Empire, Political Economy, and the Diffusion of Chocolate in the Atlantic World

Irene Fattacciu

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9780367859510
• eBook ISBN:
  9781000036534
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

Chocolate is one of the most visible examples of how a deeply exotic consumer product penetrating our daily lives fascinated Europeans during the Early Modern period. Today, over fifty percent of the four million tons of cocoa produced globally come from Sub-Saharan Africa. Ecuadorian cocoa, on the other hand, is considered premium quality. Yet the fact that Ecuadorian cocoa is preferred by today's artisanal chocolate makers is one of history's ironic turns. During the eighteenth century, production and exports of Ecuadorian cocoa dramatically expanded due to its fast growth rate, high yield and low price, though certainly not due to its qualities of taste. This book analyzes the transition of chocolate from an exotic curiosity to an Atlantic commodity. It shows how local, inter-regional, and Atlantic markets interacted with one another and with imperial political economies. It explains how these interactions, intertwined with the resilience of local artisanal production, promoted the partial democratization of chocolate consumption as well as economic growth.

1 Reorganizing Interregional and Atlantic Trade (1710s–1770s)

El árbol del cacao … se levanta del suelo regularmente de 18 a 20 pies… . Empieza desde el suelo a salir dividido en cuatro o cinco troncos, más o menos, conforme el vicio y vigor de la raíz, que hace los brotes de todas… . De todas sus ramas brotan las mazorcas que contienen el cacao, precediéndolos una flor blanca no muy grande, en cuyo corazón está contenida la mazorca en pequeño. Esta crece hasta 6 o 7 pulgadas de largo y de 4 a 5 de grueso en figura de un melón puntiagudo y dividido en cascos… . El color de esta mazorca, ínterin crece, es verde casi lo mismo que la hoja; pero luego que ha llegado a su unto, va dándolo en amarillo, hasta que toda ella queda con este color algo claro. Cogida la mazorca cuando está en sazón y partida en ruedas, se descubre su carne interior blanca y jugosa y envueltas o formadas de ella misma unas pepitas ordenadas según los casos… . Entonces se puede comer lo mismo que cualesquiera otra fruta: es gustosa y su sabor agridulce nada desagradable; pero según dicen en aquel país nociva y ocasiona a fiebres… . Luego que despegan la mazorca del árbol, la rompen y vacían sus granos cobre sus cueros de baca secos que tienen para este fin, o sobre hojas de vijahuas, que es lo ordinario, en las cuales lo dejan secar al viento, y luego que lo está, lo enzurronan en otros cueros para transportarlo donde lo han de vender.¹

Cocoa appears only sporadically in the data on Atlantic trade before the mid-seventeenth century, when its importation to Europe stabilized. Since then it experienced substantial growth until the end of the following century. During this lapse of time, a transition from distribution through social networks to the building of commercial connections took place.

Throughout the eighteenth century, colonial policies were aimed at reviving the Spanish empire’s credibility by revitalizing its economy on both sides of the Atlantic. Yet continuous wars, nearsightedness, excessively rigorous reforms and the impossibility of breaking away from the empire’s traditional operational structures showed the limits of the Bourbons’ reformist intents.² In an attempt to regain control of Atlantic trade, Spain established a number of monopolistic companies in the style of the Dutch and English companies of the preceding century. Among these privileged companies was the Guipuzcoan Company of Caracas, which secured a monopoly in the trading of cocoa when it was founded in 1728.

The evolution of the Spanish Crown’s policies since the end of the seventeenth century changed the picture of the material availability of cocoa while also molding a market for its consumption. The Spanish Crown, through sometimes contradictory policies and due to unintended effects, did not act only as a passive tax collector, but rather fueled the differentiation of consumption and the diffusion of chocolate. Indeed, the economic structure of the production–distribution network acted as both the product and the agent of chocolate’s demand.

Much of this chapter is devoted to examining the implications of this phase, with emphasis on how the creation of the Guipuzcoan Company affected the efficiency of cocoa’s distribution in New Spain and Spain, and how its policies interwove with those of the Spanish Crown. Indeed, the Spanish Crown’s desire to fuel this trade branch by promoting the consumption of chocolate had both expected and unexpected developments on the producer economies and the societies that incorporated it into their habits of consumption.

Early Circulation on Both Sides of the Atlantic

Before the arrival of Europeans, chocolate drinking was an elite product, used for rituals and to treat some health problems.³ The Spanish immediately recognized cocoa’s importance among Mesoamerican cultures and, in an effort to use it as a means of exchange with the native population, they promoted an increase in its production and a precocious democratization of its consumption, hitherto restricted to the Aztec nobility and religious authorities. Thus, from the seventeenth century onwards, cocoa became an everyday reality for all strata of the Novohispanic population, who acquired it directly from natives on the street until the latter were pushed out of its trade by the Spanish and mestizos (of Spanish and indigenous descent). Indeed, in 1619 selling chocolate in the streets and in private houses was prohibited; only street vendors were authorized to sell chocolate, and this favored Spaniards who sought to take control of this branch of commerce.⁴

In a very short period chocolate drinking passed from being an exclusive practice of the Aztec upper classes to an incredibly diffused drink available for all social classes; as observed by a contemporary, cocoa was desired “among Spaniards, as well as among indigenous and mestizos, mulatos [those of European and African descent], negros and other people, [and it was drunk] during fasting days, Lent and vigils, in the morning as well as in the afternoon, at night and at many times of the day.”⁵

Cocoa’s continual and growing demand in Mexico City and the parallel decline in its availability due to the collapse of production in Central America—mainly because of the indigenous population’s decrease and impoverishment of the soil—encouraged a growth in its production in the regions of Guayaquil and Caracas.⁶ These regions, where the first attempts to transplant cocoa in order to supply the Novohispanic market date back to the beginning of the seventeenth century, quickly established themselves as the most important cocoa-growing areas in Spain’s colonies. The first reference to cocoa in the Caracas area was made as early as 1570 by Lopez de Velasco, who wrote that around Merida there was a great abundance of food and cocoa, as in New Spain. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, archival sources already report on the interest prompted by the discovery of cocoa plants in the areas of both Caracas and Guayaquil.⁷

Figure 1.1Main cocoa production areas over time

The development of South America as a region for cocoa production was part of a larger process that saw the appearance of regional economies and of an interregional market in the overseas colonies during the seventeenth century. The increase in cocoa’s demand in New Spain, local producers’ inability to meet this demand, the viceroyalty’s large amounts of silver and the ability of native goods to circulate freely within colonial borders promoted the rise of new production areas, which in turn created and reinforced ties between the various regional economies.⁸

This process was fueled by, and simultaneously facilitated, chocolate’s popularization in the colonies from the late seventeenth century onwards. Indeed, the evolution of cocoa’s demand in New Spain represents one of the concrete premises for its greater availability in Europe. The consequent movement of its production from New Spain to South America involved, on the one hand, systemizing cultivation to be increasingly run by the Spanish and, on the other, changing the whole production system itself. Plantations in the province of Venezuela mostly developed along the coast and in the valleys around Caracas, but given that the encomienda paid with labor and no longer through tributes (which had represented a large part of cocoa entries until the mid-seventeenth century), encomenderos had begun to carve cocoa plantations out of forests as early as the late sixteenth century.⁹

On the European side of the Atlantic, chocolate experienced considerable success first at the Spanish court and among aristocratic families in Spain, and then by spreading into the territories under Spanish influence (such as to Italy and the Netherlands) and to other European courts. As stated in a 1640 panegyric, “intellectuals drink it, the rich eat it, uncultured and poor people do not allow its greatness to enter the door … princes consume it, nobles participate and it is denied to the unfortunate plebeians.”¹⁰ In the testimonies of travelers, it usually appeared in all its luxurious pleasure at the entrance to the court in Madrid. Court life was not a source of great entertainment, and meals were frugal, but when the king awoke in the morning and after his lunch break (at two in winter and at four in the summer), chocolate was served in china cups, with “each porcelain cup on a little agate plate decorated with gold, together with sugar.”¹¹ Beyond the court, only the clergy and those who had “Atlantic connections” (such as physicians, intellectuals and merchants) could afford this product.

Although the social circulation of chocolate remained limited, travelers as well as texts written about chocolate give a clear perception of its wide international circulation through personal networks. Chocolate rapidly became a “reputation product,” part of a series of codified practices of socialization and kindness, gifts and ceremonies, and then evolved into a customary gift among nobles, traveling first across the Atlantic and then in Spain and Europe.¹² A good example of its role as a “reputation product” in this restricted network is the gift made by the viceroy of New Spain to his brother, which consisted of 1,000 pounds of chocolate just to taste this amazing delicacy.¹³ Famous also is the gift made by the Duke of Albuquerque to the royal family, which consisted of 8,000 pounds of chocolate—each pound packed in a little foil of gold—plus another 16,000 pounds for the nobles.¹⁴ The “gift dimension” continued until the end of the eighteenth century, when we still see the presence of cocoa and chocolate in small quantities as one of the favorite presents mentioned in the letters exchanged among nobles.¹⁵

Given the great importance of the abundance of food and delicacies at the table, chocolate fitted perfectly in this elite context, as it provided an opportunity for the renewal of habits of consumption and sociability, as well as becoming, above all, a field of competence and competition where one could show the degree of one’s own refinement. This occurred through ritualistic drinking of cocoa, and especially through recipes, which served as a field of competition where elites could invent and excel.

Between 1630 and 1660, cocoa exports leaving the port of La Guaira doubled, with the province of Venezuela exporting 35,512 fanegas of cocoa to New Spain (compared to only 289 to Spain) between 1620 and 1650. In fact, despite the increase in chocolate’s popularity among aristocratic European circles in the seventeenth century, most of the cocoa leaving the area of Caracas continued to go to New Spain (82% in the period of 1680–1689), and Caracas remained its main supplier until the beginning of the eighteenth century.¹⁶

At the same time, thanks to the insatiable Novohispanic market, the cultivation of a different quality of cocoa had developed in the region of Guayaquil. In the period 1700–1709, 34,000 cargas were produced with a constant growth, until production passed 100,000 cargas in 1801 and 200,000 cargas in the nineteenth century.¹⁷ The criollo (or native) cocoa from Caracas had a stronger, better flavor, but its plant was also less productive. On the other hand, the forastero cocoa (which came from non-nati...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Graphs
• List of Tables
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1 Reorganizing Interregional and Atlantic Trade (1710s–1770s)
• 2 Civilizing Chocolate: Cultural Appropriation and Imperial Political Economy (1690s–1790s)
• 3 From Cocoa to Chocolate: The Making of a Spanish Artisanal Industry (1720s–1770s)
• 4 Bourbon Reformism, Public Debate and New Forms of Sociability (1730s–1790s)
• 5 Social Geography of Chocolate’s Spread in Spain (1690s–1790s)
• 6 Epilogue: Resilience and Boomerang Effects (1770s–1790s)
• Appendix
• Bibliography
• Index