A treatise concerning the properties and effects of coffee

The reception which four editions of this Treatise have met with, has made it necessary to publish a fifth; which I now present to the reader, with such additions, as I hope will be acceptable and useful‍1.

I have collected many authorities, to corroborate what I have advanced; that, as my opinions have prejudices to contend with, they may not, however, be objectionable on the ground of singularity, and be considered as supported by no other testimony than my own.

In treating of the salutary advantages, which the public will derive, individually, from the general use of Coffee, it is impossible not to reflect also on the political benefits which will accrue to the Parent State, by increasing its cultivation in her Colonies.

To the Colonists themselves the object is very extensive; and surely the prosperity of so important a part of the empire, as our West Indian Islands, demands the most liberal attention on the part of the nation.

From the produce of our Plantations, that “magnificent property,” as Mons. Necker terms the French Colonies, “which only the superficial and ignorant affect to undervalue,” this country receives great additions to her revenue, and a total supply of one of the most useful articles (perhaps now a necessary) of life. Yet, from the calamities lately inflicted on some of them by the hand of Providence, and the accumulated burthens which the public necessities have laid on them all, many of the Planters are involved in ruin; and those who escape must owe their deliverance to the bravest struggles of industrious virtue.

The population of White Inhabitants, which is the great security of the Islands, consists chiefly of those who cultivate the inferior Staple Commodities, among which, Coffee is now the principal; and this population has always been proportionable to the increase or decrease of those Staples. Indigo may be instanced as an example: When Indigo was encouraged in Jamaica, before that impolitic duty was laid on it, which exterminated the cultivation of it in our Colonies, and gave it to the French, there were considerably more White Inhabitants in that Island than there are at present, though the Island now produces five times the quantity of Sugar and Rum it did at that time.

The cultivation of Coffee requiring but little capital, is an inducement for people of small fortunes to settle in the Islands. It is a creditable refuge  for the industrious man, who has been unfortunate in Trade, and to those whose larger schemes in life have failed.‍—It is an easy employment; the labour light, and many parts of it performed by children. The situations and soil where it is carried on must be dry, and of course healthy, to be advantageous. Coffee Plantations, in particular, may be considered as a Nursery of useful Inhabitants for the Colonies.

The soil best suited for Coffee is happily such as can be spared from every other purpose. Large tracts of poor land, which would otherwise lie waste and useless, may be rendered as profitable as the best, without the mortality and casualties attendant on severe labour in hot climates.

The numerous little families which live on Coffee Plantations, and are dispersed in small settlements, in the interior parts of the Islands, occasion the mountainous and woody lands to be cleared and opened; and to be intersected with roads and easy communications.

Thus the residents live in safety, and all sorts of property acquire a proportionate value and security. The retreats of fugitive negroes are laid open; plunder and depredation prevented; and conspiracies for rebellion are deprived of their hiding-places.‍—And thus the credit of the planter, and security of the merchant, stand on a firm basis:‍—those commotions being prevented, which have so often disturbed the tranquillity of the Islands, and occasioned the ruin of many individuals abroad and at home, to the great defalcation of that immense revenue, which these Islands pay to the Mother-Country‍2.

Besides, the importance of a numerous body of men, to form an occasional militia, is evident, to any person acquainted with the Colonies, who must know how little fatigue and exposure to the sun is sufficient to destroy an unseasoned stranger.

Inhabitants are always ready in case of sudden emergency; and being acquainted with local circumstances, and inured to the climate, can perform services, which uninformed, raw, European troops cannot do; and, were interest and attachment less operative considerations, Colonial Inhabitants may be depended on;‍—many instances of which were exhibited in the events of last war.

The firmness displayed by the militia of Jamaica, during the different periods of Martial Law at that time, when left almost to defend themselves, ought ever to be remembered to their honour. While many of the troops that were raised here with so much difficulty, and sent thither and maintained at so much cost, were perishing in hospitals, the Island militia underwent the severest fatigues, with the greatest alacrity; chiefly at their own, and, let me add, very heavy expence, I was then Surgeon-General of the Island, and had the care of the militia, and likewise the camps of the regulars, and witnessed the facts I relate.

The truth is, that Sugar Plantations, though they are great sources of wealth to their proprietors, as well as to government, do not employ a sufficient number of white people for their internal security, against the insurrections of the negroes. The manufacture is simple, and the labour wholly carried on by slaves; and though the Deficiency Law of Jamaica directs, that one white person shall be employed for every thirty slaves, under a penalty of thirty pounds per annum for every deficiency,‍—yet, this law is often defeated, or the fine submitted to; as white servants are expensive, and a less number than that proportion is sufficient for the purpose of making Sugar.

The cultivation of inferior Staple Commodities is therefore necessary to the very existence of the Sugar Colonies; and I am persuaded will prove to them more beneficial in many respects, than at present is generally imagined.‍—Here, then, is an open and grateful field for Colonial Patriotism; in which the Amor Patriæ will neither find opposition from envy, nor disappointment from ingratitude.‍—Here is the occasion to demonstrate the love of country, and to perpetuate a benefit to mankind, which will never be forgotten; and if those who, from character and situation are entitled to attention, will come forward, and point out to the Public the impositions it has suffered from misrepresentations, and that the interests of the Sugar Colonies are no other than the best interests of this Country, there will never be wanting sufficient good sense in the Nation, to understand, that a subject of the realm, exerting his industry at four thousand miles distance, may be employed as beneficially to the State, as the manufacturer at home, who lives by him; and is as much deserving the protection of it, as the Country ’Squire, who leaves his fox-hounds, to give a silent vote or two during the winter, and retires the remainder of the year to his Sabine Fields in sloth and ignorance.

Sir Nicholas Laws was the first person who planted Coffee in Jamaica;‍—but dying three years afterwards, in 1731, he had not the happiness to see the cultivation of it make any considerable progress.

In 1732, several of the Planters and Merchants, belonging to the Island, became patrons of the undertaking; and convinced that, under proper encouragement, it might be of importance to the Island, and that Coffee might become a flourishing staple article of produce, they subscribed the sum of 220l. 10s. towards defraying the charges of soliciting an act of parliament for lowering the inland duty, upon the importation of Coffee from Jamaica into Great Britain; which at that time was 10l. sterling per cwt.

The circumstance being but little known at present, and considering what obligation the Island is under to their exertions, I am happy in having an opportunity of inserting their names, as a proper tribute to the memory of those benefactors to the Colony, and friends to the Nation.

LONDON, Anno 1732.

A List of the persons who subscribed and paid into the hands of Mr. Roger Drake and Co. the several sums undermentioned, towards defraying the charges of an application, for an Act of Parliament, to encourage the planting of Coffee in the Island of Jamaica.

In the same year, and in consequence of this solicitation, the Act 5th Geo. II. was passed, entitled, “An Act for encouraging the growth of Coffee in the Plantations in America.”‍—The preamble recites, that the soil and climate of Jamaica are particularly adapted for the growth of this commodity; and the act itself reduces the inland duty upon British Plantation Coffee, imported into Great Britain, from two shillings to eighteen pence per pound:‍—And here it stood for many years, producing a revenue of about 10,000l. per annum. A few years ago, on the representation of the West Indian Planters, Lord John Cavendish, the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, consented to the very important reduction of one shilling more; thereby furnishing a most useful lesson to all future financiers,‍—the present duty of six pence per pound actually producing nearly three times the sum that was received when the duty was eighteen pence: so true is the doctrine, that heavy taxation defeats its own purpose.

It has been computed, that one acre of land will contain 1100 Coffee plants, which will produce berries in eighteen months from the sowing of the seed. The trees will continue bearing for seven or eight years.‍—Each tree, after the first bearing, may produce, at a medium, one and an half or two pounds weight, one with another; and six or eight servants can manage ten or twelve acres, besides cultivating provisions for themselves. Upon this ground of calculation, it is apparent, that one acre of land, supposing the weather not unfavourable, may yield annually from 1700 lb. to 2200 lb. weight, which, when brought to market, may sell for 9l. 15s. to 12l. 15s. sterling net. This, it is true, is but a small profit; for it is little more than five farthings per pound, whereas the duty alone is six pence per pound. If the duty was equalized to that upon Sugar, the medium profits per acre would be about 40l. per annum. At present, the net profits upon this article, and upon Sugar in Jamaica, are nearly equal per acre; that is, 10l. or 12l. sterling.

In the year 1752, the export of Coffee from Jamaica was rated at 60,000 pounds weight. In 1775, it was 440,000 pounds.‍—Under the present duty of six pence per pound, there is reason to expect, that the exports may rather increase than diminish. But it is not likely to become a subject of very extensive culture in our West Indian Islands, until even this duty is lowered, or at least while foreign Coffee is permitted to enter into completion with it at the British market. Though the Planters of Jamaica, after a multitude of experiments, and the most laudable exertions, have discovered the art of cultivating, picking, and curing the berries, so as to make their Coffee equal to the growth of Arabia; some samples have been produced from that Island, before the cultivation was so well understood as it is at present, which were pronounced, by the London dealers, even superior to the best brought from the East.

“Two of the samples were equal to the best Mocha Coffee, and two more of them superior to any Coffee to be had at the grocers shops in London, unless you will pay the price of picked Coffee for it, which is two shillings per pound more than for that which they call the best Coffee. All the rest of the samples were far from bad Coffee, and very little inferior, if at all, to what the grocers call best Coffee‍3.”

What revolutions may change the nature of our commerce, were it possible to foresee, it is not in my province to examine; but the Legislature of England, as well as those of her Colonies, have had a wise example before them, in the conduct of France, by her promoting and protecting the growth of every thing, that could supply the place of articles which Europe purchases in the East Indies. Piementa, or Pimento (Myrtus Arborea Aromatica foliis laurinis), or All-spice, as it is commonly called, from having a flavour composed, as it were, of cloves, cinnamon, juniper berries, nutmegs, and pepper, is the peculiar spice of Jamaica‍4: and it equals in virtues, and is more applicable to the general purposes of life, and luxury too, than any spice that is brought from the East. The various uses into which Pimento is converted in Europe, are but little known to those who raise it. One secret, at least, I am able to divulge to them, which is, that its essential oil, coloured with Alkanet Root, to give it the appearance of age, is sold all over Europe for the oil of cloves‍5.

Sir Hans Sloane, in the Phil. Trans. Abr. vol. II. p. 667. says, that “Piementa may deservedly be counted the best and most temperate, mild, and innocent, of common spices, and fit to come into greater use, and gain more ground, than it yet hath, of the East India commodities of this kind; almost all of which it far surpasses, by promoting the digestion of meat, attenuating tough humours, moderately heating, strengthening the stomach, expelling wind, and doing those friendly offices to the bowels, we generally expect from spices.”

To this inferiority of the dear-bought and far-fetched spices of the East, I can bear ample testimony;‍—and it ought further to be considered, that the spice in question, being the produce of one of our own Colonies, and growing there in the greatest abundance, can be afforded at a price that the poor of Great Britain may have all the comforts of its excellent properties; which I hope to have leisure to make sufficiently known to them hereafter.

The encouraging every article which increases the intercourse with our Colonies, is increasing our commerce. The payment for all the staples of the West Indies is made in our manufactures; the sale of which must increase in proportion to the numbers that are employed in the cultivation of what is bartered for them. Our West Indian Islands, without draining us of specie or bullion, can supply us with many of those very articles for which we are drained in other parts of the world‍6. The quantity of shipping and seamen, necessarily employed in carrying supplies thither, and transporting their commodities back to Europe, must be very considerable. To these reflections it must also be added, that the political disadvantage of not encouraging our own Colonies is, that we must encourage those of other countries, which have long supplied our markets, to the detriment of our revenue, and the impoverishing our Colonies.

How long our superiority in some branches of manufacture may continue to be the source of wealth they are at present, is uncertain; but by improving the produce of our own soil, and encouraging the consumption at home, of such commodities as give employment to our own subjects abroad, England will enrich her Colonies, and draw proportionate advantages; secure their attachment, and establish a population there, indispensable for the protection of those possessions, which are productive of the most valuable and permanent commerce of the empire.

London, Pall Mall;
 30 January, 1792.