THIS WEEK'S COFFEE NOTES

Coffee is good for business
By Kevin Steen

Coffee houses enjoyed a heyday during the eighteenth century, but not just because it was a novel drink over which men could plot political intrigue.

The coffee house played a pivotal role in the birth of big business and international trade.

England’s civil war ended in 1651. The nation had a brief stint as a republic before King Charles II was restored to the throne in 1660. London developed as an important center of trade and demand for marine insurance increased as the ports bustled with ships coming and going with overseas cargo.

Edward Lloyd’s coffee house, established in1688, was the place to get insurance. Keen individuals at Lloyd’s Coffee House would solicit funds from wealthy merchants on behalf of other merchants who needed to protect their shipments.

Lloyd built a solid reputation for having reliable shipping news in an age when communication was not. From this spunky entrepreneurial beginning grew one of the oldest and most recognized insurance companies in the world, Lloyd’s of London.

Lloyd’s is not the only institution which was first established at a coffee house. The auction houses of Sotheby’s and Christie’s began in sales rooms attached to coffee houses, as well as the London Stock Exchange.

Stock and commodity prices were first listed in London by stock dealer John Castaing at Jonathan’s Coffee House in 1698. He and other dealers organized the first centre for trading in marketable securities in England’s capital. Between 1698 and 1773, the nation’s stock exchange operated mostly from Jonathan’s and Garraway’s Coffee House.

Likewise, New York’s stock exchange formed during the 1790’s at the Tontine Coffee House on the corner of Wall and Water Streets, and the Merchants Coffee House, on the opposite corner. They offered meeting rooms, tables, comfortable chairs, and a spyglass to locate ships arriving in the harbour.

Every ship’s captain would report his cargo upon arrival. Merchants, bankers and brokers would meet at the coffee house to buy, sell and trade coffee, tea, sugar and molasses, furniture, cloth, cotton, and before the abolition of slavery, even people.

That chapter in history is past. Businesses have moved out of the coffee house, but the spirit of commerce still thrives. Meetings convene (now with full internet access, mind you) in the board room. People broker deals face to face as they pitch ideas, debate, haggle, and shake hands over a newspaper and a cup of coffee.

Kevin Steen is a true coffee lover and proprietor of Damascus Coffee House in Riverview. Do you have a coffee question for Kevin? Visit him at the shop, or call him at 855-4646.