642

DIRECT IMPORTERS OF BRAZIL COFFEE
_Baltimore, 1894_

_Bags_
E. Levering & Co. 40,965
T.G. Lurman & Co. 29,325
C.M. Stewart & Co. 25,499
Thornton Rollins 21,436
William T. Levering 15,884
Steinwender, Stoffregen 12,852
W.B. Willson 11,540
Hoffman, Lee & Co. 8,953
Rufus Woods 8,020
P.T. George & Co. 7,463
Taylor & Levering 6,440
Benedict & Co. 5,434
Brazil Trading Co. 2,666
C.F. Pitt & Sons 2,505
J.W. Doane & Co. 2,500
Enterprise Coffee Co. 1,811
H.M. Wagner & Co. 504
C.D. Lathrop & Co. 503
Mokaska Manufacturing Co. 500
Hanley & Kinsella C. & S. Co. 500
Shinkle, Wilson & Kreis Co. 404
G. Amsinck & Co. 400
Indiana Coffee Co. 251
-------
Total 206,355

_Early Days of Green Coffee in New Orleans_

The history of New Orleans as a coffee port may be considered as
beginning with the transfer of Louisiana by Napoleon Bonaparte to the
United States in 1803. In this year, according to Martin's _History of
Louisiana_, New Orleans imported 1438 bags of coffee of 132 pounds each.
In the latter part of the eighteenth century, settlers in large numbers
had crossed the Allegheny Mountains from the Atlantic states into the
valley of the Ohio River; and their crops of grain and provisions were
exported by means of cheaply constructed rafts and boats, which were
floated down the river to New Orleans, where they were generally broken
up and sold for use as lumber and firewood--there being, at that time,
no power available for propelling them back against the current of the
river.

From 1803 until 1820, on account of the difficulty of navigating
upstream, New Orleans imports did not increase as rapidly as exports. In
1814, however, the first crude steamboat had begun to carry freight on
the river; and by 1820, the supremacy of New Orleans as the gateway of
the Mississippi Valley had been for the time established by this new
means of transportation. The coffee-importing business flourished; and,
from its modest beginning in 1803, grew to 531,236 bags in 1857.

By this time, however, New Orleans had begun to