Note 1 — X

From 36,000,000 to 40,000,000 lbs. of cacao are consumed in Europe annually; of which quantity nearly a third goes to France, whose consumption of it between 1853 and 1866 has more than doubled. In the former year it amounted to 6,215,000 lbs., in the latter to 12,973,534 lbs. Venezuela sends the finest cacaos to the European market, those of Porto Cabello and Caracas. That of Caracas is the dearest and the best, and is of four kinds: Chuao, Ghoroni, O’Cumar, and Rio Chico. England consumes the cacao grown in its own colonies, although the duty (1d per lb.) is the same for all descriptions. Spain, the principal consumer, imports its supplies from Cuba, Porto Rico, Ecuador, Mexico, and Trinidad. Several large and important plantations have recently been established by Frenchmen in Nicaragua. The cacao beans of Soconusco (Central America) and Esmeralda (Ecuador) are more highly esteemed than the finest of the Venezuela sorts; but they are scarcely ever used in the Philippines, and cannot be said to form part of their commerce. Germany contents itself with the inferior kinds. Guayaquil cacao, which is only half the price of Caracas, is more popular amongst the Germans than all the other varieties together.