Sunday, March 1, 2015

History Part 3 - Coffee and Renaisance Europe

In the history of Europe 'The Renaissance' is described as the period from the 14th to the 17th century. This is the era in European history that is considered the interim age between the early Medieval Middle Ages and the true age of Modern history. It is during this period that commodities trading really expanded to a global scale. The Spanish conquistadors arrived in Latin America and were the first European traders to bring home the first cocoa in 1528. Soon following the sensation of the hot chocolate drink came the introduction of tea to Europe by the Dutch. The Dutch East India Company was formed in 1602 for the sole purpose of establish trading bases in the Orient.  Dutch merchants were the first to offer the flavored drink in Europe in 1610.Thereafter, the Dutch brought the  first coffee plants to Europe in 1616 and successfully cultivated the plants in Greenhouses in Holland.

Coffee, although having immense popularity throughout the Ottoman Empire. at the height of its powers in the 16th century, was relatively unknown in Europe at the time. But the first European traders to establish favor and trading status with the Ottomans were the Venetians and soon after the Dutch introduction of coffee to Europe in 1612, the Venetians also started to bring back Coffee to Europe to spread the popularity of the beverage in 1615. 

In 1555, during the reign of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent of the ottoman Empire, the popular beverage kahve, coffee, was brought to Istanbul by Ă–zdemir Pasha, the Ottoman Governor of Yemen,

The Venetians were quick to court the Ottomans and started to expand their trading ventures into the new coffee beans as they sought to capitalize on their dominant power and trade routes through the Ottoman trading ports of modern Turkey. It was through the diplomacy of one of the oldest venetian families - the house of Zen- that European trading in the Middle East started to thrive as East meets West largely though the diplomatic efforts of Daragon Zen who traded throughout the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century.

As the demand for the coffee bean grew in Europe so too did seafaring traders come to negotiate the first contracts of delivery for coffee merchants. Trade in spices had always been a profitable venture but now new commodities like tea and Coffee brought new opportunities for merchants to expand their business. 

By the mid 1650, the coffee drink was finding growing popularity in England as the fist coffee samples were samples were brought back by travelers from Holland. By 1663, there were 82 coffeehouses in the city of London with the Turks Head being one of the very first. The drink was an instant sensation for its invigorating spirit that by 1675, there were well over 1,000 coffee houses established in England within the next 30 years!
Politically, coffee houses in England became centers of ideas and discussion. in the Middle ages, Inns and taverns were the points of social gatherings. Now, all kinds of people from all walks of life, merchants and scholars alike were drawn to the heated atmosphere to read their news papers and journals and share their views on the discussions of the day at a favorite coffee house. One such popular coffee house in London was Whites which became more of an exclusive gentleman's club for the upper classes who would prefer a taste of the coffee beverage without the noise of the popular coffee houses. But as with the concerns in Arabia with the religious clerics, so too did the reigning monarch Charles II become annoyed and concerned at the amount of gossip that would pour out of these coffee houses. Indeed Charles II then tried to close the London coffee houses which were described as "places where the disaffected met, and spread scandalous reports concerning the conduct of His Majesty and his Ministers." In 1674 The Women’s Petition Against Coffee attempted to cull the 'heathen' spirit of coffee drinking and that 'devil's brew'. But so popular had the drink become amongst the urban middle classes that his protests were of no avail. The Coffee beverage was now part of the social fabric of the English middle classes. 


Coffee as a global commodity in the 17th and 18th centuries -

http://thegenteelworldofcoffee.blogspot.com/2015/03/history-part-4-coffee-trading-in-17th.html 


Pieter Bergli -  Reflections upon the arrival of coffee drinking in Renaissance Europe

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