years: 1910-1914
Total pounds: 899,339,327]
Another valorization campaign was launched by Brazil in 1918, and a
third in 1921. Early in 1918, the Sao Paulo government bought about
3,000,000 bags. Subsequent events caused a sharp advance in prices, and
at one time it was said that the holdings showed a profit of
$60,000,000. The Brazil federal government appointed an official
director of valorization, Count Alexandre Siciliano. A federal loan of
L9,000,000, with 4,535,000 bags of valorized coffee as collateral, was
placed in London and New York in May, 1922.
European consumption during the last century has been marked by the
growth of imports into France and Germany; these being the two leading
coffee drinkers of the world, aside from the United States. Germany held
the lead in European consumption during the whole of the nineteenth
century, and also in this century until all imports were stopped by the
Allied navies; although, in actual imports, Holland for many years
showed higher figures. Both Holland and England have acted as
distributers, re-exporting each year most of the coffee which entered
their ports. In the last half-century, the chief consumers, in the order
named, have been Germany, France, Holland, Austria-Hungary, and Belgium.
However, with the removal of the duty on coffee in the last-named
country in 1904, imports trebled; and Belgium took third place. The
table at the top of this page shows the general trend of the trade for
the last seventy years.
TREND OF EUROPEAN COFFEE CONSUMPTION FOR SEVENTY YEARS
_Year_ _Germany_ _France_ _Holland_ _Aus.-Hung._ _Belgium_
(pounds) (pounds) (pounds) (pounds) (pounds)
1853 104,049,000 48,095,000 46,162,000 44,716,000 41,270,000
1863 146,969,000 87,524,000 30,299,000 44,966,000 39,305,000
1873 215,822,000 98,841,000 79,562,000 71,111,000 49,874,000
1883 251,706,000 150,468,000 130,380,000 74,145,000 62,846,000
1893 269,381,000 152,203,000 75,562,000 79,438,000 52,046,000
1903 403,070,000 246,122,000 78,328,000 104,200,000 51,859,000
1913 369,347,000 254,102,000 116,749,000 130,951,000 93,250,000
Most of the coffee for these countries has for many years been supplied
by Brazil, even Holland bringing in several times as much from Brazil as
from the Dutch East Indies. Special features of the European trade have
been the organization, in
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