g in
disaster to many--the green-coffee trade was in a precarious condition
until well into the eighties. "Previously," says a contemporary writer,
"it had been the safest and prettiest of all colonial produce."

About 1868, "iron steamers began to be freely availed of as carriers of
coffee; and later on, the telegraph became a factor, rendering the
business more exciting and expensive".

Coffee consumption in the United States had, moreover, increased from
one pound per capita in 1790 to nine pounds per capita in 1882.

1892-93 the biggest figure in the world's coffee trade was George
Kaltenbach, a German living in Paris, whose resources were estimated at
twelve million to fifteen million dollars, and whose holdings at one
time were said to be one million bags. He was reported to have made
$1,500,000 on his coffee corner. In September, 1892, he bested a bull
clique and forced prices down to twelve cents. Aided by three other
European operators, he then started a bull syndicate, and put the price
up to seventeen cents. The story of this corner, and of other notable
coffee booms and panics, is told in more detail in chapter XXXI.

_Early Days of the Green Coffee Business_.

For a long time New York was the only important entry port for green
coffee. Before the rise of New Orleans and San Francisco, many inland
coffee roasters and grocers had their own buyers in the New York market.
The coffee district that still clings about lower Wall Street is rich in
memories of by-gone merchants who once were big factors in the trade,
and whose names, in many instances, have been handed down from
generation to generation in the businesses that have survived them.

Any reference to the early days of the green-coffee importing, jobbing,
and brokerage business in New York would not be complete without mention
of a few of the pioneers:

P.C. Meehan is eighty-four years old at the time of writing (1922) and
is dean of the New York green-coffee trade. With James H. Briggs he
formed the firm of Briggs & Meehan. This later became Meehan & Schramm,
with Arnold Schramm. The latter withdrew, and the firm became Creighton,
Morrison & Meehan. Finally, Mr. Meehan established the present firm of
P.C. Meehan & Co.

[Illustration: James H. Taylor

H. Simmonds

Edwin H. Peck

P.C. Meehan

THEIR ASSOCIATION WITH THE NEW YORK GREEN COFFEE TRADE DATES BACK NEARLY
FIFTY YEARS]

When Mr. Schramm withdrew from the firm of Meehan & Schramm