ABSTRACT
The price of cocoa beans reflected the actions of governments as much as the skills of farmers and natural conditions. Warfare was an acute problem around the beginning of the nineteenth century, and fiscal and regulatory burdens remained heavy up to about 1850. The combination of high taxes, vexatious commercial legislation, external wars and civil strife greatly hindered cocoa production and chocolate consumption. Although such factors might modify consumer choice to the advantage or detriment of chocolate, taxation tended to vary in a broadly parallel fashion for all ‘luxuries’. Variations in the cost of sugar could also affect consumption, as the two products were closely allied (Mintz 1985: ch. 3).
