Cocoa And Chocolate
The Tree, The Bean The Beverage

88 THE COCOA AND CHOCOLATE INDUSTRY from the manufacturers’ and the consumers’ points of view to the application of such schemes to cacao. And in this case it is by no means certain that the scheine has so far worked out profitably for the planters, for about 1920-1921, the Asociacion, presumably because it held up cacao on a falling market, was in financial difficulties, and during 1920 increased its tax on all cacao exported from 2s. 6d. to 7s. 6d. for each 100 Ibs. The Sale of Cacao. The principal cacao markets of the world are New York, Hamburg, London, Liverpool, and Havre. Other cacao markets are Bordeaux, Lisbon—to which the San Thomé cacao is shipped, and Amsterdam—where Java cacao is håndled. During the war Hamburg lost its position as the largest cacao market and by 1923 had notregained it. A great part of the Gold Coast crop goes to Liverpool, and London and Liverpool together form a greater market than Hamburg. London has one advantage over all the other markets : it holds a public auction, and although sometimes only small quantities are sold, the prices at which. the cacao changes hands are wired all over the world and form a basis for negotiation. This applies particularly to West Indian cacao. It used to be said that, what Greenwich observatory is to the users of clocks, the London sale is to the sellers of cacao, but the sale has lost much of its former importance and is no longer held regularly once a week. The auction. is conducted in the Commercial Sale Rooms in Mincing Lane on Tuesday at 11 o’clock. The sale room is not very impressive ; it resembles a large leeture theatre. But commerce of this character has so long been associated with Mincing Lane that the place has for the visitor an atmosphere of romance. One is silent in awe, con-templating in thought the succession of experts in tropical produce who have bought and sold within