I. Chocolate Consumption
a. Chocolate as a Stimulant
It would not be an exaggeration to say that the demand for chocolate throughout history has been the main cause for its success. As this paper will explain, there was a long term growth in the appetite for chocolate up until the First World War. Chocolate largely is part of a number of beverages that reputedly can cause a slight addiction. Just as coffee, tea, and tobacco contain psychoactive alkaloids, so does chocolate. Although theobromine, the alkaloid contained in chocolate is not as powerful as the stimulants in other products, its still affects the human body. The nervous system is positively stimulated when chocolate is consumed, and for a while physical fatigue gives way to an energetic boost. Moreover, for a long time chocolate was one of the few beverages that boasted a high nutritional value, helping to overcome hunger as well.(Clarence-Smith ALL 7-8)
b. Spanish Expansion in the sixteenth century
Chocolate consumption has a very long history. Interestingly, although nowadays chocolate is associated with the cold times of the year, the beverage has its origins in the hot and humid tropics. As early as 3000 BCE, numerous cultures in Central America cultivated cacao. The Aztecs, the Mayas and the Olmec used cacao not only for consumption and ritual ceremonies, but also as a means of currency. There have been found traces of cacao consumption in the Ulúa valley in Honduras, as early as 1150 BCE. But only after the 1500s and the Spanish discovery of the New World, would this novel plant spread throughout the world. When the Spanish arrived in Central America, the consumption of chocolate was restricted by the natives only to specific ceremonies and to certain classes of people. Ignoring the ceremonial attitude, the Spanish spread a new and exciting beverage all over their dominions. To mask the strong bitter taste of cacao, they would sweeten it with sugar and spice it with vanilla and sometimes cinnamon. As such, chocolate soon spread to all parts of the New World and returned with the Spaniards to Europe.
c. Chocolate in Baroque Times Under Threat
During Baroque times chocolate was to find its first challenge. As its consumption became more popular from the 1750s onwards, it was also suffering from a bad image. Given that most chocolate was consumed in Catholic countries (Spain, Italy and France), soon the consumption of chocolate was linked to slothful clergy and nobility. Plus, chocolate’s earliest rivals, tea and coffee, entered the scene. As coffee houses became fashionable and associated with respectability and soberness, chocolate represented the gluttony of the aristocracy. However, it still remained a drink that was hugely popular. For the Spanish, chocolate was as important as bread. Soon enough, the Spanish found a consuming ally in Italy. The Roman Catholic Church made chocolate drinking a habit (ADD FROM Squincini the Fasting Stuff), and even the chefs would even begin to incorporate chocolate into their menus. However, even though chocolate had its defenders in certain popular European figures such as Voltaire, Marquis de Sade and Casanova, coffee and tea became a much more serious market.
d. Chocolate stood to benefit from US Independence
In 1784 the British had reduced their taxes on tea, and it became largely consumed among the elites and the labourers in Britain. As tea became more popular, it severely damaged the consumption of chocolate. But at this time chocolate would find a long lasting and loyal ally: The United States. Given that tea was associated with the inequalities of British colonial taxation and was the catalyst for the Boston Tea Party of 1773, it was soon boycotted altogether. The new American Presidents, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson hoped that soon enough chocolate would become the beverage of choice in the United States. Unfortunately the independence made imports of tea and coffee very popular as well, and chocolate would return dominantly in the United States later on.
e. Revolution and War 1790-1820
During the advent of the French Revolution it seemed that chocolate was almost doomed. For the revolutionaries this product was very much associated with debauchery and immoral behaviour of the elites and clergy. As revolutions swept Europe, this issue certainly must have been considered insignificant. But these political associations would do chocolate a great disservice as consumption would not recover until mid-nineteenth century.
f. The drop of 1820-1840
As the ancien régime gave way to a new political order, chocolate seemed dated. The growth in consumption early in the nineteenth century was very slow. Any increase at this time was geographical rather than quantitative. In France, patisseries start to adopt chocolate, and Balzac’s novels describe a rise in consumption not only in the elites but for the bourgeoisie as well. Britain introduces in 1824 chocolate as part of the Royal Navy’s breakfast. Quaker producers are advertising chocolate as a substitute to alcohol. Moreover, the temperance movement who was a proponent for complete abstention from alcohol, helped promote chocolate as one of the alternatives.
g. Slowly chocolate covers more ground 1850-1870
By mid nineteenth century, chocolate was still struggling behind coffee and tea. As Clarence-Smith notes, around 1880 ‘500 million people drank tea around the world, 200 million coffee and only fifty million chocolate’. However new markets were beginning to form. France, primarily a coffee drinker, soon becomes the world’s largest importer of cocoa beans. But rather than consuming it in its heavy form, as the Spaniards did, the French would dissolve a little chocolate in hot milk. Also there was a growing popularity for plain dark chocolate, which was eaten with bread. Britain also would soon engage more with chocolate. Not only the temperance moment was a heavy proponent of chocolate drinking, but by the 1860s, the defatted cocoa powder that came out of the Netherlands, would be introduced as a novel drink, harmless and nutritional. As more immigrants from Southern Europe would travel to the United States, chocolate consumption almost doubled between 1849 and 1869. Even with these developments, the Spaniards were still chocolate’s most ardent consumer. Here, the thick and fatty drink was still dominant.
h. The Great Chocolate Boom 1880-1914
However, never has chocolate has seen such a growth in its consumption as starting from the 1880s. During this time, it did better than coffee and tea. While the world imports of tea rose by 200% and coffee 50% from 1880 to 1897, cocoa beans saw an astonishing 900% rise. It was during this time that chocolate would definitively conquer the markets of Western Europe and North America. A convergence of factors helped this rise. Partly it had to do with product diversification. Almost all throughout history chocolate was consumed as a thick and fat beverage, but new developments turned it into a light powder that was low in fat and easy to mix into liquids. Moreover, several Swiss innovations from the 1870s helped transform eating chocolate, and brought about milk chocolate. Urbanisation and the rise of the incomes of the industrial working class were also a key development. Whereas previously chocolate consumption was limited to the aristocracy and the clergy, now it spread to the industrial working class. This was a crucial development in the success of chocolate. In 1891, it would take a Belgian worker more than sixty hours of work to afford to buy a 500g chocolate bar, but by 1913 this reduced dramatically to only one hour. A survey of Belgian workers in 1910 already shows chocolate as part of the weekly expenses. For Germany, in the early 1900s, there was even a concern that an increase in the price of the common chocolate bar, could lead to violent revolts. Last but not least, the temperance movement again helped popularise the product. With the movement’s success in the 1870s, especially in Germany, Britain, the United States and Switzerland, chocolate was to benefit from the drop in alcohol consumption. New advertising methods and campaigns were introduced, that boasted chocolate as the best drink for workers, more nutritious and fulfilling than coffee and tea. The public bodies of several countries also helped the spreading of chocolate. From the 1880s German soldiers had a small portion of chocolate introduced in their ration. It was also supplied to American troops in the 1898 war with Span, and by the British in their 1899-1902 war in South Africa.
Even though chocolate consumption was predominantly seen as part of the Latin world, the Chocolate Boom of the late nineteenth century was predominantly Western. The growing Latin American working class, tried to copy European cultural modes, and switched to tea and coffee. Chocolate drinking was seen as part of the ‘barbaric’ natives of Central America.
Consumption: Conclusion
To minimise the popularisation of chocolate to merely economic factors, would mean to exclude all the complex cultural factors that surrounded chocolate consumption throughout history. While cocoa regulations and production methods did help rise the demand for chocolate, for a long time chocolate was affected by cultural norms and the taste preferences of its consumers. This paper will go on explaining the effects of taxation and manufacture on the popularisation of chocolate.
II. Taxation and Regulation
A large impact on the consumption and general popularisation of chocolate were the fiscal difficulties set by the various governments up until mid nineteenth century. High taxes and the load of regulation that surrounded cacao production, trade and manufacture altered the consumers choice for better or worse several times between the eighteenth and early twentieth century. It was only from the 1850s, when the beliefs in free trade were enacted and taxation was lowered that chocolate truly exploded. Lowering the duties on cacao and simplifying the regulations made it possible for several states in Western Europe and the United States to become truly global players in the cocoa and chocolate business.
a. Early Mercantilist Policies
Between the sixteenth and eighteenth century, the mercantilist approach of several European colonial states severely damaged the consumption and popularisation of chocolate. In the sixteenth century, European governments saw potential in taxing cocoa and chocolate as a means of raising the governmental income. The Spanish crown tried to impose heavy restrictions on cocoa trade, holding a virtual monopoly, all the cocoa that was produced in the Spanish colonies had to be sent to Spain in Spanish vessels. Despite such attempts to dominate the market, soon enough, as with other commodities, the British, the French and the Dutch all undermined the Spanish dominance.
b. Liberalisation of trade with Europe 1760-1790
The Seven Years War, brought several liberalisation policies that helped reduce taxes and regulations. Firstly, in 1774 the Spanish unified all cacao exporters in a collective market, in an attempt to reduce contraband and have a better control of the pricing. Then, in 1776 a reduction of 25% on the import duty of cacao to Spain (at the time the highest importer in Europe, as shown in Figure X) was highly beneficial to the cacao market.