 |
|
|
The Coffee House - A HistoryPage 1 | Page 2 Coffee was cultivated in Africa as early as the 9th century, but it did not reach Europe until the 17th century. However, when it did, it was met with many varying opinions. It still caught on like a wildfire, even with the people that detested its existence. The 18th century London coffee house was the center of controversy, in many ways, even to the point of the king trying to ban coffee and close the establishments. Being the place for political discussion, some of the policies of our newly formed country might have originated in one of these places. Coffee did not come via a direct route from Africa, but found its way to Britain through Mediterranean trade routes with the Muslim world. Queen Elizabeth I irritated her European neighbors by opening up diplomatic relations with her new-found Moroccan and Ottoman friends, establishing good trading relations and sea-faring agreements. This trade allowed goods such as tea from Asia, coffee, and chocolate to filter into England. The Middle East had coffee houses over a hundred years before they ever appeared in England. In 1652 Pasqua Rosee, the servant of a merchant trader and an immigrant from Ottoman Smyrna, opened the first coffee house in London, which later became known as "The Turks Head." "Rosee’s coffee-house, in St Michael’s Alley, Cornhill, was located in the centre of the financial district of the City of London, and his first clientele were merchants of the Levant Company, the trading house that organised and regulated trade with the Ottoman Empire." 1 In 1662, the "Great Turk Coffee House" opened, "Apparently, inside could be found a bust of Sultan Almurath IV himself, ‘the most detestable tyrant that ever ruled the Ottoman Empire.’ The customer could not only find coffee, tea and tobacco here, but also chocolate and a range of sherbets, which, according to the Mercurius Publicus (12-19 March 1662), were ‘made in Turkie; made of lemons, roses, and violets perfumed.’" 5 Not only did the coffee catch on among the people, but so did some of the Turkish culture. Some people began to wear turbans in the coffee houses. Possibly because of the Islamic culture, and for other reasons, coffee houses were viewed as a place for renegades of Christianity. The new interest in other cultures continued past the fascination of the Middle East all of the way to the Orient. The Georgian period is marked by an Asian influence in art, literature, and academics. Coffee houses caught on very quickly, so by 1663 there were more than 83 coffee houses in London. By the beginning of the eighteenth century there were as many as five or six hundred.2 The Prussian nobleman Baron Charles Louis von Pöllnitz, who visited London in 1728, described them as one of the great pleasures of the city. He describes how it is "a Sort of Rule with the English, to go once a Day at least" to coffee-houses "where they talk of Business and News, read the Papers, and often look at one another." 2 Some very famous companies even started as coffee houses. Lloyds of London, an insurance brokerage company, began as Edward Lloyd's coffee house on Tower Street around 1688. Today when we think of a coffee shop, we think of Starbucks. However, the coffee shops of the past were drastically different with their Middle Eastern culture. One thing they have in common is the social aspect, a place for discussion of new ideas, and that is what we’ll look at next month. The coffee house, which originated in the Middle East around 1511, began simply as a place to enjoy an exotic drink, coffee, but soon evolved into a place that helped change the course of history. Before coffee houses arrived in London, the normal social gathering place was a pub or tavern. The first attraction to coffee might have been its newness or the exhilaration from the caffeine, but quickly it became another reason to meet, and the coffee house was a place for socializing. A traveler to London in 1668 remarked, "Coffee-Houses, which are very numerous in London, are extremely convenient. You have all manner of news there; you have a good Fire, which you may sit by as long as you please; you have a Dish of Coffee; you meet your Friends for the transaction of Business, and all for a penny, if you don’t care to spend more." 4 Some men spent so much time there that their mail was delivered directly to the coffee house! An interesting fact is that almost every coffee house allowed only male patrons, women being relegated to the home or elsewhere for coffee. Not allowing women into these coffee houses did cause a few problems, which were outlined in the "Women’s Petition Against Coffee" published in 1674. Really a mock petition, but rumors and claims against coffee drinking could have been taken serious whether or not they were true. And as stated in the previous quote, they charged only a penny for a cup of black coffee! This gave rise to their nickname, "Penny Universities."
Soon there emerged a distinct difference between the pub and the coffee house, "Rumors of the health benefits of coffee were abundant, and coffee-houses encouraged sobriety, rational thought, and articulate political discussion, whereas taverns merely provided a haven for irreverence and intoxication." 5 This wasn’t a place to escape the world and dull the senses, but rather a place to debate current events and create new ideas for how life should be. Until this time there did not exist a forum for the merchant or trading class to have such discussions. The London Stock Exchange began with this atmosphere of bringing buyers and sellers together, setting market prices. The famous insurance underwriter, Lloyd’s of London, began in 1688 in a coffee house with Lloyd providing a free information service on shipping, publishing "Lloyd’s List." It prospered as a place for marine insurance.6 And as far as politics are concerned, men met in the coffee house to discuss hot political topics, even stirring up fear in the king. Some of our founding fathers may have sat in these coffee houses discussing the future of the colonies or how government should be, noting the pitfalls or failures of the monarchies of England and France. In 1675 King Charles II of England wrote a proclamation to have all of the coffee houses shut down; however, after a struggle with the owners of the coffee houses and other businessmen the proclamation was overturn. Almost as quickly as they sprang up, the London coffee houses began to decline. They... "had served their purpose and were no longer needed as meeting places for political or literary criticism and debate. They had seen the nation pass through one of its greatest periods of trial and tribulation; had fought and won the battle for individual freedom; had acted as a steadying influence in an age of profligacy; and had given us a standard of prose-writing and literary criticism unequalled before or since." 7 In the 1500’s the worldwide coffee revolution began, and well after the decline of the London coffee house emerged a new generation, the "Starbuck’s Revolution." Proclamation for the Suppression of Coffee-HousesSource: Ellis, Aytoun. The Penny University: A History of the Coffee-Houses. (London: Seeker & Warburg, 1956) 92. BY THE KING: A PROCLAMATION FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF COFFEE HOUSES CHARLES R. Whereas it is most apparent that the multitude of Coffee-houses of late years set up and kept within this Kingdom, the Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick upon Tweed, and the great resort of Idle and disaffected persons to them, have produced very evil and dangerous effects: as well for that many Tradesmen and others, do therein misspend much of their time, which might and probably would otherwise be imployed in and about their Lawful Callings and Affairs; but also, for that in such Houses...divers False, Halitious and Scandalous Reports are devised and spread abroad, to the Defamation of His Majestie's Government, and to the disturbance of the Peace and Quiet of the Realm; His Majesty hath thought it fit and necessary, That the said Coffee-Houses be (for the future) Put down and Suppressed, and doth...Strictly Charge and Command all manner of persons, That they or any of them do not presume from and after the Tenth Day of January next ensuing, to keep any Publick Coffee-house, or to Utter or sell by retail, in his, her or their house or houses (to be spent or consumed within the same) any Coffee, Chocolet, Sherbett or Tea, as they will answer the contrary at their utmost perils...(All licenses formerly granted to be revoked). Given at our court at Whitehall, this Nine-and-twentieth day of December 1675, in the Seven and twentieth year of Our Reign. GOD SAVE THE KING Page 1 | Page 2 |
