several irregularities developed, calling
into existence federal laws that were designed to protect the consumer
against trade abuses, and at the same time to raise the standards of
coffee trading.

Under these regulations it is illegal to import into this country a
coffee that grades below a No. 8 Exchange type, which generally